((Olivia))

Olivia wrapped her newly aquired cloak tight around her in an attempt the ward off the chill the night air brought.  She could feel the cold seeping into her bones and knew that at any moment it could take hold freezing her movements and slowing her thoughts.  The sound of a young native drew her attention and she gasped taken aback by his condition.  The young child, presumably a street urchin, sat with his back against an abondoned building.  Clad in flithy rags and covered in grime the child shivered in the cold weather.  Without having to hear Glipsa's voice Olivia reached into the pocket of her cloak for her last remaining cred stick.  She wasn't entirely sure how much was left on it after all she had used to to book a room for the night and to purchase the cloak.  There should be ample on it though for a belly full of food and a place to stay for the night.  She approached the boy and reached out to him with the cred stick in hand.

"Here take this.  It will get you someplace to stay for the night and at least a full meal.  It might even get you a meal tomorrow."

The words had barely gotten out of her mouth when the boy snatched the credity from her outstretched hand and bolted down the street.  The sound of laughter faded away as he distanced himself from her.  One last word hovered on the wind, sucker.  It was far from the first time that trying to do right had instead been the wrong thing.  Rather than reflect on this poignant fact Olivia once again pulled the cloak in tight and walked towards the pub where she had rented a room.  The sounds of boisterous singing brought a smile to her face it was wonderfull to hear people having fun especially after what had just happened.  As she entered the pub she could see multiple men, boys really, dancing on the bartop as they simultaneously drank beer and sang. 

She shook her head slightly watching them and the crowd for a moment.  What must it be like to be so free from your inhibitions to be able to do something like that? She would never know.  The thought wasn't a discouragement indeed it lead her to reflect on just how much Glipsa had done for her over the last few years.  She was such a benevelont deity Olivia would never be able to give up serving her.  With one last look at the crowd she moved towards the stairs leading up to her room.  It was time to call it a night, wrap up under a pile of warm blankets, get warm and go to sleep.

Halfway up the steps and Olivia could feel warmth begining to spread through her body.  The mass of people gathered below and the raging fire combined to not only resist the chill outside but to warm the entire building.  The warmth put a pep into her step and she grinned perhaps it wasn't time for bed just yet.  An insanely soft creak from behind her, directly behind her, caused her to whirl around.  With staff in hand she lashed out with it at the legs of the person in front of her.  The figure tumbled down the few stairs before lying still on the floor.  Unsure of the situation Olivia walked down the stairs to study the figure curious to see the crowd oblivious to the situation.

Olivia felt anger began to whell within her as she stared at the boy on the floor.  It was the same child she had given the cred stick to just moments before.  Had he been trying to steal from her just now? What an evil, vile child this one was.

Calm yourself.  He needs your help not your wrath.

The voice, Glipsa's voice, broke through the anger how was she supposed to help the brat?  She checked his pulse first making sure he was still alive after the fall, he was.  The boy was probably faking his injuries in an attempt the escape punishment for his previous actions.  Olivia wasn't buying it.  She reached down grabbing one of his ears and proceeded to stand up.  Like she expected the boy lunged to his feet with a howl of pain.

"You've got some explaining to do and until I have heard enough you're not going anywhere.  Now up those stairs and don't believe for a moment that you're getting out of my sight."

The boy made one attempt to race up the stairs and was quickly tripped up by Olivia's staff.  He glared back at the woman before sullenly climbing the stairs one by one.  At the top of the stairs Olivia once again grabbed the boys ear as she walked to her room, unlocked the door, and then ushered him inside.  The room held only the barest of essentials but they had been all Olvia had needed.  Now though with a young boy things had changed.  With a slight shove she pushed the child onto the small bed staring down at him, taking him in more thorougly than before.

The boy couldn't be more than ten years old his height and stature assured her of that.  The unkept dirty dishwater blond hair that fell to his shoulders told her he hadn't had a haircut in quite some time.  The uneven ends to his hair told her somebody untrained had been the last one to cut it.  Probably with a knife by the look of things.  She reached over to move his bangs aside and watched as the boy flinched.  Under the dirt and grime the child's face was covered in dark purple bruises.  Who or what could do this to a child?

"First things first we're getting you cleaned up and then we'll go from there.  That means a bath."

"You're not going to b..b...beat me?"

They were the first words she had heard come out of the boy's mouth outside of the "sucker" from earlier.  The words broke her heart and she had to turn away to keep from showing the child tears welling up in her eyes.

"No.  I'm not going to beat you.  I'm going to get you cleaned up and fed and then you and I are going to talk.  Is that ok?"

"Sure.  But he, they, are going to beat me when I get back."

Once again anger stirred within the nagah.  Whatever the situation, whoever was involved, she wasn't going to let the child go through life afraid of being beaten any longer.

"You don't have to be afraid of that.  I'll take of it, I promise."

The pub had hot and cold running water and so Olivia was able to draw a bath for the youngster.  She closed her eyes as he undressed and entered the water but then began helping him to bathe.  She was forced to grind her teeth together to refrain from cursing on multiple occasions as her eyes and fingers found scars on the child's torso.  With the child washed Olivia gave him a shirt and a pair of breeches she had packed.  Smiling as he rolled the waistband of the breeches over and over again.  She'd have to pick up something for him to wear but that wouldn't be a problem as long as he still had the cred stick.  A quick search of his clothing piled up on the bathroom floor revealed he did.

As promised Olivia took the boy downstairs and was pleasantly surprised to see the pub offered real healthy food.  The boy's voracious appetite finally sated an hour later they returned to her room and she began to question him.

"Let's begin with some easy questions shall we? Firt what is your name?"

The boy lowered his gaze and stared at the floor as he mumbled out an answer to the question.  Olivia repeated the question with the same result.  Finally she grasped his head in her hands and asked once more.

"I haven't earned it yet, ok?" The bitterness and anger in those words was shocking.  Olivia was just as shocked to learn that a name had been witheld from the boy.  It was her first time encountering that oddity.

"What would you like to be called? What name would you like?"

The child's bottom lip began quivering and tears began pouring down his cheeks.  "Why are you being so nice to me?"  From his position sitting on the bed he turned falling onto the bed and began sobbing into a pillow.

Shivlant.  His name shall be Shivlant.  In his native tongue it means protector of my people.

Olivia looked down at the young boy weeping uncontrollably on the bed and failed to see Shivlant.  With a wry grin she guessed she could and Shivlant's weapon looked like her.  She pulled covers up onto the child before double checking the door to the room was secure.  A flick of the lightswitch and the room plunged into darkness but not before Olivia heard a ragged "thank you" from the bed.  With a million thoughts racing through her mind Olivia sat down with her back against a wall mindlessly staring at the door.  What had she gotten herself in to?

They came at just after midnight three of them dresed in black against the black backdrop of the black night.  Black masks pulled down to meet full length black shirts over inky black pants.  Hands reached for the handle turning it quietly only to find the door locked.  Gloved hands reached for suppressed weapons as black clad feet prepared to breach the door.  The words spoken softly seemed to disarm them. 

 "Come in the door's open." 

The first turned the door handle once more surprised to see the door swing open in front of him.  He was just as surprised when the but of the staff caught him between the eyes knocking him out cold.  The other two figures strode purposefully into the room with guns drawn each scanning the room cold and calculated.  "Shouldn't have your finger on the trigger just yet."  The words were spoken a fraction of a second before a large shard of ice sliced through flesh and bone removing one of the men's trigger fingers.  The man switched the gun from one hand to the other but it was obvious he was uncomfortable with the situation.  The third figure began to fire supressed two round burts into any shadow that was moving.

His shooting was halted and his screaming began as he looked down to see a large black snake pull fangs from his leg before vanishing back into the darkness.  The screaming continued for only a second or two before the second figure put a bullet through his comrade's skull.  The mission had called for silence and surprise not ineptitude.  As it stood surprise was lost and whoever was in the room was far more deadly than the boy they had been sent to retrieve.  He would have to try his luck another time.  More likely he'd return to his own execution for failing the mission.  He shrugged his shoulders, shot his unconcious friend on the ground in the head and proceeded down the steps.

Olivia changed back to human form and made her way to the window.  To far down to attempt the drop, until she saw him.  It was the black clad figure right under the window.  She broke the window out with her staff before pulling it above her head.  As she descended she slammed the staff forward adding her own strength to gravity willing it to impact hard enough to kill the man.  Instead she found the back of her elbows slamming down onto the back of the man's skull as he feet connected with the back of his knees sending him buckling to the ground.  Both somewhat stunned by the encounter it was a race to see who would recover first.  The man reached for his pistol forgetting his injured finger at the same time Olvia lashed out with a kick to the throat followed by a thrust from the staff to the solar plexis.  From there is only took a flick of the wrist to slam up into the bottom of the man's jaw.

Olivia wanted nothing more than to end the life before her.  To snuff it out as easily as a child blowing out a candle.

You need him.  Talk to him.

"Who are you? Who do you work for? Why are you after the boy? What is he to you?"

The questions came rapid fire and relentless Olivia recited them over and over again as the man stared at her blankly.  It seemed even though the man had been bested by her he had no fear whatsoever of the fairer sex.  Now seemed like a good time to put some fear into the man.  Olivia began the transformation to her hybrid form watching the man's eyes grow bulbous, sweat begin to appear on his forhead, and tremors begin to wrack his body.

"What are you?"

Olivia reached out grasping the man by his shoulders and hauling him up until they were face to face.  Her serpentine tongue flashed out over his face sending ripples of revulsion through him. 

"Anssswer my quesssstionss."

Information poured from the man like water from a glass.  His name was Ga'leal and he worked for a syndicate on planet.  the syndicate was heavily invested in theft, profiteering, gambling, drugs and prostitution.  The boy, young as he was, had been heavily invested in.  He was one of the syndicate's top thieves.  As such within his head was knowledge of several of the syndicates leaders, goals and ambitions, and places of business.  With the information he had the syndicate but him on a short leash with a rigid schedule of checking in.  He had failed to check in and he and the men in the room had been sent to find him.

When asked about the scars on the boy's body the man visibly flinched.  He sword up and down that he had no part in the indoctrination that children were forced to endure.  Either doped up on drugs or beaten to the point of death they were all forced to endure horific acts to prepare them for their new lives as pawns of the syndicate.  The words were what she might have expected but they stung nonetheless.  This syndicate was enslaving children and forcing them into lives that nobody deserved.  Still holding the man with both arms she swung her tail around to encircle the man's throat.  She didn't care if he had once been one of those children.  He was a stone cold killer now and, as she dropped his corpse, he was a threat to be disposed of as needed.

Olivia changed forms back to human and made her way to the front of the pub before walking back upstairs to her room.  The two men lay still and dead on the floor pools of blood spilling out onto the floor from their wounds.  She was unsure how to dispose of the bodies and even on how to clean up the bloody floor.  In the end she decided against doing either one.  It might send a message to the syndicate that somebody was after them.  If it instilled fear in them it was better still.  She stepped over one corpse and closed the door before calling out for the boy.

"Hey are you still here?" A timid response and the boy seemed to magically reappear from the shadows.  "Never mind the bodies go ahead and go back to sleep.  We're leaving first thing in the morning."

The next morning Olivia awoke to find the boy wide eyed and alert rummaging through the dead men's clothing.  Coms and credit sticks were already laid out on the floor next to him as he calmly pocketed a pistol.  He caught Olivia's stare and returned it as he reached for the other man's pistol. 

"I want them dead.  Best way is to help you."

The words almost crushed Olivia.  This young child didn't need to get any more involved than he already was.  All he needed to do was tell her where to begin.  A starting point to begin cleansing the planet of the evil organization and from that she'd do the rest.

"Young one I do need your help but not in that way.  Before I ask for your assistance I have one more thing to offer you, a name.  Your name is Shivlant."

Tears began building up in the boy's eyes and as Olivia watched him she felt hers begining to fill up as well.  Boy and nagah flew towards each other and embraced in a hug.

"Anything you need from me, anything."

Two hours later Olivia surveyed the broken down home that was going to serve as headquarters for the next who knew how long.  The place had little to offer other than a solid floor to sleep on besides being remote and uninhabited.  Shivlant had promised he knew a way to keep the cold and moisture out.  She went over what else the boy had told her trying to piece together a strategy for entering the wolf's den.  Then laughed she was a woman after all.  All she needed was a bit of funds.

The woman who rang up her bill eyed Olivia with a raised eyebrow as she did so.  Olivia began an to give an excuse for the clothing she had purchased but the woman wanted no part of it.  She bagged up the clothing and then with an "Out!" sent Olivia on her way. 

The clothing, if you could call it that, that almost nothing to the imagination.  The plunging neckline of her blouse barely covered her small breasts before ending inches above her navel.  The skirt she had aquired was skin tight begining at her hips and ending a mere six inches later.  Over the top of her ensemble she wore a black leather trenchcoat to ward off the chill.  Shivlant stared at her in astonishment as she began to apply makeup with precision.  Sometimes the art of war required using a different set of weapons.

The stench of sweat, stale beer, and sex mingled with the acrid scents of incense and a plethora of smoked drugs.  Clouds of smoke from the various substances mingled in the darkness creating a dense fog barely pierced by gaudy overhanging lights with red bulbs.  As Olivia walked through the establishment she repeatedly felt herself groped from the side, from behind, and once from direcly in front of her by a female no less.  She dodged tables and chairs apparently set out at random as she made her way up towards one of three platforms overlooking the sea of chairs.  Two of the platforms already held scantily clad women dancing as men leered at them.  The third was empty save for the pole standing firm from stage to ceiling.  Olivia jumped on stage and began surveying the crowd.  Shivlant had given his personal guartantee the man she wanted to find would be here.  As she watched the crowd she began to move with the music.  Boos rang out from the audience until she stepped out of her trenchcoat.

Immedietly boos turned to cat calls and whistles and men began surrounding the stage peering through the haze at the new girl dancing for them.  Olivia made a show of it without removing any other articles of clothing.  Her eyes lit up as she encountered the man Shivlant had described to her.  The man heading the prostitution ring from this very establishment observed her cooly even as a blond woman worked him over under the table.  Smoke rose from the giant cigar as he motioned a man over to him.

"Bring her to me.  She's not one of mine and she needs to be."

The man approached the stage and called out Olivia but she pretended not to hear him as she continued dancing.  Irritated by her insolance the man jumped on stage only to be met with a right cross and a left uppercut that knocked him off of the stage and onto the floor.  A gaspe rose from the audience followed by hoots of approval.  Olivia eyed her target and let the whisper of a smile cross her face, he was intrigued.  She calmy asked her admirerers to move out of the way as she climbed off the stage and made her way to the table.

"See something you like sugar?"

The man gave a loan groan a few seconds before responding.  "The men did.  That's enough for me.  Follow me we'll see that you get on stage and stay on stage.  You'll be making money in no time.  Nice outfit by the way, very sexy."

"I'd appreciate it.  Although you might want to pull up your zipper before we go anywhere."

"Why? I expect this treatment from all of my girls.  If you're going to dance here you better be prepared to do a bit more than just dance."

Olivia gave the man her sexiest smile as she replied. "For you I'll do just about anything."

"That's what I wanted to hear doll."  He slapped her ass as he stood and began moving towards a back room unaware of the fate that would await him.

The private room held a single chair in the center as well as a small desk off to the side.  The man sat down and reached into a desk drawer pulling out a flask.  He was about to offer Olivia a drink when he found his face impacting with the top of the desk smashing his nose in the process.  The man reacted quicker than Olivia anticipated throwing the chair back and standing up screaming obcenities.  A spin kick to his groin and a chop to his throat and the man fell back down into the chair groaning. 

"Who are you? What do you want?"

"What I want is for you and all of your kind to die slow painfull deaths as you are forced to think about all of the horrible things you have done.  I'll settle for you dying of course.  Not before you tell me all you know about the operation here and who's behind it though.  Don't think for a moment that the hired help out there is going to help you.  It's far to noisy out there for your screams to be heard.  You like it that way from what I've heard.  Now then let's get started shall we?"

Torture wasn't something that Glipsa was going to be fond of.  She might even take away her blessing if Olvia used it.  She was going to have to use fear and perhaps just a bit of physical persuasion to get what she wanted.  With a series of slaps, chops, and prods information flowed from the dirt bag of a man.  While he ran the club he wasn't in fact in charge of it.  He did have a name and a possible location for the next man up the ladder though.

With the name and location given to her the man was of no further use.  Olivia knew multiple painfull ways to end the man's life but decided just to snap the man's neck.  After doing so she made her way back to the stage to collect her coat before disappearing out into the night.  A scumbag down and possibly hundreds more to go.  If they all went as easily as the last one it would be child's play, they wouldn't though.

There was no point in allowing the man's death to be discovered and warning those associated with him.  Olivia made her way to the address that she had been given and stared.  The place was a mansion complete with gated driveway and guards.  On the inside she could make out a massive swimming pool where people were gathered around partying.  Having them all around could either be a good thing or a bad thing.  She would have to see how things played out.  As for getting in it was going to be as simple as slithering in.  She changed to serpent form and slithered under the gate.

In serpent form she traversed the entire distance to the pool counting the number of individuals and then taking a closer look at the women who were partying.  Several wore skimpy revealing swim suits that Olivia doubted had been worn to the party.  it meant there was possibly clothing she could slip into inside the mansion.  She just had to make her way in.  A partially closed door was the ticket into in and Olivia punched it.

The inside screamed wealth in every imaginable way from monstrous screens covering entire walls to the solid marble pillars in the a few of the rooms.  Opulent, excessive, and bought with the sweat, blood, and tears of childred beaten into multiple forms of slavery.  Olivia changed forms to human and began searching for somewhere she could find clothing to fit her.  A wolf whistle behind her caught her unaware and completely nude.  She attempted to cover herself as she turned to face whoever it was that had whistled at her.

"The view is even better from the front, my my.  What are you doing inside? The party is out there.  And not that I mind but what are you doing naked?"

The lie came to mind quickly and effortlessly...

Olivia smiled at the man and batted her lashes as seductively as she could as she eyed the man.  "I came in here looking for some company, some private company.  Look what I found."  She walked over to the man running her hands down his chest as she began to grind against him.  "See, I found some company and we're somewhere private."

Olivia laughed to herself feeling the reaction from the man against her.  It was easy, oh so easy, to mess with men.  And they called women the weaker sex.  She stepped back from the man to give him room to take off his shirt, or so he thought.  In the brief second that he had to think Olivia's right elbow made contact with his left temple, he crumpled to the ground.  From there it as nothing to tye the man up with his own shirt, belt, and even socks.  Leaving the man in a closet Olivia continued her search for something to wear.

Finding something didn't take as long as she thought it would.  She eventually found a form fitting dark blue sheath of a dress and put it on.  While it was tight it didn't seem to restrict her movement and that was a good thing indeed.  As she was going out to the pool area she decided to ignore the closet full of high heels and went out barefoot.

The music was loud, the people barely clothed, and drugs rampant.  Olivia looked at the women present and fought to keep a straight face.  If she had to guess the majority of those "having fun" were either drugged or threatened into being here.  They were nothing more than bodies to be used and discarded by the male clientale.  Hmmm not just male Olivia decided.  A further inspection revealed the man she was after surrounded by a trio of young women who catered to his every whim.  A small group of fully clothed figures surrounded him, bodyguards.