Guard Dogs

Kitu smirked a little to herself, satisfaction rushing through her veins at the otherwise sickening crack of a skull on brick, her current target released a shocked cry of pain. She dragged her tongue over her lips, the salty tang of the drink she'd finished reminding her more potently of why she was acting. The man already had a split lip from where she'd punched him in the face and a crooked nose - a gift from the failed retaliation he attempted to launch against her. He blinks blearily up at her, eyes clearly unfocused and swaying in his attempts at standing.

Kitu reached out with a foot and prodded him.

He collapsed back to the ground with a pained moan.

"I guess doing anything more would be overkill," she sighs, turning to grab the door and re-enter the bar.

"Not going to kill this one?"

Kitu snorted to herself, slipping back inside as she slunk along the edges.

"I didn't kill the last guy," she told him, a grin playing on her lips. "But no, this one didn't have his dick in his hands so, I guess I can leave his collarbone intact."

"She's gotta know by this point, right?" Player inquired.

"Sometimes I think she does. But then she goes and does things like this, and I am violently reminded that even though the Faculty were awful to me, they kept her really sheltered."

"Which seems really irresponsible now that we're being forced to confront it. How was she supposed to do jobs if she can't recognize someone trying to do... that."

"Well, Red was always the best pick-pocket - I guess they never assumed she'd need to pull the drink ploy," Kitu lamented, but honestly Player was right. Maybe if VILE had thought to treat Carmen like an independently thinking adult woman who could attract the wrong kind of attention and had thus, taught her about date rape, Kitu wouldn't be adding a new case of assault to her rap-sheet in every country. "Besides, we haven't told her either."

"Why is that again?"

"Because I don't wanna destroy her outlook on the world any more than we already have," Kitu admits. "Do you remember how upset she was to find out that the outside doesn't always react well to queer people?"

She could practically see his cringe in the silence that followed. It had been a rough three days of Carmen alternating between bombarding her and Player with questions before surfing the internet and invading any local libraries they crossed. Kitu was relieved that they hadn't met Zack and Ivy at that point - that first year of freedom had been helping Carmen simply adjust to not being under VILE's thumb, and there had been a lot of... unfortunate facts of the real world that had saddened her.

"Don't look now, but Red's got another admirer."

"Son of a-"

Kitu cut herself off, quickly weaving through the crowd as subtly as she could. Since this wasn't officially a caper, Carmen had left the cloak and had back in their hotel room, opting for a subtler theme of a simple black shirt and dark-jeans. Kitu felt the corners of her lips curl up reflexively, as they always did when she laid eyes on Carmen. She'd be the first to admit - she understood why the other was attracting so much attention, there was nothing about Carmen that wasn't breathtakingly beautiful.

It was when bastards like the one in the deceptively slick-fitting suit, leaning into whatever story Carmen was telling him like it was the most enrapturing story he'd ever heard, that she started having problems.

"Did he-?"

"Before she even went over - no sleight of hand for her to catch."

"Fucking-"