Bounty, search and capture [ flara + trevor]

It seemed he’d been coming to the west district a lot lately. First on a whim and then the whole incident with that girl Shade. He wasn’t here for frivolous matter today though. How the hell was he supposed to go about finding his target though? He whipped out his shitty phone- the really cheap clunky kind- and stared at the picture. Where the heck would a martial artist hang out at?

He’d just gone searching at random, checking back alleys and any low key place he happened to pass by in some futile attempt that maybe he’d get lucky and just run into her. Yeah right. He wasn’t watching where he was going, too lost in his thoughts of how he might try and find the target before anyone else; he bumped into something, looking down he saw brown hair pulled into a ponytail. “…sorry.”

Brown hair, brown skin, and a thin body frame. Yup, this was definitely Taneli Kramer aka Hammer. Flara felt a stroke of good luck that she hadn’t left the West District yet. If she had then she probably would have spent a lot of money on the metro trying to track down Taneli.

The information on the bulletin had stated that Taneli was an expert martial artist, so Flara assumed that they would have similar fighting styles. While that meant that Flara would be able to somewhat predict Hammer’s movements, it meant the same thing went vise versa. That would be a pain in the ass and Flara absolutely wanted the money so she would just stick to observing for awhile.

Suddenly, the female felt herself falling face-first to the ground. She instinctively planted both hands on the ground and did a flip in the air before landing in a kneeling position with one knee on the ground. Realization flooding into Flara’s mind, she snapped her head up to face where Taneli was standing. …Or, had been standing. Now the lady was nowhere in sight.

Flara hopped to her feet and whipped around to face the guy that had knocked her down. She planted her hands on his shoulders and shook him back and forth as she spoke. “You. You just made you lose my target!!!” Flara growled at the male. Then an idea popped into her mind.

“Taneli Kramer. Codenamed Hammer. Age 28. Female," the hot-head stated in a deadpan voice, "Take responsibility and help me find her.”

The girl pulled a pretty impressive gymnastic maneuver, landing in a knelt position. Trevor blinked. A bit of an overkill to avoid falling a couple of feet. But something else caught his eye, a flash of brown as it started to sprint the other way. Dammit it definitely matched the picture. He was just about to pursuit when the girl grabbed him by the shoulders and suddenly the world was being jumbled back and forth, she was also shrieking something at him, “You. You just made you lose my target!!!”

He pushed her off, not caring if it was tad rough, “The hell are you yelling at me for!?” He snapped back at the other, and then her words clicked.
“Fine then.” He already didn’t like this girl but it seemed they both had a target to catch. Argueing could come later. Without wasting anymore time he bolted in the direction he saw Kramer run, knowing the other brown haired girl was chasing too.

The man got Flara to release her grip on his shoulders before shouting, “The hell are you yelling at me for!?” “BECAUSE YOU MADE ME LOSE MY FUCKING TARGET!!!” the fiery girl bellowed about 5 times louder. “YOU’RE THE ONE WHO SHOULDN’T BE YELLING!”

When the guy agreed to helping her, Flara huffed and closed her eyes in annoyance. She already regretting asking this a-hole to help her but at least she hadn’t mentioned splitting the cut or anything. So as soon as they tracked down Hammer, she would just jump right into fighting and disregard him.

THe male began to run and Flara followed after him. For now, she’d have to follow his lead because she hadn’t seen where Hammer had run off to. “So,” Flara began as the two continued to pursue their target, “This is just for the convenience of this mission. I’m Flara. But you only have to remember that for today.”

He hardly thought it was his fault that this brat had to show off and probably blew her cover in the process. “Glad we agree on something Flara.” The hostility in his voice intended. Kramer was fast and tried to lose them by leaping over fences and running in a twisted pattern. But west district had nothing on the hazardous dump of the south and Trevor easily managed to follow. She must’ve not been too smart because finally she made a wrong move, dodging into a narrow space between two high rise buildings only to meet a high concrete wall even she couldn’t get over.

“By the way-” slightly out of breath when they both reached the area and their target would have to fight to get out, “-don’t expect me to let you get away without splitting the reward for this.”

When the guy (who still did not give his name) mentioned splitting the bounty, Flara mentally cursed and very quietly murmured the words ‘fucking hell’ out loud as well. “Yeah, whatever,” she directed to the black-and-white-haired man. She took her two steel pipes out of the brown sack that contained them before continuing to speak. “By the way, since we’re splitting the money, you better protect your own sorry ass because I sure as hell won’t do it for you.” With that, Flara charged at Hammer.

Hammer wielded a giant hammer (ironic) and like the information had said, she did in fact have the movements of a martial artist. Flara continuously swung her rods at the other woman, who blocked or parried each attack skillfully. She wasn’t bad…

CLANG! A sound way louder than the noise of rod-hitting-rod rang in the air. Flara blinked and it to her a moment to realize that Hammer’s weapon had been reduced to a stick. The top of the hammer lay on the ground several yards away.

“AHAHAHA! You’re weapon is as stupid as your name,” Flara scoffed. Kramer threw some cuss words at Flara and if looks could kill, Flara would have died right there. Well, since she has no weapon anymore, this should be a piece of c− Hammer pulled out a mallet. Made completely out of steel. ...Or not.

Flara prepared herself for the next attack as Kramer dashed toward her but it never came. Kramer jumped over the brunette to attack the guy instead.

“Same goes for you.”He’d already whipped out his switchblade by the time Flara charged, and he had to begrudgingly admit she was a good fighter. Not that he’d ever compliment her out loud. There really wasn’t much he could do, the two were fighting in such a narrow space that if he tried to attack he was at risk of being bludgeoned by either of their weapons (where had she kept that giant hammer anyways?)

Flara had reduced Kramers hammer to a useless stick. “AHAHAHA! You’re weapon is as stupid as your name,” he had to roll his eyes at that. Was it really necessary to provoke her? Kramer unexpectedly jumped over the other girl and charged straight at Trevor with a brand new steel mallet that somehow seemed more deadly than the giant one. He dodged, nothing fancy, just ducking to the side while she swung the mallet where his head had just been. She’s open, he lashed out with his blade. He thought he missed but a sharp hiss and some cursing said he’d at least grazed her.

He attacked again before she could recover, sending a quick glare at Flara, attack her while she’s distracted idiot.

When the guy gave Flara the glare of the century, she narrowed her eyes right back at him, totally not getting the message. She simply watched as Kramer barely blocked the next attack. Fighting two-on-one was really boring if you were part of the two; it took out the challenge. Besides, this male could apparently stand his ground so it wasn’t like it was necessary for Flara to jump in.

Flara continued to view the battle but eventually felt like she was missing out on the fun. When Kramer tried to crush the guy’s skull, Flara stepped in and blocked it with both steel pipes. “Hey, you don’t get all the fun,” she said as Hammer spat out more cuss words. It was Flara's turn again.

Even after a few minutes of fighting, neither Kramer nor Flara had sustained any injuries. Flara smirked and quietly told herself, “Time to pick up the pace.” She parried the mallet that was swung at her ribs and aimed a stabbing motion at Hammer’s left shoulder. It was right on the mark butt the same time, the head of a mallet almost crushed Flara’s left shoulder. Almost. Not to say that it didn’t hit. Shit, that hurt.

It was ike taking turns in a weird way, Kramer was more careful after he cut her and she was just about to bash Trevors head in with that mallet if Flara hadn’t jumped in just now and the sound of steel against steel rang in his ears. He quickly got out of that mess before either of the woman might hit him on accident while they fought.

He surveyed from the outside, dammit if he could just take out her arm … The opening finally came when they both made a hit, Kramer let out a string of cursing when the steel pipe rammed into her shoulder. Trevor didn’t waste the opportunity and lunged at her, slashing downwards on the arm with which she gripped her weapon. He glanced towards Flara, she had avoided getting her ribs crushed in but looked like she had been grazed at least.

Kramer looked like she was trying to murder them with looks alone, stubbornly holding her mallet in a death grip but a deep cut on her forearm was bleeding heavily. “Damn.” he’d been aiming for her wrist. Hopefully this wouldn’t last much longer though as she Kramer ran at them again, clearly in some bull like rage because she was full of openings now.

An opening. Flara got behind Hammer and prepared to attack. Two steel pipes hitting the back of her neck would be enough to knock her out, right? Then they could take her to the police and get this over with.

Suddenly, Flara felt her left hand had something wet dripping down it through the bandages: Blood. Fuck, not now… It wasn’t Hammer that had inflicted this wound, but rather a lady with six-inch claws from a previous bounty. There were three cuts on the back of the hand and three on the palm. Not very shallow and definitely not something that would heal quickly either.

Flara’s grip on her pipe loosened against her will. The sound of steel hitting the ground was enough of a warning for the enemy. Hammer swung her mallet around at Flara; the intent to kill obviously was in the air. Flara blocked but one pipe was not enough to stand all the weight so her feet dragged her a few feet back. While her single pipe was preoccupied with the mallet, Kramer threw a powerful punch at Flara’s left shoulder. And hit right on the mark. “Let me return the favor.” Flara kicked Hammer in the stomach and sent her flying back near Trevor.

The brunette tried to pick up her other weapon but her hand refused to grasp the pipe. My hand can’t grip a weapon. My shoulder is probably fractured. My whole left side is a weak spot now. Shit.

He thought Flara would be able to end it, it should’ve ended at least but clearly something was wrong. Bruised ribs didn’t bleed. Dammit what kind of idiot goes after a bounty when injured already? He mentally cursed when it looked like Flara was about to get her head bashed in and took a painful looking punch to the shoulder, but she managed a surprising amount of strength into a kick that sent Kramer straight towards him, Kramer landed hard , mallet spinning out of her grip.
They wouldn’t get another chance to catch her alive like this again, he dashed towards their fallen target, crouching over her and holding his switchblade close against her throat, “Move and you die.” She hissed and screamed a particularly colorful stream of curses, Trevor not surprised at all to hear a few harbinger slurs directed at him. He kicked the mallet even farther from her reach even though, judging by the state of her arm she couldn’t get another firm grip on it if she tried.
He glanced over his shoulder towards Flara while Kramer was still screaming but unable to move under his blade, “You want to knock her out?” He noticed she was heavily injured now, good thing he had trapped her before things got worse.

The man quickly got the situation under control. In an instant, his blade was pressed on Hammer’s throat. The enemy was obviously defeated. She screeched a million cuss words, some of them not even making a proper sentence. Flara tuned out the psycho lady’s cussing but did catch something along the lines of ‘fucking harbinger bastard’. Seriously, the ponytailed brunette wouldn’t have been surprised if the male wanted to hack Hammer’s head off right about now. Flara had just put away one of her steel pipes when the guy spoke again, to her this time. “You want to knock her out?”

Flara’s grip on the remaining pipe tightened. “Yes, gladly.” She walked over to where the enemy stood and raised the pipe over her head. The weapon came down on Hammer’s head, knocking her out cold. Maybe Flara had hit Hammer just a little bit harder than necessary but Flara really did need the stress relief because her left shoulder was hurting like hell.

Flara put her other weapon into the sack on her back before inspecting her injuries. She was okay for the most part but anyone could tell that her shoulder was in deep shit. One hit from a steel mallet and a punch done a lot to it. Blood, blood, and more blood trickled down Flara’s left arm and dripped onto the floor.

It wasn’t just her shoulder, though. Flara’s hand wasn’t doing all that great either, now that she had reopened a wound (or six to be exact). She had tried to put less pressure on it but evidently, her efforts had been in vain.

“So, let’s go to the police station now, I guess?” Flara unwound the bandages from her hand. They wouldn’t do any good soaked in blood anyways. She’d just have to endure the pain for now…

It was easy to ignore the screaming criminal, he’d heard all that and more from his costumers and own mother anyways. Though he was glad when Flara brought down her pipe, silencing Kramer even if there was questionably more force than necessary in that hit.

He stood up now, closing his blade with a flick and dropping it back into his pocket. Looking at Flara he noticed she was really hurt. More so than he thought originally. He stared, between two decisions he could make. He probably should heal her, after all she helped him catch their target and he himself was relatively uninjured. Though she also dragged him along and had planned to keep the reward for herself. God he was soft wasn’t he? Trevor grabbed her arm suddenly, feeling her pain drain into his body rapidly. Hopefully she wouldn’t freak at the sight of her wounds closing like they were set in fast forward.

He’s the one bleeding and bruised now and it takes a few moments of heavy panting for the initial shock of all that injury being taken at once. “We’re even now.” He glanced at Kramer’s unconscious body, “Think you can carry her then?”

Flara felt someone take hold of her shoulder (damn, that hurt) and turned around to see it was the black-and-white haired man. And then… Her arm healed at an abnormal pace, as in a matter of seconds. Woah, what?

Amber eyes met blue ones for a split second but Flara's attention quickly turned to the wound (which had been hers) on the guy's arm. Okay, so that was his mutation: healing. The brunette understood that much. The question was, why did he heal her? Flara had had the sense that this dude hated her guts (and she sort of hated his up until this very moment). So… Why?

“We’re even now.”

...Even? Huh? I didn’t even do anything; I was just fighting because, you know, you’re supposed to do that on a bounty? Flara let out a small laugh under her breath. This person was a lot nicer than she had originally thought. “Well, since you put it that way, I guess I don’t need to thank you,” she said. Her voice lost the edge from earlier so she actually sounded like a decent person and not someone who wanted to rip your head off. The girl paused for a second before adding, “But thanks.” She gave him a quick genuine smile before nodding to his request. “Yeah, I got it.”

Flara took hold of Hammer’s limp body (which was rather heavy) and− after slight hesitation− picked up the steel mallet. “Do you want this by any chance? If not, I’ll keep it,” Flara told the guy as she began to walk to where she was pretty sure she’d seen a police station at.

It hurt but at least Flara hadn’t injured a leg or something, he wouldn’t have trouble walking. The surprise in her face was obvious but it wasn’t disgusted either. He would’ve expected from the way she had been acting earlier that she would share the common hatred for harbingers but instead she smirked.

“Well, since you put it that way, I guess I don’t need to thank you,” He was about to tell her he should’ve just let her suffer but her voice suddenly softened, shining him a genuine smile and a thanks. “Just don’t try to cheap me out when we get the reward.” He felt he earned the right to be snarky by now.

He watched Flara get a hold on Kramer’s body, good thing they hadn’t been after some huge buff guy. She picked up the mallet as well, seemingly like an afterthought and hold it out to him. He was about to reject it but after a thought, it was still a nice hammer, he could probably pawn it off for a few credits. He silently pocketed the weapon.

Flara seemed to know where the police station was so he let her lead . It was a bit slow going considering Flara was bogged down with Kramer’s weight and Trevor was partially injured and he was afraid that Kramer might wake up before they got there but they reached the place without any trouble. Trevor let out a small sigh of relief when the building came into view.

“That reminds me; you still didn’t tell me your name.” Flara paused, her gaze set on the guy as she waited for a potential answer. The two continued to walk.

Finally, Flara could see the police station. She had never been so relieved to see the stiff, orderly place before. Both of them sighed, though Flara’s was significantly louder. She glanced at the limp body hanging over her shoulder. Kramer’s body was like a block of lead and it had been weighing the brunette down the whole time.

Flara’s amber eyes averted from Kramer and instead glanced at Trevor’s arm− the one with her injury− before locking them on the set of icy blue ones. “Well, I’ll save you the trouble and turn her in myself. You can wait here.” With that she jogged off to the building up ahead.

Filling out the papers were a pain but Flara scrawled on them as quickly as she could and eventually got the bag of credits. “Oh, can you split this into two bags? Thanks,” she told the lady at the counter. The woman nodded, took the bag from Flara’s hands, and carried out the request.

Two sacks were now in the brunette’s hands but she didn’t go back to Trevor just yet. She took 15 credits out of one bag and tossed it into the other. Then she took a black and white baby gerbil− that she’d picked up when Trevor wasn’t looking− from her weapon bag and buried it in the sack with 265 credits. Flara then pulled out a notepad and a pen so that she could write a little note.

The credits are because I don’t like owing people. The gerbil is because I thought it looked like you.
-Flara

The girl tore the note out and placed it underneath all the credits in the bag with the gerbil. She put away her own bag and ran back to where she left the harbinger. “Here’s your share,” she told the guy as she handed him the bag. “And now, I’ll be going. See you again sometime.” Before he could even say anything, Flara had already left.

Spoiler:

He was reluctant to give his name to this girl… after all she had crashed into him and forced him into this whole mess. Don’t forget she only started acting friendly after he had healed her. He wouldn’t trust her with that bit of information just yet. Anyways it looked like he wouldn’t have to answer anyways since the police station was just up ahead. Looks like Flara really had known where she was heading. He was surprised when they both audibly sighed at the sight, Kramer must’ve been heavier than she looked if the girl was more relieved than him to finally find it.

He caught her quick glance at his new injury before directing them up to his eyes, before he could object she had rushed into the building with their target in tow. She might try to cheap him out again but… he felt like that wouldn’t happen besides he was waiting right outside the entrance and she couldn’t leave without passing him.

She came out a little while later, probably had to fill out a bunch of paperwork or something. The police could be stingy handing out the reward money sometimes. Two bags were in her hand, looks like she wasn’t going to take all of it for herself after all. One bag was swiftly shoved into her hand and then she had run off into the other direction before he could get out a word.

Weird girl. He peeked inside the bag, just to make sure it was all there and there’s a spotted furry thing in there… what the… He reached in and picked up the black and white furry thing. He brought it up to eye level. It was tiny and almost seemed to be looking at him too. Was this a gerbil or something? He looked in the bag again, there was a slip of paper that looked different from the credits…

Reading the note he had the vague idea he should feel insulted. Except for the hair color or fur color or whatever, it looked nothing like him. He had sat down on a bench and placed the creature on his lap to read the note, now it seemed to be sleeping or something. Yep, definitely nothing like him. He picked it up in his hand again, it was really really tiny… and he had no means to take care of it either even if he could figure out how to take care of it.

He sighed deeply, reaching a decision and gently placed the gerbil in his coat pocket; it should be safe there until he got back to the store. Really weird girl.

He spent the entire way back wondering if baby gerbils could eat cheerios and what the heck he should name it.