NationStates Jolt Archive

Karin Perathoner buried her big sister recently. It had been almost unreal. With parents who were away most of the time, Maria Perathoner had been the one always there to take care of Karin. She had been the one to kiss Karin’s scraped knees and make them feel better. She’d been the one to hold Karin at the end of sad movies and tell her everything would be alright. She’d taught Karin to ride and bicycle and to drive a car. And she’d been tough too. She had been the captain of her school’s girls wrestling team as well as the leader of the women’s boxing class at the gym. She could cream any boy in town and then some. To Karin, Maria had seemed like a rock, indestructible and constant.

Maria wanted to go somewhere with her fighting career. The man who approached her after a wrestling meet seemed like a godsend, a sports recruiter from far away Nerise. Maria had left smiling, hugging Karin and their parents and prattling on eagerly about how they could come see her soon while Karin gushed and told her again and again she was sure to be a star.

But everything hadn’t been exactly on the up and up. The fighting this man organized wasn’t safe and it wasn’t regulated. Maria must have tried to get out. Karin had to believe that, even though she didn’t hear from her sister between when she left and when she died. But the fighting, the steroids, the threats, the precarious situation of a woman in their debt with no resources of her own, she was trapped. She was trapped until she died in the ring in an underground fighting club, dumped on the street like so much garbage. The constables didn’t see her as much more. To them, the dead illegal fighter with steroids in her blood was just the underworld killing its own. They made jokes at the crime scene and then went to get a soda before making their peremptory investigation.

No one had even looked at Telemaco Da Vinci. He was a leading citizen, a friend of judges and lawyers, politicians and priests. He never had any legal trouble, even though everyone knew what went on at his underground fight clubs, the place to go for extreme entertainment. Da Vinci was without shame and without opposition. He hadn’t a care in the world one Thursday night when he was sharing a meal with a prominent judge at the finest French restaurant in town.

Karin didn’t understand the indifference of the world and moreover she didn’t care. To her, her sister would never be anything but the woman who’d held her when she cried so many times when she was a little girl. She’d always be the girl who smiled so enthusiastically as Karin had told her she’d be a star. Karin didn’t care what the world was like and she didn’t care what would happen to her. She didn’t even pause to think as she shoved past the man asking for her reservation. She saw Da Vinci. She didn’t even pause to think before she pulled the trigger.

Paola Da Vinci buried her big brother recently.

Perathoner ended that day sitting in a small holding cell and trying to avoid the persistent attentions of a large woman named Dolorada. She adjusted her organge jumpsuit unformfortably as she settled down on her cot. It was ten minutes until lights out.

"Miss Perathoner?" The voice was unfamiliar. It certainly didn't belong to one of the guards. But she'd already met with her lawyer and certainly no visitors were allowed at this time of night. Perathoner looked up. A man was standing there. He was an average looking man in his late thirties. He had dark hair and skin just the light side of olive. He was skinny and thick spectacles perched on his nose. All in all, a forgettable sort of man.

Perathoner stood slowly. She studied the man for a long time before she finally ventured to speak. "I am. Can I help you with something?"

Before the man could even answer, the door to the cell slid open and he stepped in. "I believe you can help me with quite a lot. I saw what you did today. Da Vinci deserved it. I know what he did to your sister, what he did to dozens of other boys and girls over the years. Men like that deserve death. I'm here to offer you a chance to get out of here, to help me..."

"Get out of here how? I'm sorry mister but this doesn't look like much of a rescue attempt..." Perathoner pointed out.

"Trust me." the strange man said, smiling faintly as he walked to the back of the cell and placed his hand against the wall. As he pressed, the wall began to glow ever so faintly. "This used to be a fairy country. It hasn't changed as much as people think."

It had been three weeks since an unknown demihuman had assisted in a prisonbreak in Nerise when law enforcement got its first siting of a suspect. Karin Perathoner was spotted walking down the street in a small town in Holista. She was accompanied by an unknown male of indeterminate species, likely her original rescuer.

Within the hour, the Department of Paranormal Affairs had landed a special enforcement team just outside of town. The twelve men and women of the team were wearing heavy body armor, reinforced with hyper-technology. They were armed with special weaponry, including cold iron blades. A battle machine honed by weeks of training, they moved swiftly towards the projected path of the suspects. Six agents went around to come out behind Perathoner and her companion while the other six moved for a frontal confrontation.

Perathoner looked around as armored forces surrounded her and the strange man. The man looked as well, wearing a cold, disdainful expression. After only a few seconds pause, he simply resumed walking towards the agents in his path.

"Stop right there. Get down on your knees and put your hands up over your head!" commanded the special agent in charge.

The man paused now, stripping off his outer layer of clothing to reveal the gleaming obsidian surface of a suit of sidhe plate. Perathoner followed suit. Both drew shining blades which instant began to burn with a green light. In an instant, the battle was on. The two fugitives absorbed the bursts of the special weaponry into their enchanted armor, bringing to bear the charged power of blades which smashed into the hightech armor of their opponents. For two hours, they fought, demolishing a large section of the town. Three times the fae male was pierced with cold iron and yet he seemed unharmed. Yet, when it was all over, the fugitives seemed to have vanished once more.