Bloody Rose

Chapter 1 Noticed

'I have one chance. Today will be the day.'

Clutching a small, cold necklace, a hooded girl stuffed that very necklace behind her top and tugged on her hood, securing its placement on top of her head. Then, she reached behind her and gripped onto a folded up metal object that she held in front of her. With a click of a button, the object had become a crudely designed sniper with its barrel pointed down toward a small shop glowing in the midst of a street of closed buildings.

Down in that shop, a ginger man sauntered around after his lackeys had entered, eventually bringing himself over to the counter. Flicking the cigar toward the elderly owner behind the counter, the ginger asked, "Do you know how hard it is to find a Dust shop open this late?"

Soon after his words, one of the goons aimed his gun at the elder behind the counter. Shuddering right in front of the men, the elderly man shouted, "Please! Just take my Lien and leave!" with his hands held up to signal his surrender.

Shushing the desperate owner, the ginger spoke, "Calm down. We're not here for your money." Turning to his henchmen, he ordered, "Get the Dust," in a bored fashion.

Nonetheless, the four goons followed their orders and filled the store's small containers with elemental Dust from the dispensers or grabbed the refined crystals from the showcase. Before long, an alarming blast rang out and one of the store's windows broke right after it. While the ginger man turned around to find the source of the blast, one of the henchmen slumped down onto his knees, then his entire body dropped to the ground with a thump.

"Grab your Dust and find whoever that was!" The ringleader commanded, proceeded by the remaining three goons jumping out of the broken window. "There's a door, you idiots!" The man scolded, only for the shout to fall on deaf ears.

'One dart down, nine left.'

With the men charging out of the store, a series of clicks and thuds were heard for a split second, only for another man to go down when the sounds had ceased. Bringing up their firearms, the two remaining men aimed at every shadow along the street.

Another series of clicks and thuds were made, causing the two hired men to bring their sights up higher, where they could see a single person appearing on a rooftop. A tattered crimson cloak fluttered in the midst of the night, snapping in the wind while its wearer kept her eyes on the sights of her weapon.

Then, another one dropped unceremoniously to the ground as the last one left began firing at the attacker. Dropping down, the young woman barely avoided the bullets, resulting in another tear in her already tattered cloak. 'Come on! This is my favorite one!' She complained while pressing a button to fold up her weapon. 'I still have seven darts. I can do this.'

Keeping up the suppressing fire, the goon soon heard his gun began clicking with duds instead of a barrage of bullets. Using that as a cue, the cloaked attacker jumped off the rooftop and burst into a human-sized crimson bullet that was aimed right for the goon. But when it got close, the bullet burst into a cloud of petals, revealing a cloaked girl with her boot slamming into the goon's face, knocking him to the ground.

'That's one way of defeating someone.' She commented to herself with her gaze on the limp body underneath her feet. Kicking it away, she held her folded-up weapon and walked over to the shop, only to see the ringleader had already left. 'He got away! I knew I should've gone for him first!' She berated herself while searching for the mastermind behind the robbery.

With no luck finding the culprit, a vehicle's engines roared to life, bringing the young lady's attention toward another street. Rising from that street, a compact aircraft rose and hanging out of its bay was the ginger man who waved his bowler hat at the girl.