Familiar Face

[Nakia Bors-Cuiléin]

[member="Lancem Cuiléin"]

Nakia hesitated a long moment more, before she finally relented. "Alright, Lancem. But we're not done with this," she promised him. Since when was she the responsible one, she wondered. She'd leave it be for now, though.

"Will you at least leave some of them for me next time? I can't have you go making me look bad, Mr. Action Hero," she chided. Once again, Nakia led the way to a slightly busier thoroughfare. It was like a main street from which smaller sidestreets sprouted, each leading into undercity districts. There were stalls selling all sorts of illegal wares, as well as dealers and hookers. "Keep your head down around here. This is not part of my turf, and some high end people run the show here," she warned. Soon, Nakia resolved, she would move up with her family's help and take over an entire part of this level. For now, keeping a low profile was safer.

The thoroughfare led them to a set of turbolifts that brought them up two levels. Up here were more industrial buildings, mostly abandoned factories and warehouses. Nakia found her way to the warehouse Andurgo had spoken about before he died, and sure enough there was light coming from inside and a guard walking circled around the building. "Remember, cousin, no more fighting on your own," Nakia repeated her earlier words as she drew her S-5 blaster pistol. "I wouldn't want that pretty face of yours all scarred." It was another tease with a hint at flirting, something Nakia knew crawled under her cousin's skin.

 

[Lancem Cuiléin]

Lancem simply gave a nod at her acceptance to move on, that was all he could ask for. He followed closely behind her as she led the way through these dark and busy parts of the ancient metropolis. Even now, people swarmed about. Even here in the place where dreams were tossed into a drenching pit of excrement, people tried to make their livings and to enjoy themselves. That was easy enough to see by the assorted beings handing out items in very quiet manners and the people flirting with others in an attempt to make a few credits on the side.

People were constantly groping for happiness, he remembered himself think. They were sheep, blind to what was happening in a grand scale and simply trying to get by, because to them, this was life. This was all life had ever had to offer and they would live and die and try to be grandiose and wealthy. He nodded once as she relented information that she was not in charge of this area, that was expected. "Figures, all these pretty ladies around here would be taking away from your business." He snickered as he watched an especially good looking Twilek lead a human down an alley-way.

They passed into an area which elevated their position, here stood buildings which at one point would have shrouded the sky with their pollutants as the hammer of industry battered down both the societal privilege of the managerial positions as well as the economic stronghold that the location imparted upon the locals and the locale. "Funny how all these titans of industry and moving forward always seem to think that abandoning their facilities will somehow make them richer. It's almost as if they're all reading from the same rulebook." He snickered with a hint of dark humor at what had likely been the loss of many people's livelihoods.

He simply nodded as she chided him to not engage in anymore single combat with hordes of people. It made perfect sense in a logical sense, but it wasn't always logic that dictated one's thoughts. "I just didn't want you to be hurt, Nakia. You're the only family i've seen in six years, besides, it's what i've been trained to do; to kill rapidly and efficiently. He waited a few moments as the front most guard of the establishment paced back and forth. Her comment nearly caught him off guard, especially with it's vaguely flirtatious features. "You're such a tease Nakia, maybe you should find a new line of work like that Twilek a few floors down. I'm sure you could give those gentlemen double the trouble in those alleyways with your handsomely shaved legs." He gave a true and wide grin as he watched her, shaking his head calmly as he tried to shake away the humor before it racked his body and gave away their position.
[member="Nakia Bors-Cuiléin"]

 

[Nakia Bors-Cuiléin]

[member="Lancem Cuiléin"]

"Now Lancem, you know me better than that," nakia mock protested. But the laughter quickly disappeared from her face as it was time to get serious. "I can handle myself, love. I have been for six years, just like you," she reminded him. Perhaps he needed to see proof that she was not his little cousin anymore. "Wait here," she said as she started forward. If he protested, she would simply raise a hand to cut him off and not listen.

She approached the warehouse from around an empty silo, waiting until the single outside thug passed by. The man carried a blaster rifle, but he did not have any armor, nor did he look like any kind of professional. Just another street thug, one leg up from the guards at Andurgo's place. Nothing Nakia had never handled before. Once the guard passed around the corner, Nakia hurried over to the warehouse and pressed her back against the wall. Then, holstering her blaster and drawing her vibroblade, she proceeded to the corner where the guard would soon come around. There, she waited for him. When the guard crossed the corner again, he stopped with a start. "Hey baby, you lookin' for some fun?" Nakia said invitingly. The guard never got a chance to reply as Nakia's vibroblade slammed into his gut and sliced upward, his entrails spilling out onto the dirty ground. Without a word, the man dropped to the ground at her feet. Nakia stepped over his corpse gingerly and waved Lancem over. "Guess he didn't have the guts for this kinda job," she opined when Lancem rejoined her. "You wanna try finding a back door, maybe climb up and see if we can get in through the roof, what?"

 

[Lancem Cuiléin]

Lancem would very much have liked to protest at any point during his cousins little escapade, but he trusted her to take care of herself, even if he still wanted to keep her safe. After she was done he stepped over to the crime scene, imagining the sort of meticulous effort that most go into finding the murderers of people this far down and decided that it was fairly reasonable that they would never really be found.

"Bit messy, who knew that my cousin would be into getting her hands so dirty, i'm sure not all of your clients like that sort of thing." He jested as he looked at the building, waiting any moment for someone to step out and open fire on the two intruders to their makeshift home.

He couldn't help but snicker to himself a moment before he even allowed for his next joke, she had given him ammo which he intended to fire. "Of course you would leave the act of finding a backdoor to a male, i'm sure it's quite difficult for you females to find that sort of thing. It's almost second-nature for us." He grinned as he began to step along the corner of the building, coming to a stop when he noticed what appeared to be a fire-escape, a bit high for a single person to move up to or even jump.

He went back to her view, waving her forward to him. "I can lift you up there if you want to try and unlock the front door or something along those lines. It's not likely you'll be able to lift me...i've gained a bit of weight in my time off." He allowed the information, looking down at his stomach with mock sadness. He actually didn't weigh a horrid amount, but he still doubted his petite cousin would be able to muster up the strength required. Who knew, maybe he was doubting her again.
[member="Nakia Bors-Cuiléin"]

 

[Nakia Bors-Cuiléin]

[member="Lancem Cuiléin"]

"By the time they realize what I'm doing, cousin, it is already too late," she said. But her cousin needed no reminding of how Nakia hunted. When he mentioned finding a backdoor and its difficulty for females, Nakia only grinned. "You'd be surprised, cousin," she chided. "As if you're so well versed in scoring with a woman. I bet it's been more than these six years for you."

Nakia followed when Lancem waved her over, and nodded at his suggestion. "Give me a boost, then." she said. She let Lancem give her a push up until she managed to grab the ledge, then hoisted herself up so she could haul herself onto the ladders. The metal protested under her weight, but it held. "These buildings must be ancient," she said, drawing her blaster again and starting to move up. "Be ready by the door."

Nakia climbed up until she came to the flat roof. Staying low, she sneaked over to a transparisteel window in the roof and risked peering over the edge. The warehouse had no second floor, but a very high ceiling. There were some offices in the back, but in the middle of the warehouse were a trio of guards, two men and one woman talking and smoking. All three were armed with blaster rifles. Litered throughout the warehouse were some old shipping crates, likely empty but useful for cover. There was a high gantry just under the window, and Nakia tried opening the window. The lock had corroded with time far enough for Nakia to break it with a few knocks from the grip of her blaster, and the guards in the warehouse seemed not to have noticed anything. Cautiously, she lowered herself through the opening into the gantry. From there, she made her way across the walkway and down another flight of metal stairs. She froze when she heard one of the guards calling "What was that?" and ducked behind one of the crates.

The guard approached, and Nakia knew she would be found. If she tried to get around the crate on the other side, the other guards would spot her. So when the guard came into view around Nakia's cover, she did the only thing she could do: she placed a blaster bolt right in the middle of his face. The other two reacted immediately, and started shooting at where they guessed her position was. Nakia circled around the other side of the crate and fired a few shots at the guards, but they had scrambled for cover as well, and their return fire forced Nakia to duck back behind cover. She could hear shouts coming from the back offices. Reinforcements would be coming. She needed Lancem's backup, fast! Spotting another shipping crate nearer to the door, she made a run for it as a trail of blaster shots was stitched after her path. From her new position, Nakia saw that the guards had simply left the keycard in the card reader on the inside lock, so it could be opened from the inside. It was only a short reach from her cover to the door. She leaned out and fired a volley of shots to force the two guards into cover, then made a sprint for the lock and keyed it. With a dull bleep and a protest from the metal of the doors, they slid open. "Find cover!" Nakia shouted as she ducked back behind hers. "Hey, you try sneaking around an empty warehouse, see how easy it is for you," she said, already anticipating Lancem's comments. As she spoke, more guards joined their two beleaguered colleagues.

 

[Lancem Cuiléin]

Lancem merely raised an eyebrow at his cousin's comment about his inability to score with the ladies. "If you must know I kissed a woman just last week." He said confidently, he left out the part where that same woman had fractured his ribs and beaten the absolute garbage out of him, that would have ruined the confidence.

He helped her up to the fire escape and listened carefully for a couple moments before moving towards the door, carbine fully loaded and in hand, ready to begin taking out hostiles the instant the entryway slung. "Once more, unto the breach." He spoke to himself as he waited, the pre-combat adrenaline pumping through his heart as he sensed the beings within, three guards and Nakia. They weren't hard to sense, especially with his predatory senses fueled by his love and protective nature for his cousin.

Suddenly there were only three beings left alive, he could feel the other one's life force seeping out of his corporeal husk as the shriek of blaster fire filled the room. After a few seconds of this and no door opened he felt inclined to slam the door off it's hinges though that may not have been possible depending on how well it was locked. It didn't matter, because a second later it slung open with considerable force with his cousin immediately chiding him about how difficult it was to sneak through an empty building.

"I would have thought sneaking through an empty building would be easy, that would imply there were no guards here to stop you. He said as he entered into the room, narrowly dodging a bolt that would have taken his head off. He raised the carbine and unleashed a torrent of fire, striking the male guard twice in the chest and sending him sprawling with a cry of pain and death. The female guard flipped over the table, using it as cover as she continued to fire upon the two. Lancem looked at the door hinges and saw that they were in fact not so bad as he had previously thought. A pair of carbine bolts brought the door down and he held it up like a riot shield, using it to protect himself and moving over to help protect his cousin with the makeshift cover as well. "Get behind the door, we'll gradually move forward. Otherwise she has the advantage on us with that table. Besides, wouldn't want to steal the kill from you, after all it is so important who kills the hostiles." He shook his head once as he chided her earlier comments with practicality.
[member="Nakia Bors-Cuiléin"]

 

[Nakia Bors-Cuiléin]

[member="Lancem Cuiléin"]

"You know what I meant, ya lug," Nakia bit back as she took her chance with the back up guards running out before they found cover. She leaned out of her cover and fired a salvo of blaster bolts down their path, putting down one and injuring another in the leg so he fell and only lay screaming, useless to his friends. With the two remaining reinforcements and minus the one Lancem put down, that left three.

She joined her cousin behind the door that served as a makeshift piece of mobile cover, occasionally leaning left or right to return fire as bolts rained against the cover. "Whatever," she grumbled as he spoke of stealing kills. He knew well enough that wasn't what she'd meant, and now was not the time to argue the point. "I just want Leem," she insisted.

When Lancem moved past another shipping container, Nakia moved away from him to hide behind the crate. "Keep moving," she said to him as she moved off to the other side of the container. Hopefully, the guards hadn't seen her move off and would continue to concentrate their fire on the door. She felt like she had to hurry though, he wouldn't be able to withstand all that firepower for much longer. She risked a quick glance around the corner and confirmed the defenders were concentrating on Lancem. She jumped out and fired another spray of bolts. One guard went down with a blaster bolt between his eyes, another to three shots in the chest. That left one last guard, who now turned to Nakia and had a clean shot on her. There was nothing she could do, but she trusted her cousin to read the situation well enough. "Lancem! Now would be great!" she called.

 

[Lancem Cuiléin]

Lancem's arms felt pretty bad right about now, that was what happened when blaster bolts jarred into them consistently every few seconds, he could almost feel the heat emanating from the center of the metallic door as the bolts started to push through it. It wouldn't last much longer, which was why it was a good thing that his cousin had gone away to a shipping crate and flanked around.

Another heavy bolt caught the doorway, splitting neatly to the ground with a crack of molten metal striking duracrete. He thought he was done, that he was going to be shot in the gut and that would be it. The cracks of blasters sounded and he closed his eyes for a brief moment, awaiting his death. He heard two thuds and felt the life yank away from a pair of guard and he opened his eyes once more, resting them onto his cousin who had completed her flank for maximum efficiency.

The final guard had an aim on her and they were about to fire. Her call for help sparked into his system running alongside his adrenaline pumped and predatory senses, stoking his need to kill and maim faster than any manner of illegal street drug could. He spun his hand around and in a swift motion, the disc that remained of the door flew across the room, catching the final guard in their neck and nearly decapitating them simply with the force of the blow. They dropped to the ground, gurgling blood and weakly tapping at the metal before going still as their life escaped from the open wound.

"Just figured now as a completely appropriate time to bring up that I don't think it matters much who gets kills. I'd also like to open up with the knowledge that I don't care who kills Leem, that's fine, take him all you want." He spewed words rapidly as he stepped over to the final guard and searched their pockets, coming up with a small vibroknife which he wiped away on the dead person's leg and then inserted into his makeshift scarf belt. "If we're done messing about with the local idiocy, shall we continue to finding this Leem fellow?" He questioned as he stood up, turning to Nakia for guidance. This was her world after all, this was what she had done...for so long.
[member="Nakia Bors-Cuiléin"]

 

[Nakia Bors-Cuiléin]

[member="Lancem Cuiléin"]

When her cousin rambled off words, Nakia only smiled. "I'm glad you're okay too," she grinned. They made quite the team, the two of them. She should be panicking with having almost lost her life, but now that the danger had passed she found herself strangely calm. "Yes, let's see if we can't find our friend."

She stepped over to the wounded guard who she had shot in the leg, trying to crawl away from them. Nakia casually strolled over to him and placed her foot on his leg, her heal digging into his wound and making him yelp with pain. "Where's Leem?" she questioned. "In the back office! Please!" the guard squirmed. "Thank you," Nakia said as she placed a bolt through his head. "You've been most helpful."

"You coming?" she called as she continued into the back office. There were no guards left, all of them sent ahead to deal with the intruders, all of them now dead. Nakia burst in through the flimsy wooden door. The Gran inside, sitting behind a desk, had to be Polluk Leem. He opened a drawer and produced a small holdout blaster pistol, but by the time he got the weapon readied Nakia was already across the room, jumping over the desk and landing right in Leem's lap, straddling him and pinning him down in his chair. She took his wrist in her hand and broke it, making him drop the blaster, and rammed her head into his, giving him a nosebleed. She leaned forward, staring at his nosebleed as her proboscises unfurled from their hidden spots, already advancing in Leem's face. "Looks tasty," she laughed. "Who... What are you?" The terrified Leem squawked, unable to struggle. "I'm the queen you tried to muscle out of her turf," Nakia said, and began her Feeding as Leem cried his death scream.

 

[Lancem Cuiléin]

Lancem followed with a grin growing on his face as he massaged his still aching shoulder which had not gotten any better with all the jarring that had occurred. "You know, maybe I should pick up doing this sort of thing professionally again. Rake in some funds for the Family." He commented while they walked towards the back office of the now nearly lifeless building.

People probably thought they could kill the Family, throughout the years people had always tried to fight back. In the end though it was quite difficult to kill a pair of immortals who had been committing murder for a couple hundred years at least. It especially didn't help when one of them was the local crime lord and the other one was an ex-mercenary. He didn't care to watch too much as Nakia went into the office and went through a rapid dialogue with the Gran.

It took only a few moments for her to start feeding on him, he didn't need to watch even if he had committed the same act before. Besides, it could be uncomfortable trying to eat your food while someone else stared at your spine as though you were going to be next. That was a bad thought, one that brought back the image of Nakia's parents before they had gone Soup hungry and insane. She had gotten over the loss of her parents pretty easily hadn't she? Why couldn't he get over the loss of his, it had been six years and here he was still dreading the thought of it. The memories which flooded against him and strained him. "You think their dead?" was all he muttered to himself, too quiet for Nakia to hear.

He shook his head after a few moments to clear his mind before speaking once more "Well, that was a productive day on both of our parts wasn't it? In the end you did get to straddle a person you'd only known for a minute and you ate him afterwards, going to guess that's pretty daily behavior for you?" He teased as another grin appeared on his face.
[member="Nakia Bors-Cuiléin"]

 

[Nakia Bors-Cuiléin]

[member="Lancem Cuiléin"]

Nakia leaned back and sighed her satisfaction, as if she'd just had a really good meal, and wiped the traces of brain fluids from her cheeks. "Usually, if it takes only a minute, I would be very disappointed," she chortled as she stood up. "I don't think I would've made it through today if it wasn't for you, cousin," she admitted. She gave Leem's corpse an affectionate pat on the head before she left him behind. A productive day indeed. Together, Nakia and Lancem would make their way back home, she decided. It was time to call it a day.