Bonding at Knifepoint (Kris)

Ellie moved as quietly as she could manage through Crash Alley's various...well...alleyways. She was out of her environment and that sucks sooooooo much when it happens. If the gang members saw her, it'd be bad news. They hate Naturalist, her turf was riddled with traps that stopped them from looting abandoned buildings in the area, and she needed supplies for more traps when idiots would spring them. It was the natural order of things.

As she prepared to turn the corner, she stopped to listen. That was fire. Someone was using the fire barrel most likely, and that meant someone she didn't want to deal with. She started to turn around and ran face first into a really...REALLY big dude. Like, 7' tall, freakish dude. She knew what was coming now.

She was shoved back into the wall pretty forcefully, knocking her off her feet and straight to the ground. She was small, easy to manipulate. This did not favor her. The guy smiled and kicked her in the ribs, causing Ellie to screech in pain and attracting the attention of a few others came by, lifting her back up against the wall by her shirt collar. "Well damn, you're a young thing. What's your name sweetheart?"

Ellie opened one eye to look at her attacker. "You're...pretty #%!$ing ugly." She said, laughing quietly, and that earned her a hard punch to the gut. Sometimes it hurt to be this witty. Like, it caused physical pain. He tried to drag her by the hair, raising his voice. "I asked you what your name was! I'm being NICE!" He yelled with a forceful yank.

Ellie at this point, wasn't having any of it. With a scream she pulled out her switchblade and swung at the hand that was holding her. Her efforts were rewarded when he recoiled in pain and she picked something up off the ground. "Ellie...you can remember that Ellie was the name of the little girl...who cut off your #%!$ing finger." Now the brutes started to react, and Ellie prepared for the worst.

A shadow silently creeped up behind the brutes tormenting a little girl, taking one out quickly with a firm choke hold. The thug went down with a thud, causing their attention to switch to their worst nightmare, Zero. They thought for a second, looking at each other, before deciding that they could overwhelm him with their numbers, they couldn't have been more wrong. As they ran at him, they came across Hell on Earth, all that could be heard for blocks were blood curling screams and snapping bones. By the time he was done, he already had a cigarette in his mouth, walking over to the girl, not saying a word.

Ellie sat up from the ground where she was dropped. She had a cut on her lip and her nose was bleeding. Probably a couple dozen bruises, but nothing felt broken. "Hey." She said casually, coughing up a bit of blood. "Thanks for the uh...beat the %#!@ out of everything that moves thing you did there. That was cool." She said, tossing the finger back at its owner. "Trying to be nice huh? And the #%!$ing emmy goes to..." She got a running start and flat out punted him straight in the side. "Remember, I cut off your FINGER. Stay as FAR from me as #%!$ing possible!" She shouted at him with another kick before turning her attention to her savior.

"Hey...I really do appreciate what you did there." She said, clearing her throat. She didn't look very threatening, beaten and bloody. "What...made you come and help me? Most people around here wouldn't bat an eye."

Kristoff looked her over, remembering his own past that wasn't that far from what this girl was going through, "You are young, you don't deserve this." Kris looked around before starting to walk off, he didn't exactly understand why she was receptive of his help, normally the people he saves yell at him for being brutal, or saying he didn't have to hurt them like that.

Ellie looked back down at the thugs. Didn't deserve it huh? She could kind of agree with that. She looked up and jogged after him, holding her backpack's straps. "I'm Ellie." She said smiling. "Well, technically its Eleanor I guess but...that's like a really old ladyish name, so it's just Ellie. What's your name?" She asked, putting away her switchblade.

"Call me Zero," Kris said, checking all ambush points, he was ready to kill any thugs that wanted anything to do with this girl, he didn't want another corrupted youth becoming a criminal. This all seemed oddly familiar, protecting a younger person from the evils of the streets, almost like he was back in Atlantic City. Kris shuddered and continued walking, motioning for... what was her name? Ellie to keep close.

Ellie skipped after him lightly and walking backward next to him, studying his face. "You're like...way too serious. You know that dude?" She laughed, whistling. "So...Zero...I'm gonna lighten the mood!" She giggled and pulled her pun book out of her back pocket, still walking backward and reading from it. "What is the cause of the failure of a long marriage?" She wait for what was obviously a bored silence. "A stale mate." She kept staring at the page and almost tripped over a brick. "I don't get it."

Kris listened to the joke before laughing, "That was actually good." Kris smiled at her and caught her while she tripped, "Watch your step." He was slowly losing his Zero personality and going back to Kris, whistling while he walked, the further from the hostile areas of Crash he got, the happier he was.

Ellie giggled and turned back around, walking closely beside him. "I tried to catch some fog earlier." She paused and giggled slightly. "But I mist." She laughed softly in a way too girly way for the girl who had just cut off some dude's finger and cussed more than a drunken sailor in a bar fight. "So, where are we going?" She asked, realizing they were leaving Crash Alley pretty decently soon.

Kris grinned, this chick reminded him of himself, slightly innocent, just looking for survival. The Guild took that from him, but that was a chapter of his life he'd long since closed. "We're leaving that horrid place," Kris smiled, not thinking that she lived in Crash Alley.

Ellie blinked and looked around. "But I live that way." She said, pointing down a road that was completely and utterly deserted. This was because the entire section of Crash had been used as one gigantic booby trap for the past year and a half. Some new gang everyone assumed, and Ellie started casually walking down the road, sidestepping a bit from what she knew was a trip wire. "Take care to walk around that mailbox. Otherwise you're going to have a refrigerator dropped on you."

She took the opportunity and flipped through the joke book a few pages. "Here's a good one for the scenario! I walked into my sister's room and tripped over a bra. It was a booby trap." She giggled wildly. "Get it? Booby trap? Like boobies?"

Kris smiled as he walked with the young woman, she seemed so innocent, but wasn't. This is what happened to the youth in 'lower income areas.' You either kill or be killed, a notion that Kris knew very well. He dodged the traps with ease, able to see them coming from a mile away. He wondered how normal people couldn't see this type of stuff while he noticed the loud tell-tale signs of light shining off wire or slightly raised ground of a pressure plate.

Ellie stepped into a rundown apartment building off to the side. It was basically destroyed, no insulation either. Ellie stopped just inside the door and pulled a can of gasoline out of her backpack and started to fill it up, then turned it on causing the lights to flicker back to life. "Home sweet home." She giggled, gesturing for Kris to come in.

"Come on in! I have some drinks!" She giggled, pouring some ancient Pepsi into a couple of glasses and handing one to Kris. "Here ya go!"

Kris walked in, smiling, she made a pretty nice home for herself, given the situation. He flicked at a piece of peeling wall paper, humming a Russian lullaby. Hey nodded with a smile as he drank, "Thank you, so if you don't mind me asking, how did this all come to be, you living in Crash Alley? Girl like you seems like she's from Downtown."

Ellie shrugged, sitting down on the counter and drinking her Pepsi. "Me and dad never got along." She said. It was pretty evident that she was going to leave it at that. She downed her drink and started swinging her feet back and forth. "Well why are you here then?"