<span style="text-decoration: underline"><span style="font-style: italic">Sensations</span></span><br/><br/>Cheap deodorant, alcoholic breath. The last few tendrils of rusty iron and week old cigarette smoke lingered odiously in the stale tasting air. Burning perilous through sweat and stains; Filling the tainted lungs of ignorant and almost innocent. Mingling. Mixing and coiling about the sounds of star blinded lovers and sewer mouthed kids. Rebellious adolescents poking amusement at the bickering and bothered businessmen peppered about the carriage. Those poor properly dressed people, politely pushing in to each other, shoving, nudging, squeezing awkwardly in to get the seats closest to the only available exits.<br/>As Leonora Maietta stared listlessly at the racing darkness just beyond the flimsy glass window, feeling the shuddering sways and sudden tilts that would rock her from a brighter day dream, the young woman couldn't help but wonder. How did she ever think that stumbling in to a rickety tinder box filled with self important strangers and soulless day workers; was a better idea than spending twice as much and catch a cab? What fragile excuse had she thought up to stop herself from following the stampeding footsteps of the massing crowd up those steps and back on to the impatient streets above. The female couldn't help but wonder: at what point did it become a better decision to sit here and inhale the scents and sounds of a toxic subway train line instead of braving the bitterly cold outside world for a few more mind numbing hours? Well....? The answer was simple. Painfully simple. Why did she get on this god damn train?  The very same reason she had accepted the job and gone out in the first place.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Stupid. It's because you never.....</span><br/><br/>A sudden groaning lurch silenced the thought as the train made heaved it's way around another corner and deeper in to the darkness.<br/>It was strange really: The ride home was never what she had hoped it would be. Constantly shifting position on the stained thread bare seats, staring through the dark frosted window. Trying to tune out the habits of the crowd around her. She always looked forward to the off key tone and generic recording that would inform the passengers that she was only a three block walk to her apartment building. But this time.... this time there was something... off about this train ride. Something that had her sitting on edge, hand subconsciously tightening around the shoulder strap of her bag. Her instincts were telling her to be ready. And for once, Leonora was listening.<br/><br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic"><span style="text-decoration: underline">Reaction</span></span><br/><br/>At first.... all she heard was sound. Just a low muffled growl coming from the simple college back pack. A higher pitched hiss and a distressed meow. Soft little warning noises creeping it's way in to her highly attentive ears. It would only take a few fleeting moments for the uncertain pattern to continue and push the over imaginative mind to start changing those nonsensical syllables in to pronounced letters. But the word it formed crystal clear in her head was not what caused her stomach to churn in to twisted knots. It was what Leo saw when she finally... finally looked up from the anxious feline by her feet. The abomination just starting to creep through the dim lights, barely three metres from where she sat.<br/>This creature. The<span style="font-style: italic">monstrosity</span>.  It was a hideous creation. With it's shadowed ghostly arms wrapping it's needle boned fingers around her fragile limbs. Clawing. Pulling. Dragging the extremities through her flesh to draw mercury like beads along drawn lines. Twelve months she had served at war, twice as long she had lived on the streets. Nothing.<span style="font-style: italic">Nothing</span>terrified and<span style="font-style: italic">angered</span>the female more than the grotesque entity which she was looking at now. Whatever it was that had stepped on to her train. It had made a big mistake. The creature was a magnet and Leonora Maietta was an exposed wire, flickering with enough sparks to light up this tunnel like the fifth of November.<br/><br/>And the feelings never stopped.<br/><br/>"...Soldier...."<br/><br/>The honey golden eyes, flaring with fury followed the man's wiser gaze to her hand... or rather the item she now carried.<br/>Focus narrowed to a bloody beating pin prick. Erratic breathing, as frozen as the moment they were in. The ex-snipers muscles had coiled so tight... she had become so<span style="font-style: italic">frighteningly</span>tense the female had barely felt her fingers reach past the escaping furry critter and wrap about the hilt of the Beretta within. Gripping it so hard and so strongly that her knuckles were not all that had turned pale. By the time that second stranger had uttered that once upon a name, breaking her from that reverie, Leo was aiming the gun steady, no safety on, ready with her finger on the trigger. Prepared to shoot the thing where it's chest may have been. No matter who was in her way at the time. Oh yes. Despite the agonizing throbbing in her chest, how every cell in her body trembled at the<span style="font-style: italic">bloody stench</span>of it; despite the bile that rose up in her throat to meet with the oxygen caught there, this woman was determined not to let this monster escape again. Not after all it had done to her. To her family.<span style="font-style: italic">To her life.</span>Even if it meant she had to go through every single stranger that was stupid enough to get on to this damned train. She would...<br/><br/>Wait.  Stop.<br/><br/><br/><span style="text-decoration: underline"><span style="font-style: italic">Realization</span></span><br/><br/>It wasn't his caution against shooting the creature that had caused the pause in her instinct fueled reaction. Nor was it the bone shuddering scream of metal being torn from it's strong hold as the egyptian styled gentleman came in to the area. The shadows that seem to be moving under the command of the passive female nearby. The priest jumping to his feet and the other male keeping safely on his guard. No, it was something more subtle. Gentle. Quiet. It was the very same persuasively sweet voice that urged her before to stay out of the mess. But this time... this time it was whispering a different idea. Telling her to look again. To look harder. Look. Think. See it for what it was. And what it was.... was wrong.<span style="font-style: italic">Very. Wrong.<br/></span>That's right. It was too light for that<span style="font-style: italic">thing</span>, too heavily populated. Her monster was a<span style="font-style: italic">perfect</span>hunter. A flawless predator with the instincts of an animal and the blood lust of a well seasoned psychopath. It's arms alone could  tear apart the strongest bond of all. It wouldn't risk coming to a tightly built room so cramped and crowded. It wouldn't show it self to so many threats in the one glimpsing moment. This beast was not hers.<br/>And that meant the game had changed and so had her part in it. Now it was her turn to play. Time was already wasting away.<br/><br/>Carefully. Quickly. Without drawing too much attention, Leo got up from her seat and started making her way across the train. Keeping her distance from both the creature and the other passengers. Then... just as the monster was about to throw the girl against the wall, Leo slipped in behind her, skidding in place<span style="font-style: italic">just</span>in time to catch her from behind. Taking the brunt of the impact and possibly preventing a dislocated shoulder and bruised bones. But she wasn't done. No sooner had the impact come and gone, Leo's free hand wrapped around the girl's arm and pulled her behind, around and towards the only other person who wasn't making any attempt at this situation. The lone male sitting towards the back who appeared to be trying to maintain some form of composure despite the chaos that unfurled around them. For the time being, he was succeeding... but for how long? That was a problem for later.<br/>Provided the teen didn't put up much resistance, Leo firmly guided her to sit beside the male and put herself in between the monster and the two more normal civilians. Looking over them with narrow eyed scrutiny.<br/>It had not occurred to the ex soldier before, but looking at them now; their hesitation, lack of a suitable weapon, the smell of fear on their skin. There was a reason why the monster went after this girl in particular. A reason so blindingly obvious that Leonora had missed it. The aggressor; it was no crazed pack of hyena, ganging up on the biggest game it would dare. It was going for the weakest first. The most naive and defenseless of all of them.<br/>If something happened to the young teenager, then<span style="font-style: italic">he</span>would be next. And after that... well... she wasn't going to find out.<br/><br/><br/><span style="text-decoration: underline">Retaliation</span><br/><br/><span style="color: #0080FF">"Listen to me carefully. That creature focused on you, because it sees you as the weakest" </span>Leo had started to say to the female who was now being miraculously healed by the unusual priest.<span style="color: #0080FF"> "Other than that little pen knife of yours, do you have anything else to defend yourself with?  And how about you? Do you have anything? Anything at all?" </span><br/>While waiting for an answer, she glanced back to the others, seeing how they were faring against the unwanted intruder. At this point; they looked like they were doing alright. The egyptian had made a weapon she had never seen before, the outspoken male had brought forth something entirely different. And from what she could see the unusually calm female had caught the creature in what appeared to be her own shadow. They would be fine... for now.<br/><span style="color: #0080FF">"Whatever. If either of you know how to handle a gun, then you can borrow this"</span>Leo continued, holding out the handgun to who ever was willing to take it.<span style="color: #0080FF">"But let me warn you now. If you use it, you better make sure you hit the right thing. If you don't... then make sure you stay out of my way. I don't help those that don't help themselves. Oh, and if you even think about doing something stupid and reckless because of some pathetic hero complex. Then I will mark you as a liability and you will be on your own. Am I clear?" </span><br/><br/><br/>With those words left hanging a heavy echo in the air, Leo stepped back away from them and reached in to her bag once more.<br/>But this time what she pulled out, was something completely unexpected. At first, it looked like another small case. An average styled bag which could maybe carry a smaller sized instrument within it's foam layered interior. But the instrument in this case however, wasn't used to make memorable tunes.<br/>Within a second of clipping open the latches, Leo had taken out the pieces of the sniper rifle and latched them together, before slinging the entire contraption over her shoulder and across her knee. Ready. Waiting. Precisely aimed with no needed scope.  With the selection of bullets clipped to her belt, cigarette resting alight between her lips, Leonora Maietta watched the scene play out with careful attention. If the rich man's weapon didn't kill it. If the other entity didn't tear the thing to shreds. If the girl's shadow had not scared it off, then Leo would have her turn.<br/><br/>And this Lioness always got her prey.