"Hello, Illyna."

Darkness.  Silence.  Definately not very interesting at all.

"That's Ms. Heartlock to you, Olv..."

"Olivia.  Or if you want it your way, 'Ms. Kingson.'  Don't even think about calling me that other name."

Living things sometimes are born with special traits.  One specific trait is the way one looks to allow themselves to blend with their surroundings.  Many caterpillars for instance are colored as such so that predators that wish to prey upon them can't even see them.  Or sometimes it hides their identity, as a certain species of butterfly looks almost exactly like another that is quite poisonous to devour.  This in turn makes any potential predator wary of striking.

Illyna wouldn't dare to call Olivia by that name.  She had no proof.  Olivia's feelings were just as well-masked as herself in the dark room.  Her dark skin tone blended with the shadows quite nicely.  Illyna's identity, like her feelings, however, was definately clear.  The long ice-blond hair alone made her stand out even when the light was dim.

Of course, sometimes there are things which makes one look past the trick.  Certain species have developed ways of spotting it.  And when they notice, they strike.  Their methods aren't exactly very clear, but they somehow manage to know.  Smell... taste... or perhaps they just managed to develop extreme perception over time.

"By the way, ahem, 'Olivia', I heard that a certain Shadowlaw Persona was revisiting the bullfighting arena this week.  Interesting how you haven't shown any signs of actually taking action to preventing that massacre."

Well now.  That was a surprise.  Olivia was sure she never gave the order to relinquish that information to the others.  In fact, she specifically ordered against telling anyone else anything until further orders.

She had a leak.  Hmm.  Well now, things certainly were more exciting, now.

"Is something wrong, Olivia?  You do want to save those poor innocent bulls who will all be slaughtered mercilessly, don't you?"

A challenge.

"I can't do that, Illyna.  Of course I'd love to, but sometimes sacrifices have to be made.  We can't give ourselves away right now."

"Do you want to know what I think, Olivia?  I think that it's not a matter of us 'giving ourselves away.'  I think that ever since then, your priorities... no, your loyalty even, has shifted."

Ah, Illyna.  Always jumping into things.  She didn't even bother to see if this particular butterfly was merely displaying false colors, or if in fact it really was the authentic poisonous thing.  Of course, Olivia wasn't going to let her strike just to find out.

"You should be more careful, Illyna.  Just because the father died doesn't mean the offspring is completely helpless."

The tension rises as two animals fighting over territory begin to postulate, shouting various roars or rearing their weapons granted to them by nature, be them teeth or antlers or stingers, until one finally decides to run away or a fight erupts.  Illyna, in this case, chose the former, opting instead to look for a side path to strike.

"The father died a while ago, and then recently the last one did.  Don't you see?  The time for action is now, Olivia.  Now that the last old-school PETA leader finally passed away, we're the ones in control, now.  A new era for the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has begun.  If you're not willing to take advantage of that fact, then I'll do it, myself."

Olivia caught it.  The tension rose to its peak.  The animal would give one last warning.

"I can't let you do that, Illyna.  Don't even try it."

And what did the challenger do?

"We'll see if your actions speak as loudly as your words then.  I'll see you at the arena then... Olvere."

The combat began.

She was caught off guard.  Dammit.  She was slacking off too much, lately.

Never any time to celebrate, never any time to take a break, never any time to sit back and smile, never any time to be smelling the roses just because life got better.

Fortunately, she didn't need any time to prepare.  Next time, she might not be so lucky, though.  It was nice of Olvere to set the preparations for their transport.  At least SOMEONE was there for her.  Though, it was kind of odd, too.  Fenrir never did know Olvere to take pre-emptive action when it came to these types of these things.  Usually, Fenrir had to ask her to do something, first.

There they were, back in the hangar area of Mrigranka again, while the last-class transport was getting prepared for launch.  It was all Olvere could get for them on such short notice.  Somewhere out there, Vega was probably preparing his own private plane.  A plane filled with comforts and room-service while theirs would be dirty and stuffy and cramped, but it was okay.  They didn't get the luxurious travel benefits that Vega got, but the dolls didn't need it.  They weren't weak.  They didn't need to be pampered.  They...

"Why am I here?  Why am I being made to take a dirty stuffy cramped last-class transport?  What's going on!?"

Argh, that idiot Juli was whining again.  Really, the brunette was really pushing things.  She might have did Fenrir a favor a while back but that still didn't give her any right to slack off as well as bug everyone else with her whining when Fenrir made sure she couldn't slack off.

"What's this about Lord Vega anyway?  I really don't see what the point of all of this is and..."

How dense was that girl?  Apparently, Fenrir had to spell things out to that moron.

"Juli, shut up!  While you, Cammy, and Avelle..."

Out of no where, Desire stuck her head out of the transport to give her two cents, even though no one asked for it.  "And Juni!"

"Oh.  Yes, right.  And Juni."  Fenrir shot the annoying Native American girl a glare, then resumed.  "Ahem!  While you, Cammy, Avelle, AND JUNI were larping for Bison's attention, Olvere and I..."

"And me!"  Desire threw another two cents into the bucket.

"...."  Bah, ludicrously low efficiency rating girl couldn't be helped.  "While you, Cammy, Avelle, and Juni were larping for Bison's attention, Olvere, DESIRE, and I were actually working to defend our name and position as the top elite agents within Shadowlaw!"

Of course, leave it to Juli to run off on tangents.  "But Juni and Desire weren't around back then when..."

"Juli, shut up!  Don't interupt me when I'm trying to talk."

Apparently, Fenrir had to spell it out AGAIN.  About three girls (and according to Desire, Juni) who weren't paying attention and only trying to win the heart of their master, simply because they were gifted or fate happened to be smiling upon them or whatever the hell let them be so great while the other agents like her were working endlessly for Shadowlaw and to preserve the name of them all as the top most elite agents within the organization.

Well, okay, MAYBE Cammy earned her position, but after she got it, she had to become a snotty bitch.  At least when Fenrir got pissed at someone, it was for a reason!

"So, um, Fenrir?  Why are you telling me this now?"

"Because, Juli, don't you see?  Cammy won.  She became Bison's personal bodyguard.  And don't think you haven't been marked.  I appreciate your sacrifice and failing that mission on purpose because I asked you to, but where do you think that leaves you?  Why, it leaves YOU..."  Fenrir's personal sword, Stormbringer, was pointed at Juli to emphasize her point.  "With the rest of us."

A failure, pure and simple.  Unlike Fenrir, perhaps Juli deserved it, but regardless, they were all in the same boat now, and it was Juli's turn to help swab the deck.

Of course, that idiot was too freaked by Stormbringer suddenly being pointed at her head to notice.  Really, how was Fenrir supposed to deal with a girl who couldn't even handle a little swordplay by a dark sword of death which just happened to supposedly devour the souls of all its victims ruthlessly?

And was extremely sharp.  Perfect for running those fools who opposed her through, stabbing through them and slicing wonderously as...

"You want to come with us, Cammy?"   And dammit, again.  Desire was doing things out of turn again.  Of course, it was never ever her turn, but still...  "Well, okay!  I imagine things must be painful for you ever since you lost Avelle and all.  That must hurt.  To lose the one who was destined to be with you.  Your closest friend, dearest soulmate, most wonderous love whom you'll never be able to hold again because... um... I'm making things worse, huh?"

Desire probably thought Cammy was pissed off behind that mask.  Fenrir figured the blonde most likely was extremely disturbed, instead.  And... why did she have that black red-eyed mask again?  And why was she wearing the generic doll outfit leotard again?

"Desire, look."  Fenrir broke in, causing Desire and Cammy to both direct their attention towards her.  "If you haven't noticed, Cammy has a new 'soulmate.'  Don't you remember?  Who do you think she got that stupid mask from?  Then there's the whole fact that she keeps thinking her name is Ophelia just because Vega named her that, when it really isn't."

"YES, IT IS!!!!!!"

Cammy was notoriously fast and skilled.  She was the top doll after all.  She was also extremely crafty and intelligent.  But even though Fenrir saw her strike like this before, she wasn't expecting Cammy to do it again, but fortunately knowing what the attack was was enough for Fenrir to reflexively duck just in time for the kick to hit her head instead of where it was intended to hit.

A kick to the head hurt a lot.  But not nearly as much as the sheer embarassment of the mere thought of where that kick was supposed to hit.

.......

.......

.......

"WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR PROBLEM!?!?!?!!?"   Fenrir immediately drew her sword.  It was time to unload a can of whoopass on this stupid pompous bitch who apparently was spiteful enough to choose to go for crotch kicks just to humiliate her opponents.

"MY NAME IS OPHELIA!!!!"  The stupid whiny unhonorable spiteful braggart asshole shot back.  "AND IT IS NOT A STUPID MASK!!"

"I refuse to accept that mask as a sign of eternal love between Cammy and Vega!"  Desire apparently had limitless amounts of duel penny sets.  "Cammy's just... repressing, that's all.  She's trying to make up for the loss of Avelle."

Repressing or not, it was time to teach this ungrateful brat a lesson.

"Fenrir!!!  Don't!"

Argh!  What was with that stupid girl?  What did it take to get Desire to shut up?

"Don't be so mad at Cammy.  She's just jealous that you have Janet which is why she attacked you like that but deep down she's just really sad and it'd be cruel to try to beat her up."

"And she can probably beat you, easily."  Juli added.  "Besides, I think we might be blowing the mask out of proportion.  'I have one from Vega too, after all.  Heck, I even took it along when I heard that we were going after Vega again.  Might as well join the mask wearing bandwagon.  See?"

Juli held her grey mask up to show to the rest.  That was... odd.  It was Fenrir's turn to not know what was going on, now.

"Juli, you had an affair with Vega?"

"Ack!  Fenrir, first of all, you have to be married to have an affair.  And no, of course not!"  The brunette tried to explain as all eyes were on her.  "It was delivered!  I didn't even really see him when I got the mask!"

"Uh huh.  Yea, right.  Sure you didn't, Juli."  Whatever.  Fenrir didn't have time for this.  She might have to ask Juli what messed up erotic name Vega gave her later, though, just out of curiosity.  "Just get into the dumb transport, okay?  We have things to do."

Fenrir supposed that she had to let stupid little bratty 'Ophelia' come too, since Desire wanted her to come, so much.  She could have sworn she saw Cammy's eyes narrow behind the red eyes of the mask, though.

”Lord Vega, the transport is ready.” Beatriz said over the intercom.

Vega finished attaching his claw. “Good. I'll be there in five minutes.”

He left his office and set the alarm.  After that night's occurrences, Vega wasn't taking any chances
.
He walked out of the door to see Mr. Zsasz. “L-Lord Vega, I-“

“Zsasz, shut up before I'm forced to do something I won't regret in the slightest.”

Zsasz bowed his head. “Y-Yes s-s-sir.”

Vega made his way through Mrigranka; people making way for him as he approached the jet.  Beatriz stood by the door. “Everything is prepped and ready for immediate departure for Spain.  All your affairs are being handled by the Secretarial branch, and all missions are being covered by the top assassins.”

“Good.” Vega didn't break stride towards the plane, and Beatriz had to hurry to keep up.

“Yes sir.  Have a nice trip.” Beatriz said at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the plane.  Vega said nothing

Fenrir had already briefed Juli on what was going on.  Every once in a while, the great 'Lord' of Shadowlaw known as Vega returned to the ring.  Not the wrestling ring, or the boxing ring.  The bullfighting ring.  Most people might remember that he was discharged from the arena due to extreme brutality.  Olvere was ranting about how the sport of bullfighting in and of itself was an extreme brutality anyway, so by disqualifying and booting Vega for it, the sport was being kind of hypocritical, but that was beside the point.  At any rate, once he got into Shadowlaw, that's what pulling strings behind the scenes was for, and apparently now the population can once again enjoy Vega's 'perfect beauty' as he temporarily gets his vacation from Shadowlaw to return to his art.  Exactly what the hell Fenrir meant by saying she'd 'one-up' him was beyond Juli, though.  Not that she really cared, since she was just too busy being plain annoyed with being dragged along for this trip in general.

Last-class transportation in Shadowlaw was awful.  Juli figured that even Fenrir had to acknowledge that, because all of the dolls, due to their elite status, were generally used to riding transports that at least weren't filled with cockroaches.  She couldn't even sit on the hard dark blue metal floor, because it was too cold, and while Juli didn't have any immense fear of bugs, getting any closer to the ugly ones running around on the plane was rather disgusting in and of itself.  The wall was pretty much the same way.  So, like her three co-horts, she ended up being forced to hold onto one of the top bars on the low ceiling for support if she didn't want to stand for the rather long ride.  Well, except for Desire, who happened to be lucky enough to call the spot by the cargo boxes, which gave her an adequate thing to lean against or even sit on.  Or maybe Fenrir let her, because there was room for more there but Fenrir kept on giving Juli weird 'what are you doing, slackoff?' glares whenever Juli got close to there.

They were close to the engine.  The extremely loud rumbling was grinding her ears.  Last-class transportation in Shadowlaw was AWFUL.

Juli felt a literal chill shoot up her spine, which made her quickly jump and bonk her head on the ceiling.  Someone tapped her directly on the back, which was the one place besides the head that the dolls' full body uniform didn't cover.  Who the hell didn't have the common sense or decency to know that if you tapped someone against their back with your overly cold hands that you'd end up freaking them out?

A quick turn around to see the culprit revealed the answer.  It was Cammy again.

"Lord Vega's mask.  You will give it to me.  Now."

"Lord Vega's?"  Juli let go of the bar to free up that hand to take out the mask, while she kept the other hand on her hip.  "Cammy, what are you talking about?  I got this mask delivered to me from a member of the I&E department.  It's mine."

There were two things that allowed Ophelia to catch Juli off guard that time.  Normally she'd start things off with a rant about how masks were hers or something, as well as scream about how her name wasn't Cammy.  Normally, she'd also go for that... kick.  Apparently she learned her lesson for both, however, and decided to go straight for a cannon spike.  Cannon spike kicks come out much faster then any other type of kick.  Dolls had a knack for being able to create an instant upwards force as they twisted back and sent their twisted backwards foot and themselves flying upwards.

Somehow, Cammy must have developed her cannon spike to apply more horizontal pressure too.  Instead of being popped into the air, Juli found herself slamming against the transport's back cargo area, right into the surprised Desire who was nice enough to break Juli's fall for her.  Some sort of pain also seared through Juli that was different from the physical.  Her head was spinning and she noticed that her vision was rather blurred, and she just felt really disoriented in general.  She also felt that whatever the hell Cammy just hit her with that she felt it before, except back then she wasn't nearly as mentally prepared for it.

Memories of Rose sending a psychic force surging through Juli in a soul powered move allowed Juli to come to the same conclusion that everyone else in the transport apparently was already able to see with their own eyes.

Fenrir was the first to comment.  "I'm not just seeing things, am I?  I thought I just saw a wave of light purplish blue psycho power shooting around Cammy's cannon spike there..."

It was fortunate that Juli was sort of mentally adapted to that type of attack by now.  At least, to a point where her head didn't immediately explode practically like it almost did the first time she was hit with it.  Cammy was already following up her attack with a cannon drill, from all the way across the transport!  Cannon drills weren't supposed to have that much range or speed through the air, because giving yourself enough propulsion to even do the drill motion itself was hard enough, let alone giving yourself some horizontal force.  The glowing blue flash around Cammy's feet as they were flying towards Juli made Juli have to prepare to mentally block as well as physically block the attack.

The initial impact hurt, and Juli had to try really really hard to be able to focus and concentrate as the psycho power shot through her.  Fortunately, the name cannon drill was almost a misnomer.  Sure, the person doing the move would be spinning at you feet first as a horizontal drill that always sent Shadowlaw's Professor Irvine into cheers whenever he saw it, but it was only the initial impact that caused the most pain so the drill only really hurt once, since humans were not really meant to be drills that much.  The exception perhaps being if someone concentrated extremely hard and focused all their energy, in which case they'd spin at you in a way that would cause a grinding sensation through the victim for every mere motion that the cannon drill user did.

That move was dubbed the spin drive smasher, which every doll had in their repertoire whether they knew how to do a cannon drill by itself or not, and it was the move Juli decided to counter attack with as Cammy landed on the floor before following it up with an enhanced cannon spike kick which followed the same drilling principle.  The ceiling was really too low for a cannon spike to go fully into the air though, but Juli's foot meeting it was probably certainly much less painful than the impact it gave to Cammy's head.

If the engine wasn't so damn loud, Juli probably would have been able to hear the clanking sound of a metal mask falling to the floor much better.  It wasn't her mask that fell though.  The brunette wondered why Cammy was covering her face, though.  Last time Juli got a glance at it, she didn't recall any horrible deformities.  Sure, there was that scar on her lower left cheek, but it didn't really look that bad.

"Ca... erm, Ophelia, if I didn't know better, I'd say you were trying to kill me."  Juli tossed the mask back to its owner.  "You're acting really different from what you usually do.  What's going on?"

The girl snatched the mask and quickly put it back on.  In the brief seconds where Juli got another clear look at her face, she realized that nothing changed.  There were no hideous disfigurements, no missing eyes or other horrible things of the sort, and absolutely no scars at all, so Juli couldn't figure out what was with the mask.

"I'm the only one that gets the mask!"  Ophelia snapped.  "It's my identity!  You don't need one for your own identity!"

Absolutely no scars at all...

Did Fenrir, Olvere, and Desire come to the conclusion?  Juli was positive that at least Fenrir did, just by looking at her eyes.  Because Fenrir, like Juli, knew about the origin of the dolls.  About the project to clone the perfect soldier.  But by now, neither of them thought there would be a literal duplicate who matched another in almost every genetic way possible, yet they were looking at one at that very moment.  Fenrir, however, was fortunately always ready to take action immediately whenever these shocking revelations came along.

"Juli, what the hell are you doing?  Forget Ophelia's mask.  We have other things to worry about right now."

Well, she was right.  There wasn't any point in meandering, and they obviously couldn't talk about this while Desire and Olvere were around.  Someday though, Juli realized she would have to bring it up to Ophelia later.

"Tickets?  I'm sorry, m'aam, but we're sold out of tickets.  The great El Serpiente is in the ring today, as well as a special joke guest star, and we sold out really fast."

She felt the cold semi-automatic within her purse as she reached for what she was looking for.  Sadly, it wasn't the semi.  Illyna would have loved to have simply whipped it out and blown this bastard bull-fighter lover's brains out, but as her dear dear idiotic companion Olivia would say, now was not the time.  So Illyna handed him the pre-brought tickets that her sympathizers got for her.  She already saw Olivia and her three friends that she made ever since she joined Shadowlaw enter the arena audience, earlier.  It was weird, though.  She could have sworn that Olivia told her that two of the friends were Japanese and the third was Native American.  Leave it up to Olivia to mistake a Caucasian for a Japanese person.

"Mommy!!!  I want to see El Serpiente!!!"  A little child cheered to his dastardly MURDER SUPPORTING mother.  "He's going to rock those bulls so baaaaad!  When I grow up, I wanna be just like him!"

Illyna took note to trip the brat when his mother wasn't looking then get lost in the crowd.  Great, now that murderer Vega was being a bad influence on the children, too.  Of course the little kid didn't know that Vega was... oh, just the lord of one of the most powerful criminal organizations in the world, but Illyna didn't really mind that.  Olivia was a member of that stupid thing anyway, even if it was just an undercover assignment.  At least, it was SUPPOSED to be an undercover assignment... stupid Miss Kingson.  At any rate, criminal organization or not, Vega supported this most blatant type of murder EVER and that was just unforgiveable.  It was pointless!!  So maybe Saddlehog... erm, Shadowlaw could go around assassinating people, but they did that out of self-necessity.  Kill poor defenseless bulls who were thrown into the ring against their will just for sport though, and you're crossing the line, buster!

The cheering audience roared as the announcer made some sort of comment about some sorta Spanish beer or something.  Illyna didn't understand Spanish and Illyna didn't care.  She wasn't here to listen to the stupid announcer with his vile support of this sport of MURDER.

It was easy enough to spot Olivia as Illyna made her way through the seats.  The girl chose to stay in her doll uniform this time, and all Illyna had to do was follow the glares of hungry lecherous bull murder-loving men.  With Olivia to help her stand out were two out of two out of the three of her comrades, too.  Perhaps the empty seat reserved for Olivia was for her third friend, but Illyna didn't care.  She took it.

"So, I see it's a beautiful day, today, neh?"  Illyna said above the cheers of the murderous mob.  "Like, a wonderful day for a certain human snake to kill them bulls, eh?"

She leaned over to Olivia and elbowed her a little.  The African girl simply leaned away and coughed.

Hmm.  Well, if Olivia had a plan, she was keeping it to herself.  No matter.  Illyna had her own plan in case Olivia's failed or that girl was stupid enough to let Vega get away with this.  They would have to hold a memorial for the heroic bulls that died today.  At that moment, though, Illyna realized she had to simply grit her teeth.  She changed the subject.

"So, that one's Desire, right?  Who's the brunette?  Fenrir or Aurora?  She doesn't look very Japanese to me.  Unless you think she's something ridiculous like Native American, too."

"That one is Agent Juli, Illyna.  And no, I don't know her that well."  Oliva replied in a rather 'leave me alone' attitude.

Hmph.  Stupid snobbish girl.  At any moment now, some of Olivia's men would probably lay a cap in El Serpiente's skull, right?  Too bad there weren't any really good snipers in the PETA at the moment.  They heard rumours of a special organization of powerful assassins who would do anything for money, but even if the rumours were true, it was sadly way out of the PETA's budget to hire such help.

God damn people who value money over the very essense of mother nature.

Ah well, just in case, Illyna had some of her men plant some... very special bulls for this match.  She didn't support drug use on animals, but in this case it was necessary to destroy that murderer, Vega.  Again, the poor poor bulls would have to have a memorial and proper burial when all was said and done, but their sacrifice would not be in vain...

The arena was packed.  There were, at least, over a thousand people of various nationalities jammed into the stands.

An announcer stepped out onto the field. “LADIES, and Gentlemen!” He yelled into the microphone.  “We've got a show for you tonight!  Two matches, one mortal combat, two creatures locked in a fierce struggle to the death that will keep you on an adrenaline high for the other, a match for your amusement!  And now, let's bring out our first round contenders!”  Here, the announcer paused letting the masses begin to cheer even more wildly.

“Our first contestant is a national hero of Spain!  The Masked Champion!  The famed El Serpiente!  Friends, I give you… ESTEBAN VARGAS VEGA!”

Vega stepped out onto the field.  The crowds went wild.  One whole side of the arena began chanting his name.  Vega stepped up to the front.  The announcer picked up his microphone and left the field.  Another announcer picked it up.

“While Mr. Garcia makes his way up here, I will introduce Vega's nemesis for this match.  He is a savage beast, bred for mauling the life out of his victims!  His father was the great Marc Antony, his grandfather the mighty Caesar!  Both mortal enemies of tonight's champion, and who both died at his hands!  People, I give you… OEDIPUS REX!”

The gates at the far end of the arena were flung open and a huge bull came rumbling out.  It snorted and stamped its foot as its eyes locked with the masked El Serpiente.

“And now, without further adieu… FIGHT!”

Oedipus Rex charged across the arena.  Vega reacted quite calmly as the bull charged.  Suddenly, as the bull was a few feet from Vega, he dodged to the left, bringing his claw arm up, and raking it across Oedipus Rex's side.  The bull grunted in pain and swung around to face Vega, blood dripping down its side.

Vega assumed a martial arts stance, extended his arm, and beckoned for the bull.  It grunted and charged again.  Vega did not move as the bull charged him.  But this time, Vega feinted to the left, and the bull began charging to that side, as Vega dodged back and landed a swift kick to the bull's neck.  Rex made a gurgling noise and coughed up blood.  All the while, the announcers voices were in the background, detailing every event and hyping it up as if this was the most important thing that had ever happened in history.

The bull turned around, stumbling somewhat, and then raced towards Vega.  Vega, in turn, charging the bull himself.  They were 30 ft apart.  25.  15.  10.  5 metres apart!  Then, Vega leapt into the air, over the bull, and landed right on top of it!  Rex began to buck and leap to try and dislodge Vega.  Vega grabbed on to one of it's horns and sank his claws into the bull's neck. The bull roared in pain, but Vega could feel it slowing down.  He decided it was time to finish this.  Extracting his claws, Vega edged forward, keeping careful not to fall, hard as it was, and then jammed his claw right into the bull's face.

The bull made a halfway roar, shook and fell.  Vega extracted his claws from the bull and leapt just in time, landing in a roll as the ground shook with the bull's fall.  Vega leapt up, and bowed, not a scratch on him.  The crowd went wild.

“YES!  IT'S VEGA!  EL SERPIENTE WINS AGAIN!  YES!” The announcers screamed.

Vega held up his blood covered claw and the noise in the arena became deafening.  An attendant came out of the field.  He handed Vega a towel, which Vega wiped on his claw as he left the field.

It was astounding.  The sheer adrenaline, tension, and style with which everything happened.  Man vs beast in a fight to the death, where one fatal error could be either victim's last.  Wasn't it exciting!?

It... certainly... was interesting...

She was perspiring.  Interesting, that.  How many animals of the world feel this pain?  How many feel this sadness?  How many actually react this way?

"Hmph.  He's not so good."  Desire didn't really see the significance of what just happened.  "Back at the reservation are people who could probably take out these bulls with a single shot from a bow before it even got close."

At least... back at the reservation... when it was the case, they actually USED everything they got from the kill of the buffalo.  But this... this was...  Juli was fast to see it.

"Olvere, did Fenrir talk to you about this, first?  You seem... um..."

"Yes... yes, she did."  She had agreed to it.  She said she wouldn't stop it. "I... I said she could go ahead.  I understand what Fenrir feels strongly about..."

"Well... okay... But I thought that..."

Why was Agent Juli pushing the issue?  She didn't want to talk about it!  Juli herself said that Shadowlaw was an evil organization of evil sheer evilness.  Did she not think that Olivia realized this?

Fortunately, Desire was fast to remove the pressure.  Maybe a failure, underneath everyone else, but by now she had at least learned the ropes of the strings to pull for the group.  "Juliaaaa!  Don't you think it's a waste, eh?  You should come back to the reservation with me someday and we can see how some real hunting for survival is done instead of this silly pointless sport, right?"

Of course, just when you're out of the frying pan, you often find you're in the fire.  Olivia actually didn't mind Agent Juli that much.  She was simply an observer.  The true threat had just arrived.

"I can't believe you didn't stop him."  Ms. Illyna Heartlock stated.  "Tell me, Olivia.  How long are you going to let this go on?  How long are you going to let them get away with this?  Did you see that?  ARE YOU EVEN PAYING ATTENTION TO ME!?"

They say that if you just ignore the stupider animals, they'll go away.

"Olivia!  OLIVIA!"

Well, it wasn't going away, but it was a really stupid animal because all of that shouting was attracting the Desire's attention.

"Soulmate sense tingling!"

Fortunately, the roaring of the crowd drowned out the rather enlightening voice which so enjoyed going around blurting out Olivia's real name in public.  Unlike her confused companions, Olvere could actually understand the announcement.  And she knew it was coming, and it made her cringe.  But when faced with the possibility of dealing with a predator out to kill or the leader of the pack, the choice was obvious.  Even if the leader was leading the rest into the wild unknown.

"And now, a new challenger to the ring from the Foreign land, Ferishi!!!!"

Agent Juli had yet to learn Spanish, but even she could identify the name, it seemed.  "Mweh?  Ferishi?"

She must have heard it from someone before.  Probably Bremare, judging from that day Olvere and Fenrir saw her in that room.  From the ring, although it was a long way down, she could already see Fenrir happily waving to her, Juli, and Desire.  Illyna, as always, wasn't amused.

"Do you see that, Olivia?!?  She's going to have Stormbringer devour some bull souls and you're doing nothing about it!"

Ignore the stupid beast.  It was all Olivia could do.

"Stormbringer is going to devour BS, Olivia.  Let me say that out slowly for you.  B U L L   S..."

At the very least, however, other members of the pack are fast to protect their comrades, even when it doesn't benefit them.  This includes protection from stupid beasts who just don't get a clue, and Desire was more than happy to take the role once again.  "OOOOOLVERE!!!!  Why are you talking to that girl when you could be talking to.. um... drat.  Lemme check my astrology charts for who your soulmate was, again."

Nope, Illyna was not very amused at all.  Especially when Juli decided to join in, even if by accident.

"Does Fenrir even know HOW to bullfight?"

"Yep!  She read a whole book on bullfighting for dummies!"  Desire happily beamed, either completely aware of the situation or completely clueless.  Or perhaps a combination of both.

Juli and Olivia both had to stare in shock though when they saw Fenrir get slammed into the wall by one of the biggest bulls Olivia had ever seen.  This was fast followed by an loud echoing "OOOOOOOOOOW..." given out by the entire audience!  Except Desire.

"YAY FENRIR!"

This.... this was... it was Olvia's turn to become the hunter.

"Illyna!  What the hell is that!?  You used those steroids on a BULL?!?"

"Insurance, Olivia."  The prey was snapping back.  "I had hoped that Taurus would crush a little snake today, but it appears that I'll have to be satisified with it stomping your MURDEROUS little friend."

What!?  But this... this...

"Now tell me, Olvere.  Isn't that exciting?"

This was getting old.  If Olvere wasn't trying to brainstorm a way out of this, she would have slapped Illyna right there for the corny stealing of her quote.

Bullfighting for Dummies.  The average bull weighs a lot!

Fenrir stared at the rather... chunky beasty ten tons of fun in front of her.  She didn't recall them looking this big in the photographs.  Nor did they have so many... lumps.  Or breasts!

Bullfighting for Dummies.  The average bull hates the color red.

Olvere was kind enough to tell Fenrir that the average bull just hated motion in general.  Besides, the only red Fenrir could see was in this bull's eyes.  Really really red bloodshot eyes.  Though soon she would be the one in motion again.  Probably flying through the air yet again, too.  Then, just as it did thirty seconds ago, the wall would be kind enough to stop said motion.

Bullfighting for Dummies.  The average bull can be defeated if one is nimble and reflexively able to step aside then stab the bull as it goes by.

Mmm... stabbing.  Too bad it was impossible to step aside something this fucking BIG.

Bullfighting for Dummies.  The average bull will easily crush your average dummy.

Last time she tried it ended with her face meeting the wall and it was only a fast roll that saved her from becoming a bull-made pancake.

Bullfighting for Dummies.  If a gorilla stares at you, just stare back.  Don't run or it will give chase.

Pancake indeed.  It was charging again.  Which meant it was time to run again, too.  And gorilla?!?  Fenrir really had to figure out where Desire got that stupid book.  She could almost feel the floor shake as the thing charged after her.  Shit.  Was the audience laughing or just being too shocked to do anything?  Did it matter?  Oh great, Vega would never let her corpse hear the end of this...

Assassinating for Dummies.  The average bullet to the head will kill you dead.  This includes bulls that are out to trample those who tried to bullfight based entirely on what they got from a stupid book called Bullfighting for Dummies.

With a soft bang, all was silent.

Fenrir looked at her shoulder to see Olvere's pet monkey Tams on it.  Erm... armed with a sniper rifle.  Before the monkey leapt off and ran into a grating by the arena edge and out of site, that is.  She only wished that she could do the same...

Juli didn't think she'd see the day when she'd be walking away from a coliseum through an empty parking lot with Fenrir bitching about bulls on steroids.  They should have gone home a long time ago, but they were sticking around because Fenrir insisted on figuring out who was against her so much.  At least Juli knew it wasn't Olvere's doing, since she went so far as to send her rather interesting pet monkey Tams to save the day.

"And further more, don't those fools have any security to prevent this stuff, dammit!?  People's lives are at stake here!  Why, if I wasn't so finely trained to..."

"Run away?"  Desire added.

Fenrir shot the Native American girl a glare then continued with her rant about randomness.  It wasn't long before it was interupted again when some sort of spinning blue glowing missile shot out of no where and sent Juli crashing into a nearby phone booth.  The brunette staggered to her feet, though she already knew from the pain searing through her who did the assault.  Without a word, she turned back then came flying straight for Ophelia's face with a sniping arrow kick, then after knocking Ophelia into the air, followed up with a cannon spike, sending the girl flying upwards AGAIN.  While in the air, Ophelia quickly recovered, and her feet touched the floor at the same time Juli's did.

Juli crossed her arms.  "You know, that's getting VERY ANNOYING!"

"Give me the..."

"I am NOT giving you my stupid mask, Ophelia!"

"Yes you..."

"No!"

"IT'S..."

"NO!"

"Such a strange girl."  Fenrir remarked to Olvere as Juli and Ophelia continued to scream at each other.  "I never knew that the DOLL project actually went that far."

"How should I know?"  Kneeling down so her monkey could climb onto her shoulder, Olvere stood back up and joined in observing Juli and Ophelia's screaming contest.  "I only have a small amount of knowledge on it, and you never told me that much about it."

"Blame Janet for that.  I thought you didn't care, anyway."

"True... right now, I'm a bit worried about other things."  Olvere looked off to the side, ignoring the two dolls that were currently in argument.  Juli was angrily pointing at her mask and waving it to Ophelia for some strange unimportant reason, and Ophelia, who was crossing her arms, stopped and decided to throw an even bigger hissy fit of her own.  Fenrir and Desire had just about helped themselves to the remainder of the leftover popcorn when the African agent noticed a rather large troupe of men walking down the road, led by none other than Ms. Heartlock, herself.

And then there was silence.  It was only too bad that the sun wasn't setting, though Juli figured she was probably better off without any goofy cowboy suspense music anyways.  She recognized the leader of the pack as that girl sitting next to Olvere earlier, though.  And it was obvious from the scowling look on Olvere's face that the two weren't on the best of terms.

"Good day... Illyna.  Getting just a little too open, aren't you?"

"When the wolves see the sheep, they don't bother on trying any stealth tactics if the shepherd isn't around, Olivia."

Olivia, was it?  First Ferishi and now Olivia?  Juli wondered what name Desire got, since Desire seemed like such an awkward name to give someone... but then again, so did Olvere and Fenrir.  She was almost too perplexed and intrigued to notice Ophelia snatching her mask but she quickly got it back with a fast spinning knuckle to the poor naive clone's gut.

"OLVEEERE!"  By now, Desire's outbursts were getting really annoying.  The girl sadly didn't notice Fenrir's signal to shut up.  "We should get going!  This is bad!  You can't afford to be hanging out with bad influences that are merely copout signatures of your astrology compatibility if..."

"Camel's back is broken."  Illyna interupted.  With that signal, one of her men took out a pistol and fired.  Fortunately, Olvere saw it and punched Desire, sending her flying out of the way before the bullet could take her out.  There was more silence for a bit as Fenrir stared at Desire in shock while Olvere readied her spear, and Illyna casually took a semi-automatic out of her purse.  Olvere looked even more pissed off than ever.

"Illyna, remember that you crossed the line first.  Did you know what you just did?  Trying to kill Desire... I'm going to have to send you through more pain than even Aurora could do just out of principle now.  I suppose you wouldn't understand anything beyond simple pack instincts.  You wouldn't know what the word masonic even means."

"Olivia, you need to learn to just get to the point."  Illyna responded as her men drew out various guns and weapons of their own.  "I hope you and your friends are prepared to join the death coil that you allowed so many innocent animals before you to suffer."

Olvere instinctively shoved Desire behind Fenrir before rolling out of the way as the rain of bullets came at them.  Juli had already knocked out one of the men aiming at her with a sniping arrow kick, and Ophelia knocked away the other with a cannon drill before they were even done drawing their weapons.  Unfortunately, Juli realized even as she and Ophelia created a mass confusion by being right in the midst of the PETA group that Fenrir and Desire were probably already riddled with bullets by then, but a quick glance at where Fenrir was standing showed that she was blocking off all of the bullets from her and Desire simply by spinning her sword around.

It was the Raintaker sword she had recently acquired, and when Fenrir spinned it around in a windmill, it actually created some sort of light shield that was blocking the bullets.  Juli couldn't figure out why Fenrir had decided to use Raintaker at that time since she seemed like she despised the defensive sword and would always opt for Stormbringer instead, but she didn't have much time to think about it since she was right in the middle of almost an entire unit of crazed gun wielding animal lovers.

A few of Desire's tomahawks flew overhead as Juli quickly did a spinning knuckle around someone who was trying to shoot her pointblank before directing the punch to said someone.  It looked like things would be going well, until Juli was slammed in the back of the head by a quick punch followed with a leaping uppercut from Illyna sending her tumbling away.  She quickly leapt to her feet and saw Ophelia flip towards Illyna then come down with a diving kick in a new variant of the hooligan combo, although even the psycho power charged kick was knocked away by Illyna performing another uppercut, this time a hyped up super version which made a flash of light that looked like it was shaped like a dolphin for some weird reason.

Arming her semi as some of her men continued to suppress Fenrir from being able to take any action with intense gun fire (and Desire's tomohawk attacks from behind were really quite easy to dodge).  Olvere ended up having to take cover behind the sword wielding girl, too.  Which actually meant that Juli and Ophelia were sorta screwed.  It was something Illyna took full advantage of, as three of her men pointed their guns at Ophelia now that Illyna was able to knock them both away and get some distance between her group and the two agents.

The battle paused for a moment as Illyna took the opportunity  to savor the hostage situation.

"Ha!  Well, Olivia, it looks like I get to win at least today.  I'll kill your masked friend and leave the rest of your little nonPETA pack of murderous fiends to die, later.  One step at a time.  That was how you liked doing things, wasn't it?"

Olvere crossed her arms.  "Illyna, I barely know that one.  I wouldn't exactly call her a friend just yet."

Her reply caused a look of surprise and dissappointment to appear in Illyna's face as she stared at the masked girl.

"You mean you wouldn't be devastated if I killed this one?"

"Not really."

Really aggravated, Illyna slammed her purse to the floor.  "God dammit!  Well, I'll kill her anyway since she's helping you out THEN I'll kill one of your stupid Shadowlaw friends and get to the rest of them at a later time!  Men, fire!"

The men raised their guns when a claw went straight through one of them.  He gasped once and then slumped down on.  He'd have fallen, save the claw was holding him up.  It retracted and the corpse fell to reveal Vega standing behind him.

“DOLLs though they may be, they are still Shadowlaw agents, and Lord Bison would be very upset if I let members of his personal harem get killed.”

Illyna was actually delighted at the newcomer's presence.

“Men, kill Vega!” Illyna screamed at the thugs.  The men aimed their guns at the Shadowlaw Lord.  Vega rushed forward, leapt over the thugs and gave a sharp kick to a thug at the back of the neck.

“I mean, really, Fenrir, you must understand you can never be as great as me.” Vega continued nonchalantly as he slaughtered the thugs. “Beautiful though you may be, all you are is some stuck up slut with delusions of grandeur.  One moment.” He was now behind a thug.  He quickly snapped his neck.

“And Agent Juli, really, following these imbeciles around?  I had thought you possessed more common sense than that.”

Vega's claw sliced through one of the thug's chest and raked across another's face. “And Ophelia…What can I say about you?  I thought all the DOLLs were supposed to have private fantasies about Lord Bison or some such thing.  I thought it had been programmed into you, or something.  I'll remind you again Ophelia; leave me alone.  I'm not your father.”

Illyna was backing away when Vega leapt on her.  He was behind her suddenly, his fingers pressed up hard on her neck.

“This is a nerve that runs all the way down the side of the body.  When the proper pressure is applied to it-“ He said pressing down as hard as he could and Illyna cried out. “-It can cause immense pain.  The Japanese call it tonke.  I'll let you go back to your supervisors at the PETA and tell them that if they send any more hired muscle after me, they'll be sorry.  I did get your thug in my quarters, or did you not know that?  Hmph.  In any case, stay out of my affairs now or I'm afraid things will get much nastier and bloodier.  I don't play well with others.”

Vega gave Illyna one more sharp press on the nerve and then tossed her away. He nodded curtly to the DOLLs.

“I have a plane to catch. I'd advise you to return as quickly as possible as well.”

A black limo had pulled up during the fight.  Vega wiped his claw on one of the dead thugs and opened the door to the limo.  He sat down in the backseat and closed the door.  The limo drove off.

There was a long moment of silence and the group continued to stare even long after the limo was gone.  Of course, Illyna was gone by the time they all came to, but most of them didn't care about her anymore.  Ophelia actually ended up dissappearing during that time, too.

Desire finally decided to say something.

"So, anyway, Vega named Cammy Ophelia and now she thinks he's his father and he said something about us being programmed.  I think Vega himself really needs to find his own soulmate cause he's acting really weird thinking and doing stuff like that, neh?"

Juli, Fenrir, and Olvere simply looked at her without saying a word.  It was time to go home.

"Hello, Illyna."

"That's Ms. Heartlock to you, Olvere."

"I see that's still important to you."

"I see that yours is not."

It was darkness again.  What was it like?  For a leader of the pack to face a leader of a rival pack, but the rival leader not even know that the other leader... was a leader?

Olivia couldn't help but laugh inwardly at Vega mistaking Illyna to be a mere henchwoman.  It just went to show how crude her methods were, perhaps.  Oh, it had been a very exciting day indeed.  And Illyna herself was quite mistaken with everything.  The animal's natural camoflage had worked.

"Just remember, Olvere, a mutualism is just that and nothing more.  Once the alligator realizes it no longer needs the bird to pick its teeth, it's going to bite down on you HARD."

Ah, Illyna.  You never could understand anything beyond that of the species on the lower rung of the ladder.  What she told Olivia would have had a point, except the relationship wasn't one of mere mutual benefit anymore.  Perhaps it was one day, but there is always more wonderful exciting things besides that which is at the outset.

There are those in the PETA that value animal life above humans, but failed to remember that humans were living creatures and in fact, animals too.  The militant arm of the PETA is more like several arms, all of which act independently of each other towards a common goal.  Or at least... that's what they thought.  But they couldn't really all work together that well.  Ah well, Olivia would have to reform it soon enough, if only for her father's sake.  Truth was, however, that she decided that in the end, she probably preferred what the more higher (not, as certain PETA members believed, the lesser) of the various species did.  They said humanity was broken, but it wasn't like the other members were giving any effort to fix it.

"Where are you going, Olvere?  Hey!  Come back here!  I'm not finished talking with you!"

Stupid animals go away if ignored.  Or if they didn't, it was at least fun to watch them get frustrated.

Olvere shut the door on her way out.