Cutting out a Tumour (Snow)

[LUDMILA ILYUKHIN]

It had all started with a wave of supposedly gang-related crime in Harlem. Armed robberies, beatings, murders and racketeering. Nothing the N.Y.P.D. couldn't handle without the B.P.R.D. getting involved. However, the case had attracted the Bureau's attention when several details had been brought up by the police after a couple of gunfights with the gang: some of them used something that could only be described as "magic" in battle, while others seemed to be actual psychics.

And so Ludmila had been sent. It was to be a simple investigation done alongside the police. However, her investigation took a turn for the violent when the police inspector she was with was killed in a sudden attack on the grocery store. Five young men had attacked the store as Ludmila and the investigator were questioning the owner. They had entered the store, masked and armed with automatic weapons and cold steel, and had killed the inspector and the shop owner. Ludmila had had time to take cover behind a shelf and engage them in battle.

With her Beretta M93 she'd killed three of her attackers before taking one of them in hand to hand combat. The latter had been armed with a kukri and had managed to slash her arm with it before Ludmila had broken his own arm and broken his neck. A bullet had also grazed her forehead slightly, and blood was running down the side of her face. Surprisingly, the last survivor of the fight had dashed into the back of the shop and had vanished.

With that done, Ludmila had mopped some blood from her cuts before slowly going through the shop area to see if there were any attackers left in hiding.

[SNOW MOLDOVAN]

Bang! Bang! Click! Bang! Were those gunshots? Judging from the sound it was in earshot so it wasn't far enough away for comfort. The half elf must have taken a wrong turn somewhere, he knew that the human world was dangerous, but gun fights in the streets? There could be children out there. Perhaps all city dwelling humans were barbaric and blood thirsty as the prince had stated. No. He couldn't be right. Humans couldn't have forgotten the gods. Slowly, Snow made his way out of the hotel room and proceeded down the narrow hallways, down the stairs, and out into the shopping district. He had emerged just in time to see a silhouette of a woman enter a nearby grocery store.

He wondered what time it was as he sauntered carefully out into the light cast down from the street lamp. The wind tunneling through the alleyway was the only comfort that the half elf could find. He was in a human city, unfamiliar territory, and there had been gunfire somewhere in the distance. Perhaps that woman knew something about the strange (or were they considered normal?) happenings witnessed by the moon.

He followed the womans path, entering the grocery store. He was determined to have answers, and was instantly regretting that Eleen hadn't been nearby to answer the questions that were flooding his mind. Approaching the blond from behind, he had almost mistaken her for an elf as he tapped her shoulder. She appeared stern, and somehow exceptionally attractive. Regardless of her outward appearance, Snow felt the woman could be dangerous by calculating her demeanor alone. "Excuse me.." He stated trying to pass of a polite smile, that turned into a worried half hearted attempt. "Were those gunshots outside?" Snow raised an eyebrow, curious as to what would drive such an enchantress to a market like this with the dangers that had made themselves known outside. Then it registered. She wasn't behaving like a normal human who would have remained in the safety of their homes. "Wait... What is going on?" He wondered. Convinced the woman knew more than he.

[LUDMILA ILYUKHIN]

"Wait...what is going on?"

Ludmila hadn't even bothered to raise her gun. The man who's walked into the grocery store hadn't seemed to notice the bodies lying on the floor, the machine-pistol in her hand or the blood running down one side of her face before noticing them only now.

"-Agent Ilyukhin of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defence", said Ludmila, snapping her badge out with a practised gesture. "Everything is under control."

"-She's in the store! Get her!"

Ludmila brutally turned away from the stranger to confront the two new arrivals behind the shop counter. One of the gangsters was the one who'd run into the back area, and he'd obviously brought some help with him this time. His companion had an M16.

"-GET DOWN!', shouted Ludmila before yanking Snow down to the floor. Bullets flew over them as the two gangsters opened fire, and a shelf's contents shattered under the impact of the small, metal projectiles. As the man with the M16 reloaded his rifle, Ludmila emerged from cover and put a clean three shot burst into the man's torso. The bullets slammed through his black leather jacket and came out through his back, splattering the wall with blood. The other one shot wildly at Ludmila with his pistol, but the Rusalka was faster and had a better aim. A burst hit the man in the shoulder, making him jerk backwards and slamming into a small newspaper stand behind him.

"There's something in this shop", said Ludmila to herself before turning back to the stranger. "What are you doing here? Do you want to get yourself killed?"

[SNOW MOLDOVAN]

No sooner had the Ludmila dropped her name, had she dropped him as well. Hitting the floor he grunted slightly in discomfort horrified by the bullets overhead. Snows mind told him to stay down, while his instinct was to charge the morons with firearms. He had been taught to fight as a youth, but never had they trained against human weapons.The loud banging of the gunshots in the store was only evidence that "CLEARLY NOT EVERYTHING IS UNDER CONTROL!" He pointed out, completely unhelpful. "WHAT CAN I DO?" He shouted over the fire, forcing his eyes away as the woman brutally killed the gangsters.

This law enforcement agent claimed to be from an agency he was unable to recall at the moment. Perhaps he had never heard of them, but something in his gut told him that it was something he was forgetting. She was faster than her opponents an skilled with this strange stick that spat fire, something he recognized only from picture references to be a gun.

"There's something in this shop."
"Yeah, I'd reckon there is. A few thousand dead bodies... Lots of bullets. And a ... What the hell is the BPRD?" Snow interrogated, standing up to his full height, freaking out, but too in shock to really display it. He had just seen people die, all he wanted to do was cry, he would never allow himself to break in front of a woman. "What is it and I'll help you scout it out."

"What are you doing here? Do you want to get yourself killed?"
"I heard gunshots!" He exclaimed. "I thought they were further off and I don't know... I lack the common sense to stay out of harms way so here I am. Let me help."

[LUDMILA ILYUKHIN]

Ludmila ignored the man's proposal, taking her radio instead. She contacted her superiors.

"Agent Ilyukhin here. Police officer down, and lethal force was used against several members of the Downfall Gang. Requesting back-up, over."

She listened for a few minutes before sighing in exasperation, swearing coarsely in Russian and putting her radio away.

"No fucking back-up to spare", she said, before looking at Snow again. "All right, mujik. Do you know how to use a gun?"

And with that, the Rusalka grabbed the pistol of one of the men she'd killed, a Colt M1911, and handed it unceremoniously to Snow.

"As for your question, the Bureau is an organisation dedicated to investigating and sometimes eliminating any potential supernatural threats to human civilisation. The Downfall Gang is one of those. They've been setting this area on fire lately. Murdering people, performing armed robberies, vandalism and attacks on representatives of the Law. However, they aren't human, and if it's hostile..."

Ludmila took the now empty extended magazine of her Beretta out and loaded a fresh one into the gun.

"...you kill it."

[SNOW MOLDOVAN]

Glaring as the radio sounded, Snow began to look around the store, getting a feel for whatever was left standing and staring, stunned, at the bodies piling up on the floor. What would people be seeking in this building? It didn't appear to be anything particularly special. The radio responded, alerting the agent to the lack of backup.

Annoyance resonated from Ludmila, which Snow couldn't blame her for feeling. He'd probably be more than annoyed and bordering on pissed off in her shoes. "I've read about them." He admitted. "I've never seen them, and until to day I didn't know if they were really used or if it was fairy tales." His tongue found the corner of his cheek. "This is among my first visits to your world." He stated, supernatural agency? He supposed it was a decent test.

His eyes grew wider and wider, until they were bulging out of their sockets as the agent explained to him the assignment. "You... Expect me to .. Kill..." He looked uncertain as he fought to find his resolve. "And they're not human?... They're not elf either are they?" He asked worriedly. There had been rumors that there was to be a war of man and elf, destroying the truce between the races, that could not happen now. He eyed her, and held the gun. "Hows it work?" He asked, consenting.

[LUDMILA ILYUKHIN]

"What they are is not important. What they have done and do is", replied Ludmila to Snow's worried question about the gangsters' race. She hated elves, but did not let that hatred affect her professionally. If an elf or half elf had committed a crime, then it had to be punished. The same went for every other race she knew of, without distinction.

What Snow said about never seeing a gun did not surprise her much. Not everyone got to see a gun, which was probably all for the best. However, when he spoke of them as if they were fairy tale elements, and then mentioned that it was "his first visit" to "this world", she became genuinely intrigued and somewhat suspicious.

"What the fuck do you mean by all that?", she asked, before leaning in closer to him, blue eyes drilling into his own eyes. "Are you Fae, by any chance?"

Once that was said, she suddenly retracted.

"Bah, it doesn't matter. Here, you hold the gun by its handle. You put your finger through that ring-shaped thing, the trigger guard. To shoot, you press the trigger. To aim, you have to align the sights, these three things you see on top of the gun. Also NEVER point that thing at an ally, and keep your finger next to the trigger, not on it. Trigger discipline, it'll save you from accidentally shooting a friend."

[SNOW MOLDOVAN]

Snow bit his tongue, and bit it hard, as she stated that what they were was not important. If people started to treat endangered species with that attitude they would go extinct, and as the fae believed: all life was valuable. Nevertheless, he felt the woman could be trusted. She was sided with justice, be it human or non was irrelevant. She seemed to be the business type, no beating around the bush, just diving in and getting the job done. A professional.

He staggered back a step intimidated by the womans sudden interrogation, stuttering. She had asked if he was a fae, his eyes widened in response, though the time was not enough to allow an answer. The agents mind set focused on her priorities came to Snow as a relief. He did not fancy having to explain himself to the returned exile, nor his father or sister. Being caught revealing his race to a possible human would have serious consequences. Granted, they were consequences he'd likely all ready have to face.

Forcing the thought away, he watched as Ludmila demonstrated how to hold, shoot, and aim a gun. It seemed like a lot to take in at first, though very straightforward at the same time. He was about to respond, when the back door to the shop opened and more gang members busted in. This time there had been no warning.

Shocked, Snow misfired shooting the floor, the sound scaring him into jumping. The agent had told him to open fire and kill these things... It was still sad to put life of any sort to an end. The fae court had raised him to kill as a soldier, he never thought he would need too. Shaking nervously, he aimed the barrel of the gun at the closest of the lot, pulling the trigger and missing. Twice. Three times. The fourth shot pierced the mans arm, but was not a shot to kill. Panicking slightly, the noises raising the pressure, he fired again, delivering a clean shot to the mans head. Staring in horror at the death of whatever the hell the creature was, he froze in fear.

[LUDMILA ILYUKHIN]

"Ah, chiort!", said Ludmila, swearing in Russian as more gang members burst out of the back of the shop. She raised her Beretta and fired, killing one of them with a nice, clean, three shot burst to the torso. Her impromptu assistant shot another man several times before getting him in the head. The other two gang members, who were also armed with assault rifles, raised their weapons and fired. Ludmila dragged Snow to the floor, saving both of their lives, and waited for the shooting to abate before standing up again and shooting both men in the face.

Ludmila carefully made her way to the back door and kicked a few of the dead bodies with her foot. They were all good and dead.

"Death. War. So romanticised, and yet so ugly, horrible and undignified. There's no beauty or dignity in such things, none", she said. She then glanced back at Snow.

"It looks like these gangsters are all half-elves!", she said. "I hope they aren't your pals, mujik, unless you're just a normal human being who grew up on a hippie commune. Bloody elves..."

She almost spat on one of the corpses, but refrained from doing so. If Snow really was half elf, it was best not to offend him.

"Let's go", she said, kicking the door into the shop's back room open. The back room was simple and innocuous: shelves with various supplies and boxes. Ludmila caught sight of some candy bars on one shelf, and she helped herself to one. It didn't matter anyway since the shop's owner was dead.

"Fucking love those things", she said. She then snatched three boxes of cigarettes from another shelf. "And those too."

After stuffing her loot into her coat pocket, she began to examine the back room. After some examination, she found exactly what she was looking for: a hidden entrance inside a large fridge.

"Exactly what I thought there'd be", she said. She quickly reloaded her machine-pistol before switching her pocket torch on and shining it into the small, carved out tunnel that seemed to go somewhere beneath the building.

"Not claustrophobic at least?", she asked the young man with her.

[SNOW MOLDOVAN]

The world had stopped around him, time freezing on the dime, Snow's eyes trained on the man he had murdered, and for what? What were they fighting for? Had they really committed a crime so horrible it justified taking away something that could not be returned? There was no going back now. The man fell in seemingly slow motion, the life fading from his eyes instantly, eyes that had a hint of gold... Gold? No, that couldn't be right. Elves, at least according to the prince, did not come to the human side without direct orders. He shook his head, holding his hand to his temple, clearing his mind of the thought. They aren't elves.

He had told himself, convincing himself that it was the truth. He hardly noticed that the fighting had stopped, until Ludmila crossed into his view and kicked the corpse that he had shot. He spotted movement on the womans face before his ears tuned in to hear her speak the word None. What was she referring to none? The importance of that particular question faded instantaneously as she pointed out they were half-elves. The word alone causing him to feel week at the knees and sick.

He gripped onto a nearby counter ledge, the nauteousness didn't stop there. It was against the code to kill their own kind. Would he be exiled for his trespasses should the prince find out? Did he dare keep the secret when the punishment would be worse? Forcing back tears, and vomit, he glanced at the womans 'bloody elves'. "What is so horrible about elves?" He demanded, his voice cracking in momentary despair and fear. "For your information," he started, knowing that he was all ready in over his head in trouble with the fae court, "I am just like them." He nodded in the direction of the fallen men.

Wordlessly, he willed himself to follow. It was as the prince had once stated, 'if you cannot command, you must obey,' and so he did. Under normal circumstances the agents decision to clean the store of its cigarette shelves would have amused him, there was nothing to be celebrated. Still sober and stricken, he glanced at the... fridge?

"Not claustrophobic at least?" She asked. He nodded no, and proceeded to follow. What would become of him now? Would the elves kill him for his trespasses? Did the court know about this organization? Too stunned to talk, overcome with worry. He couldn't talk to the woman, she was strictly business, as it should be Snow supposed. On the same hand, she probably didn't understand the elves since she seemed to dislike them immensely. "No. I'm fine." He lied, keeping his determination on completing whatever this mission was, trusting his first instinct. "Will there be more of them?" He wondered.

[LUDMILA ILYUKHIN]

As they entered the tunnel, Ludmila considered Snow's question from earlier. What's so horrible about elves?

"Elves", she said, switching to the Elven language, her voice resonating slightly in the tunnel. "Many humans idealise them, even though they don't know they exist. Foolish...there is a hierarchy in the mythical world, a hierarchy in the order of things. The elves are meant to be at the top, at least in their own, conceited opinion. They're the aristocracy, the finest of the fine, the high and mighty."

She came to a corner and glanced around it to see if there were any gangsters lying in wait there. The corridor beyond was empty, so she continued.

"There is a saying: 'if you cannot command, you must obey'. There was a time where I could not command. I was nothing, a pale shadow born of death and sorrow. I had no free will. And then one day, I discovered humanity, and I was liberated. It was a painful liberation, but through it I gained free will and broke free of the so-called "natural order" of things. Throughout my existence I encountered elves. So confident in their supposed superiority, yet hiding away from Mankind. They called me a traitor, an abomination. I had broken free of the little order they sat on top of, and they hated it. Elves are arrogant cowards. They lost where Mankind won through its hard work and its blood."

"And that", concluded Ludmila, "is why I do not like elves. Elves are part of a world I abandoned, a world made of chains. A world to which I will never return."

Suddenly, the gallery ended in a small flight of steps leading even further down into the city's underbelly. She shone her torch down them and saw what appeared to be a metal door of some kind.

"Life is a harsh thing", she added. "Illusions never last, and death and lies reign supreme. You just have to keep your head above the muck and swim in the direction you've chosen, and hope it's the right direction."

[SNOW MOLDOVAN]

His fists clenched, nails digging deeply into his palms, piercing the skin on one hand. His blood a slightly different color than a humans, he forced himself to hear her answer. He had asked the question, and now he would pay the consequence. The words weren't easy to take in, however. "Elves... Do not see themselves as aristocracy." Snow growled, his eyes flickering dangerously as the words prepared to escape his lips. "Humans. The humans, have forgotten that the life of the planet sustains us, and them too. They tear down the goddess' gifts of life, taking away from the purity of the world and for what?" His gaze hardened on the agent, he could understand disagreeing with Prince Nuada or the Fae Court, but he could not support the belief that all the elves believed in one thing (one thing, that most in fact did not believe) from a non-elf who believed to be able to think like one.

Stopping in his tracks he shoved a side passage that otherwise the agent might have missed in her rant, to at least call it to her attention despite their disagreement. "We do not believe we are high and mighty, there are some, like our prince perhaps, who believe that the humans will be the death of us if we do not intervene. They have created the world to be the finest of the fittest, and most of us have accepted that we will fade. How is that aristocracy? We're dying at the choices of a race that doesn't know we exist and you have the nerve to suggest that we believe we are gods?"

"There is a saying: 'If you cannot command, you must obey."

"And where do you think that saying comes from, respectfully Ludmila?" He interrogated listening to her announce that humanity was the source of her liberation. "With all do respect. We could have won that war. Easily. Our king, Balor, had mercy on the humans and formed a truce, its one of the best known legends of our world, surely you've heard it through its entirety." His nails digging deeper into his flesh in frustration. "Might I suggest that perhaps the elves have given more than they have taken, by withdrawing the goblin made army?" His father stood by Nuada, and he had been raised to do the same. "Perhaps your liberation is not at the hands of humankind, but your own conscience and decisions. Perhaps you view the world in a light that not everyone will share. You have wisdom, that is notable. But you are blind. And being blind, makes your views quite shortsighted."

Yet he wondered, what this woman had seen. The way she spoke suggested she was either arrogant and believed she knew everything, or she was older than her outer shell would leave an onlooker to believe. He was placing his bets on the later. "I suppose I will have to hope I did the right thing, Miss. Because I can no longer return to my side of the world without facing a possible execution... Do you know what Prince Nuada does to people who turn on their own kind? I don't have a death wish."

The door was before them, as they had proceeded past the door he pointed out. "What lies behind door number one?" He asked frustrated, prepared to shove it open on the spot.

[LUDMILA ILYUKHIN]

"Your anger and distress remind me of what I myself experienced several centuries ago", said Ludmila softly. "Only the things that you take for granted, like anger, love...I didn't have those when I was born. I'd never have experienced these things had not one human happened to walk past all these centuries ago."

Ludmila listened at the door. Nothing. Silence save for the soft dripping of water running down the ceiling.

"I was banished", she said after a short silence. "But I chose to be banished, out of love for a human being. I returned once, out of regret, but my sisters shunned me. So I went to see the Elves in their court, but they bade me leave. They were the first to call me a traitor, and they made it clear that I should never have strayed from the path that had been traced for me.

"So I stay with humanity. It was a man who tore me from my wretched existence, and it was a man who gave me a name and loved me like a daughter. They accepted me. As for the war between Men and Elves, I heard of it. The Elves and their Golden Army would probably have crushed humanity...but now? Your so-called 'prince' wants to bring the Golden Army back to crush Mankind? Then I know who I'll side with: humanity. All your 'prince' wants is to bring back the old order of things, and I have no place in that order except that of a slave. If Mankind dies, I die with it."

Ludmila was about to push the door open when she hesitated and spoke again:

"You don't have to come with me. You can give up that gun and walk away, or you can follow me to bring retribution to those of your kind who murder, steal and rape for their own amusement. Of course, I'll understand if you defend them. Humans are little more than cattle to certain races."

[SNOW MOLDOVAN]

Pausing at the door in morbid curiosity, the ears of the half elf registered what the other woman was saying. Not that he agreed completely with her. "Such things should never be taken for granted. I may not be the wisest. I may not be the strongest. I sometimes may not even be the most aware, but I do not take my relationships with others for granted." Glancing over his shoulder, he frowned at the womans words. "You've given up on love?" He wondered quietly. "Or, perhaps you're saying you're not ready to move on?" His anger faded into concern, if only for a moment.

Then the answer:
"I was banished"

These words captured his entire interest. "Not all elves share the same views. It would be like saying all humans desire world peace." He was composed, he hardly knew this agent, though there was truth in her words even if he did not want to her it. Elves, many of them, followed the old methods. "Choosing love... Pursuing your own goals and ambitions does not make you a traitor. It makes you an individual. If you simply followed orders and expectations of others, you are no more than a mindless device. You should be proud of your decision, but you shouldn't hold it against an entire race that one group called you a traitor."

She continued. The Golden Army? "The Golden Army?" His voice echoed his thoughts. "Our prince is many things, determined, and protective of the world that we are children of. He is devout to his cause." The army? "Even if he so desired to obtain the power of the army, he would first need... There's no way he can get them. Nobody even knows where the third piece is..." Snow muttered, referring to the crown, that was spoken of in legend. "Our prince hates humans, this is true, and I believe he would kill many if it meant saving our existence, but one man cannot wipe out the face of humanity. Humans will fight to prevent their extinction, and I believe that is a war they will win."

This time, the agent paused at the door and told him that she understood if he wouldn't proceed into the chamber with her. Feeling as if he had much in common with the other agent, he sighed deeply. "I'm half human, therefore I too will fight to help preserve them... But.. I love my people too, and Prince Nu..." Biting off his words he stood straight, turned to look at the agent, and nodded. Holding this gun at the ready he simply stated. "I'm coming with you."

OOC: Returned. Won't be gone again. Sorry about that.

[LUDMILA ILYUKHIN]

"You'll love your people and your prince later, boy", said Ludmila. "Now is the time to fight."

She kicked the door open and rushed into the room beyond, gun at the ready. Nobody was in the room save for a couple of rats who scuttled away from the Rusalka and her companion. However, beyond the room was light and voices.

"So that's where you're all hiding, you scum-suckers...", whispered Ludmila as she cautiously made her way to the opening that lead into the other room. Said room was large, an old concrete cavity that was probably part of the sewers. There were many chairs, and on these chairs sat half-elves, some dressed in rags, others with better clothes. A tall young man with blonde hair and pale skin stood atop a stage made of an old car, and he spoke to his assembly like a priest to his flock.

"-My friends!", he cried. "Soon we shall claim this city for ourselves and wipe it clean of the cattle that is humanity! As you all know, we were born of this pestilent horde, but we also share the blood of the Elven kind, a great race pure in heart and mind which once ruled the Earth until the human beasts drove them from it. By killing the scourge that is humanity, we will purify ourselves of our human blood and join our Elven brethren in a new eden..."

"-Terribly sorry to interrupt your little get together", said Ludmila, emerging from the shadows. "But I think it's time I introduced you to a very eloquent counter-argument to your racist, deluded rubbish."

She raised her Beretta and aimed it right at the congregation's leader. Some stood, reaching for their weapons, but the Rusalka did not budge. Instead, she merely smirked.

"Interesting argument isn't it?", she said.

"-Your bullets will have no effect on the Downfallen", said the leader. "Our faith and our ideas will not be killed by your human weaponry..."

"-A few of your followers upstairs would beg to differ", said Ludmila. "But cut the crap. None of your pseudo-religious, racist lies will save you now."

Ludmila pulled the trigger, but the leader was able to escape being shot down. His followers then opened fire on Ludmila and Snow, and the Rusalka threw herself aside and behind an old metal dumpster. One of the Downfallen jumped over the dumpster and attacker Ludmila with a large knife, but the Rusalka grabbed hold of his arm and broke it with a vicious twisting motion. She then crushed his windpipe with her foot.

Taking advantage of a lull in the gunfire, the Rusalka reloaded and emerged from cover, shooting four of the enemy with clean shots to the chest, belly and head. She then ran out from her hiding place, spraying the crowd with bullets. A bullet grazed her leg, and she tripped. One of the half-elves ran at her, ready to smash her skull in with an old lead pipe, but she rammed the sole of her boot into his kneecap before grabbing him by the collar and using him as a living shield. The half-elf's "brethren" did not seem to baulk at putting bullets into his body.

Ludmila used the half-elf's body to get closer to the enemy before tossing the corpse at the closest of them and then grabbing a chair and smashing it on another half-elf. She then used one of the broken legs of the chair as a weapon, bludgeoning one man in the face before impaling another one through the neck. Ludmila had been trained in close combat by the Red Army back in the 1930s and 1940s, and had also received training from the Spetsnaz. None of the men present had ever been in a proper fight before, as they just attacked unarmed victims and used the element of surprise to do drive by shootings on the police, so their resistance crumbled before the fury of the Rusalka's assault.

As Ludmila smashed the arm of a half-elf with a piece of lead piping she caught sight of their leader trying to slink out through a door at the back of the room. She slammed one of her enemies aside with a violent kick to the stomach and ran off after him. As he was about to leave through the door, she tackled him and brought him down to the ground.

"You're not going anywhere", she snarled.

"-No! Please, don't hurt me!", begged the cult leader, terror apparent in his eyes.

"-I'm not going to hurt you, I'm just going to kill you", said Ludmila as her hands found their grip on the man's chin and the top of his head. She didn't even give him a chance to speak again as her hands broke his neck with a sickeningly expert move and ended his life.

Slowly Ludmila got back to her feet, wincing as she felt various sores and pains shoot through her body. She'd received a few blows during the fight.

"Oooh, I'm going to be sore tomorrow morning...", she said. Her leg hurt the most, as it had been grazed by a bullet and was bleeding enough for it to stain her lower trouser leg. She looked around to see what Snow was up to, and also to see if any enemies remained in the room.