Clara wiped her bloody knuckles on an old cloth simply strewn about the old, half torn down apartment building. There was a broken table clothed in a thick layer of dust in the corner, atop it’s dirty top lay an open duffel bag. She knew the contents by heart, she’d shoved them all in in the early morning hours when she found a rookie GADEM agent sipping away at a local pub before he’d embark on the day’s duties. Needless to say, a sweet worded flirt here and there led him right into her trap and she was almost certain regret was the one thing he experiences in excess. Fatigue had a soft hold on her but her focus was solely on the young man strapped to an old chair with his limbs tied together with enough force to leave his hands and feet pale and somewhat swollen. It didn’t matter, he didn’t know it yet but Clara wasn’t planning on letting him live.



He struggled against his bonds, his words muffled by a dirty rag stuffed in between his lips. Clara had nearly everything she wanted from him, except a time. It came at a cost though, her knuckles were bruised and bloodied but even more so, his face. The man had a lip split and blood still pouring down his chin. His nose was swollen and bloody and she knew it was broken if only based on the awful crack of the bones when her fist collided with the cartilage. Clara stood with her back against the wall, a bored glare at the man and she noticed the stiff motions of his bound leg where the hilt of a pocket knife was barely visible over the dark fabric of his pants.



“I’m only asking one more time and if you’re smart, you’ll answer”, she saw his vivid glare towards her. He hated her and she hated him. The feeling was mutual. His allegiance to a company who hated mutants for being born a certain way was enough to buy him a space on her ever growing hit list. She walked forward with purpose, ripped the rag from his mouth and grasped the hilt of the buried knife before twisting. His scream was lost to a neighbourhood that lost to construction at the property close by and she felt herself grin confidently as she grasped his chin with her free hand.



He spit a mouthful of saliva and blood at her shoulder, it coated the thin jacket she donned before he spoke, almost humorously. “You’re too late bitch. Pick up’s at eight”, she turned her wrist to look at her watch for a second before cursing loudly and tearing the knife from his leg before shoving it’s blade between his ribs where it tore open his heart. A final shove of the rag in his mouth drowned out a final scream before she hurriedly gathered her duffel, set his corpse ablaze and rushed out of the ramshackle building with one purpose in mind.



Clare shoved the duffel into her uncle’s old pickup and felt her foot almost ache at the pressure of stepping down. She had somewhere to be and time was ticking. Her mind was racing and she already felt the adrenaline subtly trickle into her blood stream as her heart pounded in her chest and her mind raced with echoes of the address the agent gave up. Before she knew it, Clara was parked across from a set of apartment buildings she hadn’t seen before but the dark tinted vehicles outside were a dead giveaway. She was thankful that it was night even if her small sprint didn’t go unnoticed by an awkward couple passing by on the side walk.



“Shit”, she muttered watching the elevator doors close with several men inside, she immediately sprinted up the stairs with murderous intent. She felt the cold caress of a 9mm shoved in a holster hidden by the confines of her jacket. Clara barely made it into the hallway when she saw them barge into an apartment still somewhat far from her. Nevertheless, she didn’t relent. Standing in front of the open door she found herself smirking at the first agent who turned her way.



“Am I interrupting?” she supposed he wouldn’t have seen her as a thread of she didn’t immediately slam her fist into his nose. She noticed his companions busy with a stranger, a mutant she didn’t know. Clara dodged an incoming assault by swiftly ducking underneath his outstretched arm and knocked her elbow into the side of his temple. Clara sprinted into one of his companions and felt the harsh impact of her slim frame knocking them both into a wall. He easily towered over her in height and bested her in strength but she was agile and smart. She shoved a knife into his shoulder and rendered his arm useless for the time being before she got to her feet and shoved her boot into his temple with as much force as she could muster. He dropped instantaneously and his weapon slid from view before she felt the dazed agent whose nose still profusely bled grasp her throat and slammed her back against the closest wall. Somewhere in the scuffle, the door had shut and she hoped fiercely that no one would notice the disaster until she had time to clean up the mess.



Her knee lifted to her chest before she kicked down into his crotch before watching him double over. Clara’s throat felt painfully horse as she shoved the gun against his temple and watched him fall limp into unconsciousness. She tenderly wiped a spot of blood from her lip where she bit down at the hard knock against the wall and glanced awkwardly at the mutant.



“Well, this is a little more awkward than I’d like”, she slipped the gun back into his holster and showed her open hands as a gesture that she wasn’t his enemy. “I’d say sorry for the mess but it was bound to happen with GADEM gunning for your ass”, she tapped her foot into the shoulder by the agent at her feet to make sure he was out cold before she stepped closer. “Doesn’t matter now though, I’ll take care of these guys”, she wasn’t entirely excited at the prospect of somehow getting their bodies out of the building but for the time being she was happy to catch her breath.