The City Episode 5: "Faustian Deals"

The episode opens to the emblem of the One World Government spinning around for a few seconds before it shifts to the face of Phillip Lamont. Phillip’s face, as usual, took up half the screen while the other half flashed between images from all the Cities around the world.

Phillip Lamont: “Wake up world and welcome to the wake up call, your daily dose of Government goodness! I’m Phillip Lamont and, as always, I am here to bring you up to date on all the happenings from your favorite form of entertainment!”

The shot slowly buzzes to a faint little static before it, as before, came out of the television into the living room of one of the apartments in the building that John Moren called home. The room was empty but a strange sound filled the air.

A soft thudding, almost like footsteps but too steady. Footsteps and whispered voices.

The shot turned slowly from scanning the apartment to the face of Phillip Lamont. Beyond him, a Latin gentleman of middle years was running down an alley. When he reached a fence at the end of the alley, he jumped, trying to climb it but a small figure hit him in the back of the thigh and began to shake. The Latin man screamed in agony as the smaller figure was revealed to be a dog that was soon joined by a second, a third, a fourth and a fifth.

As the man began to get torn apart the shot became small, barely shown under the face of Phillip.

Phillip Lamont: “Well, as all of you just saw Juan Ortiz could not complete his challenge of surviving inside The City for a month. He lasted fifteen days in his hunt for a movement pass. Our condolences to his family and those he has left behind.”

The video beside Phillip changed to a video of a woman dressed in a blue dress being dragged up a set of stairs in the dead of night by a man wearing an executioner's outfit and hood. The shot came out to show the building was littered with corpses hanging from nooses off the side of the roof in various stages of decay.

Phillip Lamont: “Elsewhere in City Five you all know the Executioner and he’s been damn hard at work.”

The woman in the blue dress kicked and screamed, slapping at the hand holding her by the hair but to no avail. He worked a noose around her neck and launched her off the roof. She came to rest beside two other full skeleton’s gagging and kicking.

Phillip Lamont: “Lucy Arnes lasted only one day in City Five before she was found by him and added to his grotesque Menagerie. Our deepest prayers go out to her family and friends. There were many here at the World Government studios who felt she shouldn’t have chosen City Five but everyone thinks no gangs is a good thing. No, no gangs means there is a reason why. Elsewhere…”

The shot beside him changed to a video of a group of the gray skinned mutants charging down a hallway where they crashed into a barricade made of doors and furniture tearing right through it. They charged through the hallway and out through the front doors of the building into the street.

Phillip Lamont: “And in City One it appears as though new comer John Moren has teamed up with vetern runner Oliver Jamison and together they were able to escape the mutants that roamed the middle of the city. Later it appears that John was cornered by the creatures….”

Phillip never got the words out completely before the sound of his voice was drowned out by the sound of a door opening quickly and feet running into the room. The camera spins around to find the tan skinned Lesli Moren standing in the room wild eyed. She moves to the door to Leann’s room and throws it open.

Lesli Moren: “GET UP! HE HAD TO FIGHT MUTAN….”

Lesli stood there in shock as the camera came around, Leann was in her bed, but she wasn’t alone. Trever was in it with her, lying on his back with Leann sitting in his lap. She sat in mid forward movement completely topless. Lesli stood in shocked silence

Lesli Moren: “U..h…”

Leann Perry: “Lesli listen….”

The woman turned and bolted from the room back toward her house and Leann cursed, jumping off the bed. As she ran toward the door she grabbed her robe off the dresser and threw it on. She made it to Lesli’s door right as she closed it managing to get her hand on the knob to keep it from being closed.

Leann Perry: “Lesli! Listen! Let me explain!”

Lesli suddenly backed up and allowed the door to be opened by the woman on the other side. When Leann went to grab her she turned out of range turning around her so Leann was standing inside and she was near the door, so she could run if she needed to.

Lesli Moren: “Explain...WHAT Leann!?

Leann Perry: “Look….”

Leann was panting and the camera shifted from Lesli to Leann’s face as she fidgeted.

Leann Perry: “I didn’t want it to be like this. I couldn’t just let my husband die…”

Lesli Moren: “You’re husband?! Leann….what did you do?!”

Leann Perry: “...Whatever I had to to get a medical Pass. I’m sorry Lesli….”

Lesli Moren: “Sorry?!”

She asked from off screen and then suddenly gasped and the camera came back to face her again . Trevor was standing behind her wearing only a pair of jeans and was holding a food sealer bag in his hand. The bag was over the dark skinned woman’s head and closed off tight around her neck.

Leann grabbed her by the wrists, holding her arms down and pulling her into the apartment as Trevor stepped inside, slamming the door shut with a foo. Leann just stared into the bag, watching the blood coat where Lesli’s mouth was as she gasped for breath.

The shot shifts to the television in the next room and the sounds of gunfire as John Moren fought and bled for a Pass while the woman he did it for held his sister’s arms helpless at her sides and her newly revealed husband….murdered her in cold blood.

The shot moved slowly into the screen of the television on a shot of the city and the gasping noises of Lesli Moren faded to silence and...



Appeared on the screen.


The shot shifts to a scene of a street somewhere in The City, a lone car parked along the shoulder. The doors of the car opened and three men in all white stepped out. Each of them held an assault rifle in their hands as one of them looked up toward the upper floors of the building they had stopped beside.



Saint #1: “I swear I saw something.”

Saint #2: “You’re chasing shadows again, you idiot.”

Saint #1: “I know what I saw!”


The passenger said to the driver but the driver slapped his hand off the roof of the car and barked.

Saint #2: “Get your ass in the car.”

Saint #1: “But….”

Saint #2: “Come the hell on. Felix is gonna be pissed if we’re late.”

The man took one final look up toward the building then let out a grunt and ducked back under the roof of the car. Once the other two were back inside, the door slammed shut and the car continued on its path.

The shot watched them pull away then turned and scanned up the building just as a shadow passed over one of the windows. It moves quickly through the doors of the building and winds up and around the many staircases to one of the upper floors where it finds a blonde woman kneeling off to the side of one of the windows.

Joslyn Erari

She took a deep breath and slung the black bag given to all contestants upon entering the City over her shoulder. She rose up from her crouch and crossed the room to the stairs. The camera follows her down the stairs to the main lobby where she crept to the door and peaked out, making sure it was clear.

Once she was sure it was safe, she left the doorway, making her way back out into the street. She made her way carefully down the sidewalk past three small buildings which had once been fast food shops, or perhaps small boutiques. She hurried across an intersection where she came to what appeared to be an old mechanic’s shop.

The building was completely sealed up with boards on the windows and the doors but it appeared she had already taken care of that. She made her way to one of the windows and lifted the bottom of the boards once used to board up the windows and slipped inside.

The camera then shifts up the street to focus on a dark four-door sedan parked in the shadows of one of the alleys. Once it spotted the car, the shot shifts to inside where the three men in white were watching in silence. The one in the passenger seat smirked.

Saint #1: “See, told you I saw someone.”

Saint #2: “What? You want a fucking cookie or something?!”

Saint #3: “Call it in. See what Felix wants us to do. She’s one of the contestants, she’s gonna have a pass.”

Saint #2: “Sure.”





Voice of Becca Calaway: “Explosives?! What the hell do you need with explosives, John?! And where would you even have learned this stuff?!”

Voice of John Moren: “I’m going to use them to create a diversion.”

The silence left in the wake of his non answer to how he knew all of this was palatable. The shot fades in on the dark sedan sitting in the shadows, but from the other side of the car where a figure was just barely visible crouched on a rooftop a block behind them.

The camera comes in on the figure to find John crouched on the edge of a roof. It slowly came around him to take in all the minor changes made since we’d last seen him. A holster was strapped around his thigh with a beretta 9MM sitting snugly inside. Another sat on his hip and an AR-15 was slung over his back.

Voice of Becca Calaway: “A diversion? What kind of diversion?!”

Voice of John Moren: “I’m gonna set them to one side of the building and blow out one of the walls while we sneak in the other. While they are all running to check out the commotion we should be able to slip past and to the gate.”

Voice of Becca Calaway: “....John. What’s the point. I can’t leave and you know it.”

Voice of John Moren: “You let me worry about that, Kid. Now, do you know where I can find any or not?”

Voice of Becca Calaway: “Yeah...I do. But you aren’t gonna like it.”

Voice of John Moren: “Yeah, what's new Kid?”

John Moren: "Fucking move.”

He growled as he watched the car and his annoyance only grew when three of the doors opened and three men in all white exited the car. When they all crossed the street he lost sight of them and moved across the roof where he could see past the building blocking his view where he found them making a beeline for the mechanic shop.

John Moren: "Oh, you gotta be fucking kidding me?!”

The shot shifts from John crouched on the rooftop to the safe house where Becca was waiting. Becca was leaning on the wall near the far side of the room while John was cleaning the blood from his face and applying disinfectant to the scratches on his face.

John Moren: "So, what am I not gonna like about it?”

Becca Calaway: "It’s in a part of the City controlled by the Saints.”

John let out an unhappy grunt and winced as he pressed a glass, liquid-covered cotton swab to one of the deeper parts of the scratch on his face. After lowering his arm he shook his head in dismay.

John Moren: "It’s bad enough we’ve already pissed off the Misfits, now we have to cross the Saints too.”


Becca Calaway: "I told you that you weren’t gonna like it, John.”

John Moren: "I know, Kid. I know.”

Becca Calaway: "Maybe you can sneak in and out without anyone noticing?”

John let out a weary chuckle and returned to cleaning up the wounds on his face.

John Moren: "My luck ain't that good.”

The shot immediately flashes back to John crouched on the roof as he lets out a weary laugh and shakes his head.

John Moren: "Told you, Kid. My luck ain't that good.”

John made his way to the stairs leading down into the alley with the camera shifting at the last second to the ground just as a pair of military boots landed on the asphalt. It pulled back to watch as John made his way around the corner and to where the sedan was parked, pausing just as two more cars pulled up outside the mechanic shop and six more men piled out to join the first three.

John Moren: "Of course.”

John snapped and his hand dropped to the gun on his hip but before he could pull it a shot rang out and his hand snapped up. One of the Saints was taken in the shoulder spinning him around and into one of his companions. The nine of them scattered as shots began to ping off the cars, coming from inside the boarded up shop.

John’s eyes narrowed as he surveyed the situation. Someone inside was shooting at the Saints.

Voice of Becca Calaway: “There’s a mechanic shop near the edge of their territory. Dad said the guy was one of those guys who prepared for the end of the world. Had a secret basement under the shop filled with stuff.”

Someone was inside the building he needed to get into.






The shot shifts to inside the mechanic shop, dark and ominous looking before a sudden ray of light appears. The camera spun around to find one of the boards on the window pulling back and a blonde woman crawled through the opening. Once she got inside and slid the board back over the hole, she dropped the bag and leaned back on the wall, breathing out a deep sigh.

The shop's interior had long since been looted, with the only remains left being the empty shelves, the two lifts sitting in the center of the room and the bits of the equipment too large to move. In the center of the room were a small circle of cinder blocks arranged in a circle around what could only be called an indoor campfire that sat unlit.

As the blonde woman approached the small campfire and began to lean down to light it a sudden metallic slamming stood her up straight. The sound of a car door slamming shut. She turned and made a beeline for the boarded up windows near the front of the shop to peek through the small slits between the boards.

The camera’s view became that of the view between the boards finding the back end of one of the cars and a handful of men walking toward the building. All of them dressed in Saint white.

Joslyn Erari:: "You have got to be kidding me!!”

The camera shifts down to the ground beside the window where a hunting rifle was sitting. A hand snatched the rifle up and the barrel was stuck between two of the boards just before the camera shifted to the outside of the shop as one of the men in white caught a bullet in the shoulder.

The shot shifts back inside to Joslyn with her head pressed to the side of the rifle and the scope pressed to her eye, the sound of the bullets hitting the metal of the cars outside pinging in the silence.

With all her focus on the front of the shop between the slats of board, she never saw the men creeping around the side of the building until the door inside the small empty office suddenly blew inward with the force of the kick.

The sound brought her attention around as three men appeared in the office, separated from her only by a thin glass window. She tried to swing around and fire at them but the barrel jammed between the boards leaving her no choice but to jump to the side and duck behind one of the larger pieces of equipment as the men opened fire.

The door at the front of the shop, once boarded shut suddenly gave way with a loud wood cracking crash. The double doors swung open and the rest of the Saints rushed inside. Joslyn pressed her back to the metal panting, each time she peaked her head out, a bullet pinged off the metal forcing her to pull back suddenly.

Saint"Keep that bitch pinned down.”

Wounded Saint"THAT BITCH SHOT ME!”

Joslyn turned just as a piece of wood came into view taking her across the face. Blood exploded from the side of her head as she fell to the side on the ground. Her head came up and the man holding a hand to his bloody shoulder arched his leg up taking her in the face with a brutal kick, blood spraying from her mouth and across the ground.

Wounded Saint"Fucking Bitch!”

He brought another stomp down on her midsection before one of the other Saints, a female, grabbed him and pulled him away.

Female Saint"Felix wants the pass!”

She shoved the wounded man away and pointed a finger up at his face.

Female Saint"She can’t tell us where it is if she’s dead!”

Joslyn’s head slowly came up, blood leaking down from her busted lip like a trail of saliva to the floor. She looked up at the female Saint who leaned down to ask where the pass was when the blonde woman spit blood up into her face.

Joslyn Erari:: "Screw you. I’m not telling you shit!”

The woman looked down at Joslyn as if she had slammed her but before she could react, the light shining in through the now opened doors suddenly died leaving the room in darkness once again. The woman looked up at the door through the silhouettes of the Saints.

Female Saint"Who the fuck closed the door?!”

Male Saint"Someone….”

The sound of the man’s voice suddenly broke off into choked gasps and the eyes of every man and woman in the room suddenly began to scan the room.

Wounded Saint"Carlos?! Someone’s what?!”

In the confusion, Joslyn began to slide away from those no longer paying any attention to her. She pushed herself along the floor sliding beneath one of the work benches near the right wall of the shop. She pulled her legs under her and watched. The camera came under with her to watch as the gleam in steel in the darkness appeared to the shots right.

The shot suddenly shifted to one of the Saints on a close up as blood shot across his face. His eyes wide as he looked to the sight just in time to find himself staring into the eyes of a man taller than he was. A hand clamped over his mouth, the camera tilting down as he brought up his hand toward the gun on his belt but a sudden gleam of steel later and his hand was pinned to his hip by the knife. The man let out a scream into the hand, which only lasted a split second before an audible CRACK was heard as his head snapped to the side and the man dropped limp to the ground.

The shot came back to Josyln under the desk as one of the men finally got the doors open again. She bit back a gasp when she saw six bodies lying on the ground. Only the wounded Saint, the female who she had spit blood in her face and one of the men from the first car remained standing.

Female Saint"What the hell happened?!”

The wounded Saint, still with a hand over his shoulder, looked back to the blood stained spot on the floor where Joslyn had been lying, his face turning a ugly shade of red.

Wounded Saint"WHERE IS THE BITCH?!”

The wounded man and the female Saint both turned their eyes to the woman crammed under the workbench turning their backs to the rest of the room. She looked up, her eyes wide in shock but she wasn’t looking at them.

The camera shifts to under the workbench with her where she looked up between the two men to the thick air duct at the top of the room. A man with blonde hair was crouched in the darkness with a small gleam of metal sliding down the other side of the duct. The final Saint walked beneath where the man hid, his eyes on Joslyn and walked straight into the nearly invisible gleam of metal.

Without a sound the blonde man dropped to the ground, lifting the man into the air as he dropped by a thin loop of steel around the man’s neck. As he came up the gun in his hand went off, the bullets pinging off the ground causing the two in front of him to spin around, each of their own weapons caused.

John Moren: "AH! None of that!”

He placed his free hand on the man’s wrist holding the arm away so he couldn’t shoot him while the other held onto the metal. The camera moved in to show a cloth around his hand to keep the metal from biting into the flesh as he hid behind the choking man’s body.

Female Saint: ‘Let him fucking go! Do you know who the hell we are?!”

John Moren: "Do I look like I care?! Weapons on the ground.”

Blood began to creak down the choking man’s neck and the flesh of his face began to turn purple. Reluctantly the two leaned down and placed their guns on the ground. John’s emotionless face peaked out behind the man’s shoulder watching as they stood up.

Female Saint"Now let him go….”

John simply released his hold on the metal cord and the man dropped limp to the ground. Before the two could even so much as react John’s hand dropped to his thigh and pulled the beretta from the holster and fired two shots. Each shot took one of the remaining Saints clean in the face.

Joslyn watched as John crossed the room and picked up her bag. When she tensed to attack, to tell him to back off he turned and tossed the bag under the workbench to her.

John Moren: "Find another safe house. You’re blown.”

Joslyn found herself at a loss for words.

Who the hell was this guy? And why had he helped her?

She watched as he turned and went to one of the lifts, hitting a button on the controller to lift it into its upright position. Watched him drop down into the pit underneath. It was sheer curiosity that caused her to crawl out on her hands and knees to the edge of the pit and look down. John was crouched at the bottom of the pit near the center and pulled a hatch at the bottom open. Had he not known where it was he’d have never seen it. It was that well concealed.

The little grate in the floor revealed a pair of hidden stairs that John descended without a word. The sound of scuffing feet caused her to spin her head the other direction and find the Saint that had been held by the neck survived the wound. The door of one of the cars slammed shut and it roared down the street away from the shop.

Joslyn Erari:: "Shit….”

She slid out from beneath the workbench and walked to the pit beneath the lift. She dropped down and made her way down the stairs calling out as she did.

Joslyn Erari:: "One of them survived and is going to get help. You should….”

She stopped dead at the bottom of the stairs where she found an open door. The room beyond the door was filled with supplies. Rations of all types, boxes of ammunition, crates filled with water in a bag, medical supplies and everything else a person could ever need to survive any type of emergency.

Joslyn Erari:: "....leave….”

She found the blonde man crouched on the far side of the room stuffing square bits of what appeared to be clay into a duffle bag. After he zipped it closed he grabbed another off the shelf and began to scan the shelf. He found what looked like tiny electric railroad spikes and stuffed them into the bag.

Joslyn Erari:: "Did...you hear me?”

The man ignored her completely as he moved through the room taking what he wanted. A bit of the rations, a bit of the water in a bag, a dozen boxes of ammunition, and what looked like thick tank tops stacked on a shelf. After he loaded them all into the same bag as the tiny railroad spikes he zipped it shut and shouldered both bags.

John Moren: "You got fifteen minutes max until they come back en masse. There are cars outside, I am taking one. Duffle bags in the corner. Fill as many of them as you can carry with supplies and ammo and any weapons you need and use another one of the cars.”

He walked past her, pausing beside her and looked down at her.

John Moren: "I’d be long gone from here by the time they get here if I were you?”

Joslyn Erari:: "...You saved me. Why?”

When John moved to push past her and to the stairs she grabbed him by the wrist and his eyes shot down to her hand. Slowly she withdrew her hand and he looked up into her eyes.

Joslyn Erari:: "I owe you my life….my son's life…”

John Moren: "You don’t owe me a damn thing.”

John pushed past her leaving the rest of it unsaid. That he would have left her to die if she hadn’t been using this building as a safe house. Joslyn looked up at the stairs as he climbed calling out.

Joslyn Erari:: "I’ll be at the bank on 44th if you ever need anything!”

John Moren: "12 minutes!”

He called out as he disappeared out the top of the stairs. Joslyn didn’t waste time, turning and filling the duffle bags with the items she needed or wanted. Just under ten minutes later she was in the mechanic shop again with three duffle bags packed with stuff thrown over her shoulders. She stopped long enough to grab the bag she started with before heading outside.

Two of the three cars still remained outside but she paid no mind to why he hadn’t taken one. Stuffing the duffles into the backseat of the closest she slammed the door closed, got behind the driver's seat and pulled away quickly.

As she rounded the corner and disappeared from view a car engine started bringing the shot to the dark colored sedan parked in the alley. It came in close to see John through the windshield.

He had waited for her.

Once she was gone, he pulled away, heading in the opposite direction. The camera moved into the one remaining car’s dashboard which read 12:45. It changed to 12:50 before lifting to look out the windshield as four cars and an SUV came around the corner at a high speed. The vehicles parked and four people exited each car, with two getting out of the SUV before the final door opened and a polished boot and white pant leg stepped out.

The pant leg was revealed to be Felix Salar, dressed in an all-white suit. He held a glass of scotch in one hand and a cigar was sticking out of the corner of his mouth, though he wasn’t wearing the textbook white hat.

Felix looked around to make sure they were alone before stepping forward. Then and only then did the others all follow suit behind him. They walked into the mechanic’s shop filled with bodies where Felix looked around, moving from body to body until he came to the female Saint and turned her over with his white booted foot.

Saint"That’s Dominik!”

Felix Salar: "Tisk. Tisk. Tisk. Lovely woman. Should have taken up my offer to become one of my wives. You’d be back at the base living in luxury. Pity.”

Felix turned to look behind him at one of the men standing nearest the door.

Felix Salar: "Bring him.”

The man nodded and went back to the SUV where he dragged out the man with the bloody neck by the scruff of his shirt. He half pulled and half dragged the man to the shop where he dumped him at Felix’s feet.

Felix looked down at the man who looked more afraid of his huge master than at the bodies lying everywhere.

Felix Salar: "I count eight bodies, Xavier. Eight. All in different positions throughout the room.”

Xavier: "...Yes….”

Felix Salar: "And you are still going to insist you didn’t know what happened?”

Xavier: "Someone closed the door Felix, Sir. It was dark and when I opened the door again….”

He motioned around them to the bodies swallowed down the lump in his throat.

Xavier: "They were all dead and something grabbed….”

He touched his throat but found himself unable to talk under his boss’s sudden intense glare.

Felix Salar: "You expect me to believe someone did this and remained completely invisible as they did it?!”

Xavier: "That’s what happened.”

All the man could do was gasp in shock as Felix suddenly rounded on him and grabbed him by the chest of his blood coated shirt lifting him into the air as if he weighed nothing.

Felix Salar: "You think I’m a fucking idiot!?”

Xavier: "....”

Before he could get out anymore than stunned silence Felix turned and launched the wounded man across the garage. The man in white slammed back first into one of the shelves, crashing down to the floor with a wet thud. He looked up in time to see a thick fist come down into his face once and then again a second time before Felix took him by the scruff of his shirt dragging him to the pit where the lift was raised.

The camera moved inside to find the floor was once again solid showing Joslyn had closed the trap door. Felix shoved the man half inside and drove his massive foot down on the man’s chest pinning him down.

Xavier: "Felix! Sir! I’m telling the truth! Please!”

Felix was panting in rage at the man’s perceived attempt to insult his intelligence as he took the button and pressed the button to bring the lift back down. Xavier writhed and wiggled under the big man’s boot, screaming for mercy as the lift lowered back down. When the lift reached him the man began to scream in fear, followed by sudden squeals of such agony as the lift pressed down on his chest and arms.

The rest of the Saints watched without so much as a look of shock or doubt. Xavier’s screams continued for precious seconds before they were cut off by the wet sound of flesh ripping and bones snapping as the lift slammed back into place leaving only half a body lying against the lift’s edge.

The rest of him was inside the pit now.

Felix withdrew a handkerchief from his pocket and leaned down, wiping the specks of blood from his white shoes. Once he was satisfied they were clean, he tossed the now bloody cloth onto what remained of Xavier’s body.

Felix Salar: "Clean this shit up and get our people back to base for proper burial.”

Saint nearest him: “And what about Xavier, sir?”

Felix Salar: "Burn this piece of shit with him inside.”

Felix turned and walked back toward the door with a guard forming up around him as he did.

Felix Salar: "And someone find, Thomas. Right now.”

The man who had spoken nodded and began to bark orders to those that stayed behind to get their brothers and sisters ready for travel back to base while another stepped outside and began to try and call Thomas.





The camera shifts to one of the many buildings near the safehouse where Becca and John were currently hiding. It moved up the side of the building and into one of the windows where a woman was seated in a chair near the window filing her nails. The camera came up her booted feet to a pair of black and white striped stockings.

Her legs were crossed at the thigh leading to a black frilly skirt. Further up the shot revealed the black and purple corset of the woman those watching already knew. Her painted face was revealed. Sitting beside her leaning against the wall was a double headed axe that, based on the red stains, had seen frequent use.

She stayed down at her nails, moving her eyes out the window to the empty road every now and then. As if she was watching for something. As she looked down at her nails the creaking sound of someone’s weight coming down sounded and she moved the hand not holding the file down to the handle of the axe.

When the door opened the camera shifted to it in time to see Thomas come through it but he only made it a step beyond the door before the blade of the axe slammed into the wood door frame beside his face.

He jumped back in shock at the sudden impact of the axe and looked over expecting to find someone standing beside him but found only the axe embedded into the wood. Slowly his head turned to find the painted woman sitting now with her eyes on him and her arms crossed over her chest.

Thomas: "God dammit, Lady! You could have taken my head off!”

Lady: "If I wanted you headless, it’d be on the ground next to you.”

Thomas bit back his reply and looked around, his eyebrow slowly going up. Lady giggled that insane giggle of hers and glanced out the window again then back at him.

Lady: "Expecting someone?”

Thomas: "I was tracking someone.”

Lady: "Someone?”

Thomas: "Yes. Someone.”

Lady: "This person have a name?”

Thomas: "Not really your business is it?”

Lady: "Everything is my business.”

Lady glanced to the side and a little smirk touched the corners of her mouth as she saw the dark sedan pull around the corner and quickly into a parking area beneath the building. She uncrossed her legs and rose from her chair moving across the room to where the axe was left. Taking the handle in her hands she ripped backwards, showering Thomas’s shoulder and chest with debris.

Lady: "If you’ll excuse me? I have to go and speak to Blink.”

Thomas stepped to the side and once he was alone looked around with an annoyed expression on his face.

Thomas: "Where the fuck are you, Felicity?!”

After he asked the question to, really no one, he moved to the window and glanced down to see if he could find any trace of whatever Lady had seen but found only an empty street.





The camera shifts to inside the room where Becca waited for John. When he arrived and wasn’t a bloody mess the girl breathed a sigh of relief. She watched as he dropped the bags carefully to the ground near the rest of the supplies.

John Moren: "Now we wait. Twelve days until I can leave.”

Becca Calaway: "I’ve been thinking about that.”

John Moren: "Oh? What about?”

Becca Calaway: "You should let me have a gun.”

John shook his head softly and sank down onto the only couch in the room leaning his weary head on the back rest.

John Moren: "That’s not gonna happen, Kid.”

Becca Calaway: "Why not?! You expect me to go through the entire Saints’ headquarters without protection?”

John Moren: "I am your protection, Kid. You’d just end up shooting yourself….”

Suddenly he laughed and shook his head again.

John Moren: "Or worse, me.”

Becca stood with her arms crossed and worked the toes of her shoe back and forth across the worn carpet.

Becca Calaway: "Now if you teach me how to use it….”

John pursed his lips and then sighed and pushed himself off the couch.

John Moren: "Come here.”

Becca’s face lit up as she hurried to cross the room. John pulled the beretta from the holster on his hip and expelled the magazine then cleared the chamber and set both the bullet and the magazine on the arm of the couch. Becca watched this confused then looked up at him.

Becca Calaway: "But I thought….”

John Moren: "I’m not teaching you how to shoot.”

Becca Calaway: "But I thought...but you said…”

John Moren: "I will teach you how to survive someone ELSE having a gun.”

Becca muttered something about it ‘being better than nothing’ and nodded. John took the now empty gun and again checked to make sure the chamber was clear and the barrel was clear through the slide then clicked it back into place and held it on her.

John Moren: "Hold your hands up, like you would if someone actually pulled one on you.”

Becca huffed, but did as she was asked.

John Moren: "You right-handed or left-handed Kid?”

Becca Calaway: "....Right?”

John Moren: "Reach out and grab the gun with your left hand.”

When Becca reached out and grabbed the front of the gun John snorted and pulled away smacking her on the knuckles with the metal of the barrel.

John Moren: "You wanna get shot in the palm?”

Becca Calaway: "OW!”

When she grabbed the gun by the top he nodded, but used his other hand so she was grabbing the entire gun with her fingers over his own.

Becca Calaway: "You’re just gonna shoot me now…”


John Moren: "While you do this move the gun to your right while moving to your left.”

Becca did as she was told, moving the gun right while moving left.

John Moren: "Third step, take your palm like you are gonna karate chop my wrist, just behind the thumb.”

Becca did as she was told again, planting her fingers against his wrist.

John Moren: "Step four...the hand holding the barrel? Push it back toward me, while pushing the chopping hand inward at the same time.”

She did and to her surprise John had no choice but to release the gun when it bent too far backwards while her hand was controlling the movement of the inside of his wrist.

John Moren: "Now, while the fingers are weak and loose? Yank back toward you as you step back, bringing it to your chest to grip it for use.”

Becca pulled hard and the gun came free into her own hand where he grabbed it and pointed it at him. Once it was all completed she squealed happily and began to jump up and down. John snorted and took the weapon back.

John Moren: "Again.”

The two continued repeating this process with the camera moving around them and each time it revolved, the process went a little faster and the light behind the blocked window grew a little dimmer. By the time it was nearly gone and the room was lit only by the glow of LED lamps the two had moved on to full speed.

Becca’s left hand shot out as she moved to the left pushing the gun to the right. As she did her right hand came up and chopped John’s wrist. As soon as the other hand made contact she bent the gun backwards and yanked back into her chest. It was only a fraction of a second and she was holding the gun on him.

John stood panting and finally nodded a happy little nod.

John Moren: "Good. Very good.”

John reached back as he headed toward the couch to reload the gun feeling into his back pocket and froze. Becca saw the sudden tension in his shoulders and stepped forward, her voice low and concerned.

Becca Calaway: "You okay?”

John Moren: "My Pass...it’s gone.”