It  had been a while since Raice had made himself known, he was fatiguing oddly today... dipping his head where he sits, out of the way, the light from the windows dimming about in the main area, the shadows about him unchanged...<br/><br/>***<br/><br/>The air is crisp... doubly so in his rather thin, dark outfit.  Two stories above the dragoness, perched were four strong men... three and a boy, really.  Their eyes glued to the alley below.<br/><br/>"Contact... lots and lots of contact..." The oldest among them stammered into a radio, trying to keep his voice down.  The four had watched the Zincheski twins, both prided for their strength and scorned for their straightforward, confrontational, "honorable" approach to assassinhood, crushed in their attempt.<br/><br/>"Think you can take 'er, junior?"  One pounded the handsome youth's shoulder.<br/><br/>"I don't find any fault with her." He sights her below.<br/><br/>"You've got to let go of that attitude..." He rasps.<br/><br/>"I heard that."  The remaining figure's voice said from below.  The four, out of sight, they thought, felt themselves wracked with pain... one toppled straight down, another on top of him; a third in a dumpster, while the blonde kid dropped his rifle before where he struck the ground after tumbling over the fire escape.<br/><br/>Blackness... momentarily.  Failure to inhale.  He looks up, only to fail to scream as well, when he sees her slurping down the last of his three other comrades.  On his feet as she approaches, taking up his gun, taking steps away.<br/><br/>"If you fire, it will only be worse for you." Blue electricity sizzles from her mouth.  He pauses, pulling back his mask slowly, eyes begging.  He was indeed, no older than thirteen or so.<br/><br/>"Who sent you?" She advances, gentle yet firm.<br/><br/>He shakes his head, unable to speak, clearly an "I don't know" as opposed to refusal.  The weapon clatters to the pavement, and his eyes do all the begging he seems incapable of.<br/><br/>"You have one chance to turn away from this life." Her wings would spread, and she would tower over him now, as he trembled in that foggy alley.  His head would lower, but his gaze never left hers.  She nodded, and sighed, snapping his head and torso in her maw, before tossing him into the air.  "I shall call you Raice... my Sword Orchid." She says as the terrified youth reaches the apex gravity would allow, and falls into her waiting mouth.<br/><br/>***<br/><br/>"H-hah!" He snaps from where he sits, sweating... smiling a little.  Oddly refreshed, and looking far off to Iln, feeling nothing less than firm endearment.  "Mother..." He murmurs, getting to his feet...