<div style="text-align: center;">What's the quickest way to clear out a train station?  <br/>Make a car full of people disappear of course<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Heh. What a joke<br/></span><br/>-----------</div><br/><br/><br/>Panic.<br/><br/>What a wonderfully<span style="font-style: italic">incredible </span>concept. Dangerous Powerful. Destructive.<br/>All it would take: was for one person... one poor,<span style="font-style: italic">foolish</span>entity to creep silently to another mind and gently whisper sweet paranoia in to their insecurities. To twist their logic in to a false sense of reasoning and whittle away at a rusty rationality. To churn the harmless pet shadows in to gnarled spindle armed monsters. All it would take; was for one desperate individual to let slip the mask that covered the sweat beaded skin and trembling bones; to some how make that raw undiluted<span style="font-style: italic">fear </span>grow and spread and multiply, sweeping through an endless ocean of people like a pandemic in Tokyo.  What power did this one idea have that it could turn thoughts in to frightening and drive innocence to regret? What<span style="font-style: italic">monstrosity </span>was this to scare a conscious away? Whatever it was, it was this panic that caused the station to rapidly empty.<br/>Oh yes. Within mere minutes of the reporter calmly announcing the news, everyone who had bought their ticket or who were unknowingly fortunate enough to be still waiting in line, picked up what mattered most to their self important lives and made for the nearest exit. All of them. The white collared stiffs and college drop out mothers. The rebellious teenagers, dangerously weaving their skate boards around the rickety homeless and tired assistants. Every one of the people she had been wanting to avoid when coming down here just... up and left, leaving only their unsaid concerns and dusty footprints behind.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Perfect.</span><br/><br/><br/>Now that the buzzing mass of terrified strangers had cleared the breathable air, it was becoming clear that Amersham station was not so different from any other neglected station in London.  With it's ostentatious graffiti and torn paper posters layering the dull grey walls like kindergarten wall paper and the old snowy cigarette ash permanently ground in to the littered pavement floor. There was nothing to suggest why people would be disappearing from here of all places.  And it seemed that she was not the only one who thought so.<br/>With one fleeting glance about the area, the young woman couldn't help but notice the some-what specific type of company that had stayed. There was the disbelievers. The average suits and jeans who valued getting home more than some ghost story. The curious conspirators with their flashing phones and conspicuously hidden, pocket sized cameras. And then.... there was the others. The small handful of strangers that didn't seem to fit in to the crowd around them. People who stood out, stood apart and didn't seem to have anything in common with the cliques that usually were found in these type of occurrences.<br/><br/><br/>Naturally, the first to catch her attention and direct her cornflower eyes to this mysterious element in the crowd; was the one who stood out the most. The gentleman standing just inside her view, dressed in what appeared to be apparel of the finest quality. There was just something about the way he held himself, the way he looked around at the people around him. The way all that weighty gold jewelery didn't seem to phase him in the slightest. The thing that stood out to her the most however; was why he would be catching a train in the first place. Someone like that could probably afford their own first class private jet, so why crawl down in to this soiled hole for a cheap train?  Maybe it was for the same reason as that other male.<br/><br/>That's right. The second to catch her<span style="font-style: italic">scalpel sharp focus</span>was dressed more appropriately for this setting but his actions were puzzling. If the brunette woman didn't know any better, it appeared that he was looking for something. But what for? His ticket? His pen? No. This individual in particular had a sense of purpose about him. Intelligence. Intellect. He was looking for something the common eyes would not think to search for. The sniper made sure to note that if she did happen to get involved, he would be the first person to question.... but<span style="font-style: italic">she</span>, on the other hand would be the last.<br/><br/>Sitting on the benches off to her right was a younger female who looked to be no older than eighteen. The older woman had watched her before, as she walked in and plonked herself down rather animatedly on the hard treated wooden benches, mumbling something that she didn't care to listen to. It was clear that this girl wasn't at all happy to hear the news... or to even be in the station at all for that matter. But once again, the twenty five year old couldn't help but wonder, why didn't the girl just leave? If sitting here in this miserable grey station why not be swept away in the tide of panic and get out of this place? It didn't make any sense. Nothing did here. Even the most normal looking of these strange entities didn't seem to quite...add up.<br/><br/>The final two to catch her attention could quite comfortably pass as perfectly ordinary. If this were any other time or any other place. If this was an entirely different situation then she wouldn't so much as offer them a second sweeping glance. But here, now, she seemed too accepting of this situation. Just standing there quite calmly, statuesque almost, despite the chaos that threatened to spread like a<span style="font-style: italic">raging infection</span>to those still holding tight to their sanity. And him...<br/>Outwardly he appeared just as calm. Just sitting there, taking in the situation. However, even at this distance she could tell he was sitting there with a tension that could mirror her own.<br/>All these people... these unusual inquisitive enigma's they all appeared to have nothing in common with another,....except for one thing. One tiny... niggling factor. In way or another, whether they knew it or not. They were all here looking for trouble. And in the process they had found....<br/><br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">"You there, human woman... acknowledge my existence.~"</span><br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Excuse me?.... </span><br/><br/><br/>She wasn't sure how she missed it at first. The brushing weight against her shins. The gently sharp tugging at the material of her jeans. The polite 'mewing' that begged for attention. Somehow the female had been so lost in her observations of the more auspicious looking humans, that it wasn't until the words started to form following every high pitched meow did she even look down... to see the cat impatiently circling her planted feet and trying to get her attention. Just when she thought things couldn't become any more strange. Some one had brought a feline with them to this catastrophe.<span style="font-style: italic">Wonderful</span><br/>With a heavy sigh and some light discomfort, the ex-soldier crouched down and reached a hand to scratch behind the kitty's ear, a hint of a smile pulling at her passive expression.<br/><br/><span style="color: #00BFFF">"Hey. Didn't your carer ever teach you manners? What are you doing here? It's not safe for cat's to be around down here. Is he your owner?" </span><br/><br/>Leonora Maietta had enough general knowledge to know that the Egyptians held their feline companions in high regard. So it wasn't a far stretch to single out the man who had the unusual vibe of a modern day Pharaoh to be the owner of such a creature and have the tenacity to bring it down here with them. No one else was that stupid.<br/>Barely ten minutes ago this place was within it's normal capacity. People walking in and out, running for their train, bumping in to each other when their focus was one track minded on the ticket in their hands. If that wasn't bad enough, as soon as the report came on, those aimless wanderers suddenly had the same mind... and the same direction. Any child could tell you that even strongest cat was in danger during a stampede.<br/>Still, it wasn't her place to reprimand anyone, not even if she felt strongly about it. Instead, she allowed her absently stroking fingers to meander to beneath the cat's chin for a moment before pulling away and returning her predatory sharp gaze to the entrance, looking out for any more who would stumble unknowingly in to this predicament.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">"Terrible news regarding those disappearances isn't it?.....I think its high time some pragmatic individuals decided to band together and do something about these kind of events don't you?"</span><br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Of course<br/></span><br/><br/>That second stranger.... it was like his words had cast a spell across the station. A mysteriously complex enchantment that provoked the group in to revealing a little of what they truly were like inside. Why they were here.<br/>The Egyptian man, who until now had stood out against everyone, now approached the youngest female. Who instead of opening up to another like this one had, withdrew further, curling deeper in to her shell.  Then there was that female, who also seemed quite content to sit back and wait this atrocity out, but then surprised even Leo when she openly came forth to offer her hand in assisting in this chaos.<br/>As for that final male... well he seemed to be having the same thoughts that she was right now. That everything that was going on, the disappearance, the people who had stayed, the idea that a bunch of unlikely suspicions could do anything about it, was preposterous. It was madness. Why was she even still here when she could easily be finding a hotel door number at the end of a long hall. Why didn't she walk out with all these other people when she had the chance instead of being singled out by a cat no less?<br/><br/><br/>The answer was always the same. She never learned.<br/><br/><br/>Discreetly switching off the ipod in her pocket, Leonora listened through mute head phones to what was being said, making sure to keep her gaze distant and her attention even further. She would wait and then... only if they needed her. Only if there was no other choice, then the female might step up. After all these people might be down here looking for trouble. But trouble was always looking for her.