The Betting Ring

[Raven]

Jeremy looked at him coldly. "I believe that's up to the winner, so unless you intend to bet on her, I doubt it will happen."

[Neon]

"Well obviously I'm going to." Rolan said, rolling his eyes.

Jacques scoffed quietly, having already mentally put together his perfect team. He had several backup combinations, since he wasn't stupid and new these things tended to go in order. However, for the time being, he sat quietly and observed.

[Raven]

Mia Clark had gotten up to find her son had already left that morning. It surprised her, since Mia had always been the early riser in her family. She thought little of it, though, Austin kept his own time - he probably just had to work early. She ate breakfast, got her things together, and left for the library. She was a bit early, but she opened up anyway. That was her mistake. She was cleaning the shelves when she felt a nervousness bubble up in her stomach. She started to turn, but her eyes never saw her attacker. Someone else was called in to open up shop, Mia claiming to be awfully sick.

Meanwhile, her son hadn't gone to work. Austin did keep his own time, but rarely his own company. He was dressed sharply, and he had a cool smile in place as he entered the building, looking around the place. There were screens along one wall. Twenty-four in total, and when he got there hardly any of them were filled. As the day went on, more people joined him in the room and the screens gradually filled with people, several he knew. It filled him with a kind of pleasure to see his cousin and her friend on those screens. He didn't even notice when his aunt joined him in the betting room.

[Raven]

"Why do you say that now? You don't know the slightest thing about her," Jeremy scoffed.

[Neon]

"From what I've heard intelligent enough to know how to survive, can heal all injuries to herself and most serious injuries on her team. She's got cunning, and she's beautiful enough to seduce the enemies, turning all enemies into allies."

[Raven]

When Adam finally made it to his house, he sighed, seeing Isobel's car wasn't in the driveway. She must be taking out a delivery. He parked his car and headed inside. "Kailen, you home?" he called, and turned to hang up his coat. There was no answer. Kailen was either out with Stephanie or playing something too loud to hear him from his room. Adam smiled anyway. They'd be home soon, and he could see them then.

He was right about one thing. They would be together soon.

[Raven]

"But will she?" Jeremy asked.

Austin grinned, listening in to the conversations to get to know his fellow competitors before the competition.

[Neon]

"Well, if she's any heir of mine she will. If not, she'll die with her father." He said as casually as if he were commenting on the weather.

[Raven]

"Heir of yours?" Jeremy asked. "You seem unconcerned."

[Neon]

Rolan shrugs. "My children were both disappointments, she's the last hope for them. If she fails, well, then their mother passed on too many awful traits."

[Raven]

"Some way to speak of the woman you married," Jeremy said, coldly. He watched Anya.

[Raven]

"Where the hell is she?" Zach demanded, pushing Ben's door farther open. Anyone who knew Ben knew he wasn't a coward, and he didn't walk away from a fight, but at that moment, Ben backed away, his hands clenched into fists and his eyes wide. He wasn't a small man, but he still had to look up at Zachary. Ben wasn't under any impression that he would be in good condition after a fight, and he didn't want to harm his healer's boyfriend.

"I don't know, I swear," Ben objected. "I would never let anything bad happen to her."

Zachary glared, towering over him and advancing. "Well clearly she's gone, and you're the only other one who knows about her."

"Zach, I had nothing to do with it. I swear to god."

"For some reason, I don't believe you."

"Please. I can help you find her."

"I don't want you having anything to do with her." Zach threw a punch, and another. Ben tried to keep avoiding them, but most of the blows landed. Ben's eyes glowed green and he shocked Zach hard. When he finally let him go, Zach was gasping. "I'll get her back, and you're never seeing her again," he growled, and left. Shortly after that, the green light was replaced by blue.

[Gifted]

"Hey Joan, how're the banners coming along?" A tall blonde woman asked.
Joan Wenkeling looked up from her paper and the three felts that had each been colouring around her on their own dropped to the paper and lay still. "Oh," She gave a light laugh. "They'll be done in ten minutes or so, Sorry, Mikayla."
"It's no problem just remember the rally is in half an hour, you're cutting it kind of close."
Joan watched the President of the group leave and smiled. She was a key member of a gifted rights group, set up about a year after all the persecution had stopped. She'd grown very close to these people, and it had been wonderful to start a new life finally able to do some good, to fight (without violence for once) to make sure nobody ever had to go through persecution and pain like what had happened before again.
Of course the problem with setting up a happy new life, is that your old one often comes back to haunt you.
It all started wit a text. One simple little text, eleven concise words. And yet those few words were enough to turn Joans whole new world upside down.
I know about your connection to the Black Rose, Agent Wenkeling
Joans blood ran cold. How could he know? That she was once an agent she could understand; She had held the record for most Gifteds captured in the entire agency back when she was thirteen, after all. But how could he have possibly found out she was responsible for creating that... that monster...
Joan had been a government agent starting when she was captured at nine years old. She was raised by them to be ruthless and cunning against those on the run, and was so much so that by twelve she was in the running for the record. The drive to beat it consumed her, and the agency was her whole world. The only motivation she had was to break that record. The only goal she had was to break that record. The distance between her and the top agent was in single digits. She knew that soon she could do it.
Then she met them. Seven other gifteds, four boys and three girls, with her having infiltrated the group as the eighth. One of them was even the brother whom she'd been separated from when she was caught. The friendship had started as an act to fool them into trusting her but it had blossomed into something real. That hadn't stopped her from turning them in. After all, she had to beat that record.
And beat it she had, but it hadn't been worth it. It hadn't been worth locking up her only real friends, stabbing them in the back like that. Especially the groups leader, Rakel Meusemore. Every time she tried to sit down and think about something else, Rakels betrayed, hurt shouting echoed in her ears. It was almost as bad as her brothers horrified, self-blaming silence. Her brother... she'd locked up her own brother.
The guilt finally overcame her and she did the first decent thing shed done since she was very young and released them, battling her former coworkers to get them out. It'd taken several months to gain her friends trust back, but she'd saved them, and eventually they forgave her.
She traveled with them for a few happy years before disaster struck. Agents didn't usually fight in such large numbers like that, she'd been wholly unprepared. They were all captured, every last one of them. Joan thought it was over for them. But then, as they were bringing the eight of them in, Joan happened to get a glance at the board and see that despite her long absence, her name was still on it, number 20 of the 50 best agents on the board. The numbers above hers were really not all that much larger. And suddenly it made sense why they'd all banded together in such large numbers to capture the eight of them... the agency as a whole was seriously slowing down. The Boss couldn't be happy about that. After seeing that, she'd known just what to do.
She'd spoken to her old Boss, offering to come back to the agency and work again, help the agents learn to be faster and more efficient. She'd never desert or betray them again. But only if they made her a deal; none of her seven friends were to be harmed. They were to be released, and never attacked or harmed in any way again. Her boss agreed to the conditions on the stipulation that Joan was to make it very obvious to them before they left that she'd betrayed them; He wanted to destroy their bond of trust and make sure Joan had nowhere to go if she left. Joan readily agreed to this, knowing anyway that they would not approve of her plan to become a slave to the government to keep the others free. She came up with an elaborate setup to make it seem that they had escaped upon their own merit and cunning and pretended to fight viciously as one of the agents 'preventing' their escape. They all made it out with only minor injuries, and Joan thought they were safe. She had no idea the repercussions of her actions would send her closest friend into a mental breakdown that would turn her from a strong but kind woman, into an angry, vengeful murderer.
She looked around to make sure no one was looking as she tapped out a reply. How dare you refer to me by that title after all these years. She'd been 17 when she found out the full repercussions of what she had done. Rakel Meusemore, after being stabbed in the back not once but twice by her best friend, had become, bitter, cynical and disillusioned with the world. No longer believing the gifteds had any chance of surviving this war, she lashed out, attacking hotels and office building and other civilian bases. She blamed them for letting this happen, for blissfully sitting by while her people were robbed of their freedom, their lives. Under the pseudonym/supervillain name The Black Rose, she'd caused complete and utter hell starting mere months after Joan's betrayal and the groups separation. Joan had spent every spare moment she wasn't contractually obligated to hunt gifteds trying to track down the Black Rose. She managed it, but it was too late; She found her friend had been long dead and gone, and the woman who stood in her place now beyond help. That day, the day of her 18th birthday, she left the government for good, both to finally get out of that horrible life and to render her contract with her boss null and void. With her agreement gone, she was finally giving the agents the ability to hunt the Black Rose and save countless civilian lives.
As for her other six friends, she never saw them again. She didn't think they'd believe her, and even if they did, she doubted they'd ever forgive her for doing what she'd done to their poor friend Rakel.

She received a text back. How I address you in writing is hardly your greatest concern right now, Agent Wenkeling. I would be more concerned about what your friends would say if they found out.
Joan looked around as the men and women she'd grown so close to over the many years since she'd helped start this group talked and laughed together. If they found out she was solely responsible for the creation of the worst Gifted serial killer of all time it would ruin her... all her friends had no idea she'd even been an agent, and this...
She texted back shakily. What do you want me to do?
The text came much quicker this time. Meet me by the tattoo parlor on Dover in half an hour. I trust it won't be hard for you to slip away during the rally.
Joan looked around. This was the biggest rally of the year. She hated to miss it. But she didn't exactly have a choice.
Done.

Half an hour later Joan was loitering outside the tattoo parlor the mysterious texter had mentioned. It was a shadier part of town, one thatshe didn't make a habit of venturing into except on occasion.
"Agent Wenkeling." A voice called.
Joan whipped around. "Would you stop calling me that?" She begged. "I've changed, alright? I'm a better person than I was when I was younger."
"And yet you still respond to it."
"I'm not denying I did some messed up shit in my past." Joan replied. "But I've grown from it. Please, I beg of you, I'l do anything. Just don't drag that up again."
"I'm here to discuss with you. If your offer isn't sufficient I have no problem making the information public."
"What do you want? Do you want money? I have money?"
The woman raised her eyebrows. "Depends how much you're willing to give me."
Joan reached frantically for her wallet, taking her eyes off the girl, wanting anything that could keep this woman quiet... a flash of blue light appeared at the corner of her vision and Joan didn't have time to react before she was struck and knocked unconscious.

[Raven]

Kenny Clark had fallen off the map for some time. After seventeen murders, he'd taken a girl prisoner. He'd disappeared for little over a year with her before she showed up pregnant in another country with a split personality disorder. He'd reappeared briefly to try to get them back, causing mother and child to go into hiding. He'd remained unseen, with no sign of him in crimes, no similar occurrences for eighteen years. As it turned out, he'd taken another girl: a criminal this time. No one missed the woman. No one knew about the little psycho family, or their two children. There was hardly even record of their birth. Only their parents and their tutor knew about them.

Then one day, Kenny left his children home alone with Mother. The twins thought it would be funny to pretend they were gone. They disappeared for three hours before their distressed mother had taken too much. Kenny's hold on the woman broke, and she became determined to ruin his life for what he'd done to her. She called the children for dinner, with no intention of feeding them.

Mr. Clark came home to find his children backing away from their mother's knife. The mother was distracted by the door opening, and it gave Kenny the time to get ahold of her.

Even after she was fixed, the woman remained locked in Kenny's room while he explained everything to his kids. The next two years he spent making sure his kids were safe, but gradually add they began to do their own work, he returned to his. The alarms never went off, because Kenny had changed his style and preference too much. According to the books, Kenny was two separate killers. Nonetheless, he still hunted girls.

And the petite thing with black hair, keeping her eyes on the road, wearing moderate clothing, having no obvious tattoos or piercings, and obviously alone, seemed like the perfect target. Until he tried to follow her down an alley. Then it turned out who the real predator was.

[Gifted]

"¡Hola! Bienvenido a Puerto Vallarta!" Olivia called as she heard someone enter her little shop as she fumbled with the cheap trinkets she was carrying.
"No hablo español," a voice behind the counter said quietly. Olivia looked up to see a white girl with bright blue eyes. "Do you speak English?"
"Sí, I speak English" Olivia replied, faking an accent. She was asked that almost every time, and since her shop was mostly full of silly overpriced tourist trinkets she fully expected it. But she found the customers liked it better if she pretended not to speak English natively. More exotic that way, she guessed. So she spoke with a spanish accent, having done her best to lose her english one in the twenty years she'd lived in Mexico but never having quite managed to do so without considerable conscious effort. "You want anything specific today?"
"I'm just looking for something to bring back to the States with me."
"Oh, you're from the States?" Olivia asked. "Where in the States? Is it snowing up there yet?"
"I don't know, I came down here a few weeks ago. It wasn't snowing when I left." The girl said. Olivia felt nostalgic. She hadn't always lived in Mexico. In fact, though he was of Spanish descent and blended in well here, she was actually born in the United States. She'd fled here twenty years ago after seeing nearly all her friends, gifteds like herself who'd been fighting for equality, get brutally murdered. She'd told her last surviving friend to flee to Canada, said she was going to flee to Mexico, and the two went their separate ways. She never did find out if Xander made it to Canada. She hoped he had, and that he'd found a good new life there.
Olivia was pulled out of her reminiscing when the woman spoke again. "Maybe a pair of sandals to take out during the summer would be nice," She pointed to the flip flops on the wall behind Olivia.
"Oh, sandals?" Olivia looked back. "I have lots of those, here let me get you one of my favourite pairs." She turned around and pulled out a stepladder to get one of her more expensive pairs off a high shelf.
Even with super-speed, she'd have to have known it was coming to stop the attack. She saw it from the corner of her eye, turned around atop the stepladder being careful not to lose her balance and fall, went for the knife that had been kept at her belt since she was a teenager, and leapt out of the way, all in the span of a few seconds. Unfortunately, super speed or no, one can't speed up gravity and as soon as her feet left the ground she sealed her fate She was hit in the side and thrown back into the wall, hitting her head against a shelf. She struggled to push herself up with one hand, the other clutching her knife like a lifeline. The girl did not give her the chance to get up. There was a flash of blue light, and Olivia fell unconscious.