The day was young, and the streets were still as busy as ever, 6AM, on the dot, was when the car slowed down in front of a tall building. The Camaro pulled to the side, allowing traffic to pass as it stopped by a white curb. The vehical remained where it was, as a door flung open and a girl was shoved out of it.

"What the hell!?" Fayte shouted as she was shoved out of the vehicle, catching herself on her feet before looking to the people within in surprise. A bag and a flier was tossed out with her, landing at her feet while she barely managed to catch the flier.

"We're here, so we're dropping you off" an elderly woman spoke on the far side of the car. She huffed as the younger man that sat in the middle moved to where Fayte had been sitting and closed the door. The windows rolled down as Fayte flailed on the car, begging for them to wait.

"Wait! We haven't even found him yet! You can't just leave me here in this kind of place!" she spoke to the half open window, astonished that her grandmother would be doing such a thing.

"Us? Find that pathetic man-child in this dump they call a city? Honestly your joke was so funny I forgot to laugh," the woman's voice was cold, nothing like what Fayte had thought the woman to be a few moments ago, "I don't know what your father was thinking making him of all people be your guardian, but your mother agreed and I refuse to provide for any spawn of that man even if they were also my daughter's. You have his name and picture, i'm sure you'll find him eventually, if not then you'll simply be a corpse by evening."

The car window rolled up before Fayte could respond, and the car drove off at a high speed, making a screeching sound as it did so. Fayte was left with that ominous note, she gave a shaky sigh, picking up her backpack and looking at the flier. It had a face of a man that appeared to be in his late 20's and early 30's. There was name crudely written on it, Leon Krank. He was her new legal guardian, her mother had passed on quite a while ago, while her father was a deadbeat who had "went missing" just a month or so after she was born. She had never met this "Leon" before in her life, the only time she had heard of him was when her grandmother told her that she would live under his care once they found out where he had disappeared off to. She did not dabble in the news, focusing on studies and the present situations, so she had no clue about his record. She simply knew that she had to find him, and fast it seemed.

The comment made by her grandmother irked her, what was wrong with this city? What even WAS this city? She gathered her collections and moved on, staring hopelessly at the picture before approaching a newsstand. She looked at a paper, figuring out that this city had two names, Reighs and Panic City. Why did they call it Panic City and why did it give her bad vibes? She looked around the page a bit more, and spotted an article on a study of the crime rate in Reighs, that showed a graph.

One look caused Fayte to place the paper back, and move along quickly with wide eyes, clutching the straps to the backpack tightly. Where was she going to find this "Leon" character? Why was he in such a terrible place? Wait...maybe he was a police officer! She checked with the station, never heard of him they said. Well crap. She was back at the streets now, what the hell was she going to do? She didn't have enough money to get out of here, or even get a hotel.

She took a deep breath, it was time to kick it into high gear. She looked to the paper.

Goal of The Day: Find Leon.
Allotted Time: 12 Hours
Method: Ask As Many People AS She Could.

She looked up from the paper, having finished thinking things over. A determined look on her face, she was going to do this. She just had to.

Ready?

Set...

Go!

Striker was in street clothes. He felt off without the weight of his swords. He was use to the gentle swinging of the blade in their holders next to his thighs. Now without them, he felt bare and exposed. Not to mention he was completely out of uniform. He had on a plain white long sleeved hoodie and some jeans. Jeans felt contracting to Striker. He knew he couldn’t fight half as well in these than his uniform, but it wasn’t about fighting right now. He hadn’t gone out looking for a fight. He still wore the five communicators on his right arm hidden under his sleeve, and of course another watch strapped to his left arm for the time. He wore the hood up to keep people from recognizing him but also giving him that lazy teenager appearance rather than a suspicious looking man. The outfit did much to hide him but did little if he were to get into trouble. Still, he knew enough survival skills to know how to take care of himself. He was on one of the best well-known criminal teams after all in Reighs City.

Striker supposed he probably shouldn’t be walking around in broad daylight. After all, someone could recognize him and call the cops, but he’d been cooped up in his room for a while now. He just wanted some air without the team in his ear. Though the thought did occur to Striker that Ian could be walking these streets. Striker felt a surge of anxiety creep up him and he had to shove his hands in his pockets to keep them steady. Breathe He told himself. But images of him killing Sable came to mind. Regardless that Sable was still alive and he knew it, the image shook him. Breathe. He commanded himself in his head.

Striker leaned against a building to settle his uneasy breathing. He knew Sable hadn’t been real, but it was the most real thing that Striker had killed in his life. Though killing the creatures had shook him up slightly, the creatures didn’t have the same effect as watching a human die by your hand. At least with the creatures it had been kill or be killed. With Sable, it had been…. Mercy? That’s what he told himself. But how could on justify taking a life?

Leaning against the building, Striker could see a young girl staring a picture and asking people around if they’d seen the man in the picture. Striker was a little curious on who she was looking for but unsure if he should really approach. Besides, what was the likely hood he knew who she was looking for? He stayed posted on the wall. If she approached him, he’d talk, but otherwise, he was just going to watch. Maybe someone knew who she was looking for.

Tick tock, a half of an hour had passed before she knew it. She took out a cellphone and checked the time, 6:45AM. She still had plenty of time, but nobody seemed to know this man. It was to be expected though, there was probably thousands of people in this city, finding one man was like finding a needle in a haystack! Still, she figured that she'd continue asking people until she figured out some other method that would be a bit more efficient.

However, while she was looking around she noticed that someone seemed to be watching her. Someone would normally be unnerved by this, but she was more confident in her skills and decided to tackle the problem head on. She approached the man, that being Striker, and in a rather polite tone asked, "Hello, I'm sorry to bother you, but have you seen this guy?" while holding up the paper. The paper had Leon's face printed on it, it looked as if Leon were quite a bit younger, but it still looked like The Red Lion none the less and had his name just below it. It looked almost like a wanted poster, but it was merely just coincidence...or the grudge of her grandmother.

The teen was shady, she figured it was one of those teenagers that claimed to be emo or goth while going around spouting poems and talking about how deep they are and how hollow their soul and life was. She only approached this man in particular to get him to buzz off by showing that she had noticed him, if he tried to take her into some dark alley or any funny business then she'd just stick a pen in his eye and hurl him into a wall. She had dealt with some perverts before, each of them resulting in a broken bone or two back at her old home, so this was no big deal to her at this point. The arrogant girl was surely in over her head though if she expected that she'd be just fine in this city, but she'd have to learn that the hard way if she did not find Leon soon.

Striker kept his head down as the girl approached him. She pushed the flyer in his face asking if he knew where the guy was. Striker looked down examining it and recognized him as Leon, a friend of Reiner’s. What was his name again? Leo? Striker looked down on the paper and saw the name Leon! That’s it! He thought. Striker looked at the paper though and saw it was a wanted posted. Who was this girl to be after a criminal? She looked too young to be a cop, so what was she after him for.

“That depends.” Striker said still looking at the picture. “State your business with him or his associates?” He asked watching the girl out of the corner of his eyes. If she were to make a move at him, he’d take her out. But if she answered the question, it would be obvious she needed to find him.

Striker knew his question would tell her that he knew the guy, but again Striker just didn’t see her as a cop, so he was honestly curious why she wanted to find Leon. From what Reiner had said about him, he ran a gang in New York. This could be one of his gang member, maybe? Striker didn’t know for sure, but that was his guess on who she was. He hoped if this girl was a gang member of his, she wasn’t one of the ones he wanted to kill. Reiner had said his gang had basically dumped him in Reighs City underground. He’d said that Leon was a little mad at some of the members. Striker wondered if she was one of them.

Bingo! This man knew him! Fayte planned to cling to this guy even if he refused. Judging from how he did not say something like "Yes let's go to this really obscure place" he wasn't some ordinary creep. However she was curious as to why he said associates, was that some way of saying friends here or something? She knew nothing of Leon's...troubles in New York, or his general lifestyle. She knew practically nothing of her father's life before settling down with a family, just that her grandmother loathed him and Leon was a close friend of his.

He wanted to know why she was seeking Leon, which only caused her to wonder why he needed to know. However, she'd rather find him as soon as possible, and it was not like it was some great secret or anything. She spoke up, "He's my new Legal Guardian. I have to live with him and my grandmother dumped me here with this and told me to find him on my own," she explained.

She knew she had to be careful here, after all that newspaper did not say that this place was Panic City for no reason. There were probably thugs behind every corner, hell this guy she was talking to was probably a thug! The thought made her uneasy, but she remained calm. She knew her self defense, she had her self-defense pen, she was fully prepared for an attack should one come. She doubted that anyone or even this guy would do it out in the street like this, too many possible witnesses unless this city was so bad as to not care if some person was suddenly stabbed and left to bled.

Striker thought about the response. Yep, the grandmother definitely hated the girl. Okay, so she wasn't part of the gang, or was she just not telling him about it? It was possible. Leon as a legal guardian? Did the girl realized how ridiculous that sounded given the fact that Leon was a criminal who had ran a gang in New York? Unless the girl didn't know about his activities? Or was that again supposed to be some innocent lie to find the man. Maybe she was part of the gang and she just didn't know who to trust and therefore was making up lies on why she needed to find him. Hell, sounded find to him. Leon could take care of one girl if he didn't want to see the girl. He wasn't too worried about that.

"Okay." Striker nodded. "We'll see if he recognizes you." He agreed. It would be up to Leon on what to do with her. After all Leon had never specifically told them to keep people away from him. He'd just be the messenger. If Leon told him not to lead anyone else to him, he'd know for the future. But right now he was doing what any person would do, just usually someone of his status would charge the girl for making him be the messenger.

Striker pushed off the wall he was leaned against and started walking. He didn't look back to see if the girl was following him or not. He was going to inform Leon someone was looking for him regardless if the girl came with him for the message or not. It would be easier to explain if the girl came with him, but he had key features of the girl memorized enough to describe her to Leon if she didn't. He wasn't about to offer his name though because firstly it wasn't her business, and secondly he was in street clothes and didn't want to give his criminal name out when he didn't have his swords to defend himself. His swords brought comfort and though he trained in hand to hand, he didn't want to engage in a fight until he needed to. Of course if this girl was in a gang, she'd have no right to judge his life as a criminal, but who knew.

Wonderful! She was being led right to him! Her self defensive weapons were prepared in case this man decided to lead her down a dark alleyway and turn on her. Although he said something about Leon recognizing her. That would be a problem.

"Actually, he doesn't quite know i'm coming or knows me. He knew my father however, apparently they were close friends or something and my father and mother demanded that I go to him if they were to both die for some reason..." Fayte decided to explain. She wondered if this man was a friend of Leon's? Why was he friends with this kid? Maybe he was just the son of one of this friends? She had heard that Leon was a bit younger than her father, around his 30's or so, so why be friends with some teenager? She pushed the thought out of her mind, she needed to be on guard. This place was dangerous, and for all she knew this man was bluffing completely.

She did not even think to wonder if this man thought she was a foe, after all to her Leon was just some ordinary guy that lived in some house and worked an ordinary office job. She was probably going to have to enroll in some shitty high school and beg at the doorstep to some college to let her in so she could learn and get a better job before moving out and living on her own. She would prefer to get the hell out of this city, she was on edge just thinking of how much danger could be here.

Striker listened to her explanation and was tempted to turn around and tell her nevermind considering that if Leon didn't know her he likely didn't want to see her, but maybe he was wrong. He supposed he'd never know unless he took the risk.

"Okay." He said simply to her. He continued downtown heading for the shortest route to the junkyard. He tried to avoid alleys though because he didn't feel like running into trouble. He also avoided streets that lead past lots of cops, because he didn't want to be recognized either. He walked at a brisk pace keeping silent in his thoughts the whole time.

They were walking for a good ten minutes before the roads started thinning out and the place started becoming less populated. He could see the junkyard up ahead. That's where she'd find Leon. "Almost there." He said to the girl and checked his watch for probably the tenth time since they had started walking.

Then he fell back into his silence as he finished approaching and then entered the junkyard. "Leon!" Striker called out, not exactly sure in which part of the junkyard he would be. "Leon, you here?! It's Striker!" Yay, maybe finally fessing up that he was the famous criminal of Reighs City to the girl in the middle of Leon's junkyard wasn't the best way to do things, but he doubt she would've followed if she had known from the start. Especially if what she was saying was true. But if it wasn't, then likely the news didn't bother or phase her.

Fayte was led to the junkyard, the man called out about him being Striker. She was not too phased about that, she did not know the meaning behind this guy having the name Striker. She knew this town's crime rate was bad, but not of the criminals within.

As they approached the junkyard however, there seemed to be a rather strange duo within plain sight. Two teens seemed to be gathered at the hood of a rather nice looking vehicle. The car was sleek, and probably new but obviously stolen. The licence plate was missing, probably taken off so police would think it was some run down old car. One guy was pointing at various things in the engine while the other seemed to be tinkering with wherever he pointed, they looked to be twins with some height differences.

Once the two passed the gate, the one pointing seemed to clap the other guy on the shoulder before the two took off running at full speed away from the vehicle. When they saw Striker and Fayte the one that had been messing with the vehicle shouted, "GET DOWN!"

Fayte had no choice but to obey as one of them accidentally slammed into her after tripping over something. She could feel the earth shudder as a loud explosion resounded from the vehicle along with an alarm blaring from the vehicle's alarm system. Shaken, Fayte pushed the guy off of her and watched with wide eyes at the vehicle. It was in flames, smoke was rising from the vehicle, and it seemed to be missing its tires now.

A man rushed out of the main building that must have been the guest reception area or something for the junkyard, "The hell was that?" he shouted. Fayte recognized him from the picture to be Leon, what the hell was he doing in a literal dump like this? The man looked to the vehicle, "The car!" he exclaimed, looking at the burnt leftovers of the vehicle in despair and seeming to recognize what little color was left on it.

The two teens stood to attention immediately as Leon approached as if they were in the military and the shorter one spoke, "We were experimenting and testing out a new explosive chemical compound, of which I had created, through the means of observing how it would react if applied to the engine of a self-powered motor vehicle used for transportation for our satisfaction."

Fayte watched as Leon looked to the taller guy almost as soon as the shorter one was finished, "We were blowing shit up for fun," the taller one responded after swallowing sheepishly.

"The fuck you are!" Leon yelled, picking up a piece of scrap metal from the ground and throwing it at the two who dodged it with ease, "I thought I told you not to go around making random explosions in my yard, I thought some crazy nut was attacking us saying he was Striker! Clean that up before I burn that lab of your's to the ground, tow-truck's in the garage!" he pointed in the direction of the garage as the twins rushed to get away from their leader's wrath.

Fayte watched Leon with a rather surprised expression, finally getting up now that she was sure that things were somewhat safe. What the hell did he do here, Run some kind dysfunctional orphanage? Was Striker a part of it?

"Sup?" he spoke to them once the twins are gone, "Sorry about that they've been a bit bomb-happy ever since we got a hold of some ammonium nitrate," he apologized, "Who's she?" he pointed to Fayte.

Fayte found herself a bit speechless, unable to speak . The thought going through her mind a thousand times: What the bloody hell was even going on here!?!?

Striker ducked as commanded by the twins when they yelled to get down. He had called that demand enough to know when someone was serious about moving or getting hurt. He ducked down immediately, but didn't think to tell the girl following him to do the same assuming she'd just follow the command. Luckily, the twins seemed to help her in that department, even if it was by accident.

The car blew up and Striker was only mildly phased by the action. He didn't outwardly react. Though he'd never really worked with explosives, he'd seen other criminals who worked with them and so it didn't surprise him nearly as much as it seemed to surprise Fayte when the car went up in flames.

Striker got back to his feet and brushed any dirt on his clothes off as Leon came outside. Striker watched as the twins explained what they were doing and then Leon yelling at them to clean it up before he approached Fayte and him with a 'sup?'. Striker smiled and nodded a greeting back to him.

"This is... Well, actually, I don't know her name. Says she's your daughter now or something. Says she's knows your father and the grandmother told her to find you." Striker shrugged explaining what she had said. "Thought maybe she was lying and everything because she didn't know if she could trust me with telling that she was part of the Red Lions, but clearly that doesn't seem to be the case. Either way, she's got a picture of you and has been asking all over town about you. I figured she's too young to be a cop, so something had to be up."

Striker than looked at Fayte expectantly for her to explain to Leon why she was here. That was the best description Striker could give, but if he were Leon, he'd want more of the story. "Don't touch him by the way, he's hot." Striker teased to Fayte crossing his arms over his chest. It only occurred to him a moment after he said it that it could've been taken the wrong way, but he didn't bother to correct himself.

Leon listened as Striker explained, obviously confused by his explanation. One minute she was his apparent daughter and the next minute she knew his father? He didn't even know his father how the hell could this supposed daughter know him? He looked to the girl with confusion, expecting her to explain.

"Explain yourself," he demanded with a firm tone. The girl seemed to be rather confused, but she seemed to pull herself together and explain properly.

"What's your father's name?" he asked, wondering who this could be from his days in New York.

"Ross Syndr," she replied.

The name brought a look of surprise to Leon's face, then one that seemed to be of annoyance, she did resemble Ross quite a bit now that he thought about it,"So YOU'RE the reason he went and took off on me. The b*stard left me in the middle of a heist spewing some bullcrap about a man needing to be with his woman in her time of need and nearly got everyone killed because of it. Hadn't seen him since!" Leon was obviously not happy, who would be? They had been smack in the middle of robbing a rather popular bank, and he just rushed off all of a sudden just as they were cracking the vaults. The mission was a failure and a good portion of the team was caught, but they all managed to get out of it without any serious wounds.

"Heist?" the girl asked with curiosity.

"Yeah a bank heist," he said as if it were no big deal, "First he abandons me and now he's going off and dumping a kid on me, the hell do I look like, an Orphanage?"

"Leeeeooooo!" came the voice of the taller twin from the direction of the garage, "Mario passed out in the truck again!"

There was his answer.

"I'm not lying!" Fayte finally responded after being commanded to respond, "My father was a friend of yours, he and my mother agreed that you would become my legal guardian if they were to pass on so my grandmother dumped me here. Er...Striker, here lead me to you after I asked him if he knew you"

Fayte just could not understand this, who were the other two teens? Who was Striker? Why was he letting a bunch of sixteen year olds handle explosives?

Leon asked for her father's name, so she gave it to him. Leon seemed to be rather upset with her father, showing that they obviously left with bad terms. What was this heist thing he was talking about though? She asked him, and he responded with a bank heist. She froze, this guy was a criminal!? This place wasn't an orphanage!?

She decided to instead ask the only seemingly sane person here, since Leon was in a fit of anger, Striker, "Wait so, this isn't some orphanage...and you're all criminals??" She had simply assumed that Striker was a part of Leon's gang of misfit children. Apparently there was another kid named Mario that was passed out. She assumed, or hoped rather, that they meant sleep.

"What's going on?" she begged, her mind partially rejecting the idea and hoping she was simply dreaming of all this.

Striker watched the conversation unfold in front of him with concentration. He was trying to figure out the whole story behind everything while they spoke. So far it seemed Fayte was not the biological daughter but rather a daughter of an ex friend, probably ex gang member, of Leon. Leon obviously was not too happy with the ex friend and therefore not very happy to see Fayte. Fayte was here because her parents had passed away and left him as her guardian. Fayte seemed to know nothing about Leon's criminal life though. Striker was slowly piecing things together. Fayte seemed to be getting more and more distressed as Leon talked. And when he mentioned the bank heist, Fayte turned to him demanding what was going on.

"Well, duh." Striker said as if it were obvious. "You know, for someone's who father was apparently a criminal, you seem to know very little about the life of your new guardian. Why weren't you informed of any of this?" Striker asked suspiciously. "They sent you to panic city to with a wanted picture. You didn't think to once ask why his face was plastered on a wanted ad?"

He was hoping the girl didn't just bolt and run to the cops. He supposed he'd have to stop her. Clearly she had the worst grandmother in the world. Who would drop their granddaughter off in a criminal infested city to search for another criminal when they seemed to have no idea of the back stories or really anything about the man they were looking for? Were they hoping she'd get mugged on the way around the city and die? Or did they think she'd actually be able to find him?

Striker questioned why she was not informed of any of this, "That's what i'd like to know..." she spoke in almost a whisper. She was terrified now, these were criminals, Leon has probably killed people before, along with this Striker person. She had never thought of the print out as a wanted ad, she just thought it was her grandmother being spiteful! She never did know much about her father, her mother would always talk about how her father was a good man but she'd never talk about his life before that. Her father passed away when she was young, so she did not know much about him herself other than her grandmother hated him.

Her mind came to a conclusion, she had to get out of here. Cops, they could help her. If she just explained her situation to them they could send her to a more suitable guardian, right? One moment she was standing next to Striker with Leon in front of her, the next moment she was leaving behind a trial of dust as she high tailed it out of there. No way was she staying here, and no way were they going to force her!

"Hey wait I didn't mean that you couldn't stay here!" Leon called out to her as she fled, obviously misinterpreting why she was running in the first place.

"No way i'm staying with a bunch of criminals!" she shouted back, however regretted it as Leon started to run after her. Leon had figured out she was going to the police, however if she were to tell them that he was a criminal she'd likely be detained as well along with interrogated for his hideout. His hideout wasn't exactly the most well hidden thing in the world, but who ever dares to go into a mutt infested junkyard with strange explosions except some stupid kids every now and then?

Way to go Striker. Striker mentally congratulated himself when the girl ran. You've freaked her out enough to go to the cops. Striker sighed and pushed himself off chasing after the girl. He was a pretty fast running actually, so even though Leon and Fayte had had a head start, Striker was able to caught up with Leon pretty quickly, and now only needed to catch up with Fayte before she did something stupid.

"Hey, look. We're not going to hurt you, you know!" Striker called after her. "And we never said you had to be a criminal. Don't judge people's life styles just because they don't fit into your little square box."

Okay, maybe that wasn't helping, but Striker wasn't seeing the problem with staying with Leon. She hadn't even gotten to know the guy properly. Maybe they shouldn't have started with 'hey, I'm a criminal', but it was better she knew now than to find out later, right? Wasn't something like 'honesty was the best policy'? Didn't seem to apply in every case, Striker noticed.

Striker glanced down at his watch, as merely a habit as he ran. He was tempted to calculate how far they would run before they would catch up with her, but Striker pushed the math problem away in his mind. He needed to focus on the problem right now rather than the clock. Striker picked up his speed so he could gain on her easily. He wasn't sure if he was suppose to tackle her down or not.

"Would tackling be the wrong move?" Striker asked Leon.