A Bone to pick with you [Faaaax/Bloo!]

For about a week or so, Adriana had been feeling like someone was watching her. She had felt this before on other occasions. But after she matured, it was to be expected when she was around men. She had even used her looks to distract particularly stupid marks while she picked their pockets. But this was a more urgent feeling then that. And it was always the same guy, wearing a black hooded jacket with the hood up. She had to 'accidentally' drop something and pick it up before finding her stalker in her peripheral, and then using her strings she confirmed that he was indeed following her around. And she for some reason couldn't read his mind, which was a huge problem in of itself because it meant he wasn't some normal guy.

So she spent the next several days trying to avoid and lose him. But he proved incredibly difficult to lose! It had gotten so bad that she didn't want to leave the house. But after so long, she had enough! So she finally told Fox about her stalker and how they needed to deal with this potential threat. She had no idea what he was after. But the fact she couldn't read his mind with a brain tap, or the extremes she had to go through to evade him- which strangely had something to do with large groups of criminals.

The plan was simple enough, she would be bait since he followed her around so often. Then Fox would use his magic on him, and in his confused state she'd come back with her disguise on and they'd handle him. Sinbad gave her the name of someone who was very good at making people disappear. What that implied wasn't lost on her but right now she didn't see any other option other then leaving town completely. But she had ambitions for this city and did not want to be chased out again! The fact this was late at night made this even more nerve wracking when she felt the familiar, ominous feeling of her stalker following her. She pretended not to notice, leading him to the ambush point through an alley.

Fox was waiting at the ambush spot, feeling rather nervous himself. While the stalker wasn't after him, he was after Adri... which was just as bad! Fox couldn't deal with losing the closest person in his life and so he'd agreed to her plan to help her out. Normally he didn't really condone violence, but someone was threatening his family now so he'd make an exception. Hopefully this one night would be the end of it.

All he had to do was wait for Adri to enter the area, then he'd sniff out the stalker and slam him with a focused illusion. It was a really good plan too. After all if he nailed the fellow with that spell then he'd be stuck in an illusionary world of his mind's making. Sight, hearing, smell, touch, even taste would all be so screwed up that the stranger would think he was doing something completely different even though he'd be stuck standing there like a statue. Since it was only one person Fox knew he'd be able to keep the spell going on for hours if need be, long enough for anyone to just come up and do whatever needed to be done.

Fox's ears perked up as he heard the familiar steps of Adri. She seemed a little hurried but not panicked, that was good. Fox peeked over the railing on the roof and watched for her stalker. All he needed was to spot the jerk that was upsetting Adri so much and then it would all be over.

The Stalker would be following Adriana, his steps never faltering in pace until they started to go into an alleyway. He stalked to walk faster, apparently trying to catch up to her now. Adriana meanwhile pretended not to notice, only picking her pace up just enough. She avoided looking around for where Fox might be in case this guy was observant. But she did take her phone out and casually texted Fox, "Now," after he would be in Fox's sights.

Fox watched as the fellow came into sight, waiting for the right moment. That moment presented itself when he got the signal from Adri, mainly when his phone started to vibrate in his pocket as it got a text from her. He knew it was from her, mainly because she was the only one who actually knew his number and could contact him on it.

Fox's eyes glowed brightly as he unleashed his most potent illusion magic at his target, holding nothing back since it was a personal matter with Adri involved. His spell hit his target with full force and instantly Fox started to weave the illusion tighter, doing his best to force it upon the stranger. He knew it was working some already as the person was now standing stock still... but Fox wasn't going to be satisfied until the target stopped trying to fight back against the effects of the spell.

The hooded figure seemed to hesitate only for the briefest of moment- did he suspect a trap? It was unclear and Adri couldn't glean any information from his brain. But when he was far enough along for Fox to finally hit him, his body went stiff. And he did resist, briefly. It was only brief, more out of reflex then anything else. But was it really that easy? Adriana meanwhile slipped away to throw on a disguise, concealing her hair and weaving a mask out of thin air that she used to cover her face before returning. She dropped Sinbad a text to let him know they got the stalker. In the meantime, she circled around him warily. Ever since she discovered she couldn't read his mind, she had been worried as to what this guy was capable of. So extending an invisible wire, she started to wrap him up with it and discovered another troublesome fact- NO heartbeat.

Normally with her strings she could feel vibrations, which could be a number of things. Movement, voices, or even heartbeats if she was as close to them as she was with this guy. But there was nothing. And then something happened that made her almost grapple to the roof with Fox. A cigarette that he had been smoking flared up slightly as he took a drag off of it. Giving her a glimpse of what looked like bone. "was starting to think i had the wrong girl~" the figure remarked groggily, moving within her strings' grasp. It WAS too easy. Adriana didn't waste any moment to hesitate, flicking her wrist and retracting her wires. With them so tightly wrapped around him, they threw him to the ground. And with another set of wires, she tried to pull herself up but was instead almost dropped back to the ground as her wires were cut through by flaming bones. "it's rude to leave your guest all tied up ain't it?" He said cheekily as he wiggled around for a moment before flames erupted from his body, burning through the strings binding him. Rising to his feet, he threw his hood back and confirmed what Adri had seen; a skull.

Fox felt something off as his spell hit. It should have been sticking to his target like he'd just poured a bucket of syrup over his foe, instead it seemed to just be slipping off like water! That's wasn't right, that wasn't right at all! Whoever or whatever this guy was meant real trouble!

Fox watched as Adri failed to escape and panicked a little bit, he needed to get down there and help her! The masked Kitsune jumped from the roof, using the nearby wall to slow his fall as he bounced from one wall to the other in a control descent. When he landed on the ground he dashed to Adri's side, still trying to get his spell to stick to the weird skull faced human... Wait... Skull-faced???

Fox felt a tingle of dread go down his spine as the skull-faced man let loose flames that burned away the strings binding him. There went Fox's second idea of tossing some fox-fire his way. As Fox joined Adri's side he was a bit relieved to see Greed coming up on the scene.

"Everyone be careful, that thing isn't normal... my spell just keeps sliding off him." Fox warned everyone while just barely managing to keep a tremble from entering his own voice.

[I'll just leave this here: a thing! ]

"aren't you the creative one. did you pay a room full of monkeys for that rib tickler?" The skeleton quipped, twisting his head back more then would have been possible for a human to glance at Greed- whether or not he recognized Greed remained to be seen as his attention went back to Adri as she was joined by Fox. This one was giving off a different aura too. "first, great job. it takes a lot of effort and skill to lose me. also, love the setup here. Luring me into an enclosed area where your little friend does the badda bing- which makes me think that you must be older then you appear. and to top it off you have this guy waiting nearby incase your friend's magic doesn't work there. was not however, expecting the whole string slinging," the skeleton rattled on, golf clapping at the beginning.

"What do you want?" Adriana said, starting to really hate hearing this guy talk. He sounded like a cheesy car salesman way too much.

"straight to business? my kind of girl- by the way, you can take off that mask. it ain't helping you any sweetheart. anyway, it'll make this much faster too. let me just- ah! here it is," he replied reaching into one of his coat pockets, pulling out a worn looking photo. "these faces ring any bells?" The skeleton asked flipping it around so she and Fox could see. It was a picture of her adopted family, the one that got her into being a thief in the first place. A younger and... cuter Adriana was also in the picture, which made any denial impossible.

Fox wasn't really paying much attention to what the skull-faced weirdo had to say. He was a threat to Adri and himself, of that he felt rather certain. At the very least he was creepy and not nice to be around, what with how he felt like he was magically coated with oil so spells just slipped off him. However that did give Fox a different idea on how to work some magic.

Fox paused in his process however as the stranger produced a picture of Adri.

"Have you been stalking her since she was a kid?" Fox said, instantly jumping to the worst conclusion as he moved himself slightly in front of Adri as if to shield her from danger. He fingered the small throwing knives he'd secreted inside the sleeves of his clothing, seeing if he could find a good opportunity to let loose with a new plan to subdue this creep.

Adriana had a similar thought after Fox's comment, hardening her expression. If that was possible. "Time out- easy there half-pint. You think an old bag of bones like me doesn't have anything better to do besides stalk random people? You really want it? Gimme an offer~" The Skeleton chuckled before fishing out a box of cigarettes and lighting one up again. But the cigarette was promptly slashed down to the colored portion by a wire.

"Did you do anything to them?" Adriana asked seriously, the wire she just used glistening and floating gently in the air as a quiet reminder. She didn't really harbor any ill-feelings about her adoptive family for what happened. But she was no longer that close. All the same if he had done anything, she'd use him as a bony marionette...

"C'mon kid you know how much these things cost? The price is killing me. Anyway, no I didn't- on both counts. Look, to make a long story short, your dad sent me to looking for you," the skeleton finally gave some actual answers. And that was not what she had expected. "After he found out that his last wife had a kid, he's been looking around ever since. So, he asked me as a favor. And I do owe him, and I HATE owing people favors. So I started in Steel City and worked my way from there," he continued.

"Okay. And? If that's true you found me then. What now?" she said not blinking. This did surprise her more then she let on. But at the same time growing up her mother didn't have anything good to say about her father. And he did leave before she was born... didn't create a good picture in her mind. It also brought up an interesting question. What exactly was her father that he had a walking, talking skeleton as a friend?

"Well, naturally I'm obligated to let him know. But I'm curious about something. If you are one of his kids- you don't give off... he paused half way through as if he just let slip something he shouldn't have. "Nevermind, probably not that important," he said trying to dismiss it.[/color]

"I don't like this." Fox stated bluntly, just barely managing to keep a growl from his voice. He had finished infusing the blades in his sleeve with some shadow magic since it seemed his illusion magic wasn't sticking to this weird undead freak. All he needed was a moment and he was certain he could use the knives to basically pin the creature's shadow to the ground and keep the weirdo from moving at all.

"So what do you want to do now?" Fox asked Adri, turning his head just enough so that he could see her and still keep his focus on skull-man.

"doesn't matter. when i get a scent, i never forget it. especially ones like you," the skeleton spoke up, lighting his thumb on fire and... smoking the filter of the cigarette till it was literally nothing; not even ash. He wasn't looking at anyone specific when he said that but the implication was enough. "as to where you can find him. depends. could be here, or could be somewhere else entirely," he said cryptically.

"Doesn't matter. I'm not interested in seeing him," Adriana said, thinking the matter over in her head as they exchanged quips with the skeleton. She saw no reason why she should see him, she had been doing alright without him and did not want to complicate matters with what she, Fox, and Sinbad were doing here. Plus the fact again, a skeleton was sent to find her. A fire bending skeleton at that- sent up a red flag.

"oooh, not what i wanted to hear kid. i mean if it were up to me, i would've taken up on your friend's offer. and here, it's yours," the skeleton said offering the picture out to Greed. Giving him a nice look into the black, empty voids that were his eye sockets. "i mean, he just wanted me to find you. but i would still need to tell him something. and that's not what you want is it? then how about your sisters?" He blurted out words that continued to annoy Adriana.

"No," she said firmly. At this point she was just trying to think of how to get out of this entire situation.