Never let go (Loo, Bailey, Rose)

Kuma looked around, his sword in hand. After a long day of work, all he had wanted to do was go back to his apartment. Nobody wants to be in the lower ring after dark. Yet it seemed that Kuma would not get his wish. Cato, his snow leopard, had been walking calmly alongside him when he suddenly stopped, ears pricked and hairs standing. That's when Kuma knew something was wrong.

"Show yourself!" He shouted, holding the reinforced ice sword in front of him, slowly rotating, never focusing on a single spot for too long. Cato didn't seem to have the location of the disturbance pinpointed, and was thus looking around, listening and sniffing, to try and find whoever or whatever was there. Then he stopped and focused on a trash can across the street and growled. "I see it. Stay here boy." Kuma ran across the street and kicked the trash can, which would have gone flying had there not been a man hiding behind it. "Now!" the man yelled, and suddenly five more descended from rooftops and emerged from alleyways.

"Get the leopard!" One of them yelled. "No!" Kuma shouted, looking across the street at Cato, who was surrounded by 3 men. He lunged at one, sinking his teeth into the man's throat. But it wasn't two seconds before one of the men started jabbing Cato in various pressure point, knocking him to the ground, unable to move. Kuma was preoccupied with the man behind the trash can, who drew a katana. "That leopard will fetch a lot of money on the black market, dead or alive," he said, and Kuma was filled with rage. He lunged at the man, and, after a few exchanged blows, stabbed the man clean through the shoulder. He fell to the ground yelling, and Kuma kicked him in the head, knocking him out.

Kuma spun around to see how Cato was doing, but all he saw on the other side of the street was the bloody body of the man Cato had killed.

Kalini was walking home from another late shift at the tea shop. She hated being out late, but that was when she made the best money. When she heard a growl she hide the money she was counting away letting her hands light up with fire. She looked around to see where the growl was coming from, and froze when she saw the leopard. "Shh kitty I am friend not foe. I will not hurt you if you won't hurt me."

Trace couldn't believe her eyes. She stood inches before the most prized possession her brother would ever offer her. A chance at blending a silver danger into an intricate piece of lace-work for some fair lady. "d*mn, and I bet she wont even appreciate it, much less use it correctly." Trace muttered under the chin strap of the welding helmet. "Let it go, you will have more if you do it correctly." Her brother teased her before blowing more fuel onto the fire and lighting the room with the embers.

Was it possible to just let something of such exquisite beauty leave the shop so easily? Trace couldn't wrap her head around it when she started to hear a commotion out side. Something of a large mass was being attacked, and Trace wasn't going to just stand there and let them continue attacking the poor defenseless creature.

*THUD*

That was until a rather large body came crashing into the door of the shop and landed just outside.

A shiver sent through Trace's back and she pushed on to see what was going on. Was someone being attacked, or was someone attacking the leopard. Trace couldn't really see. "I'll be right back, I have to go do something girly...." Trace lied to her brother as she let the silver fall out of her hands onto her workstation and started to run out the door. The scene outside was a trip to take in. Several thugs were trying to wrestle the leopard to the ground while a boy fought with a few more. "Thieves." Trace said under her breath and started to launch herself at them, welding wrench in hand as she swung at anyone and everyone who came close to the leopard. "TOUCH HER AGAIN, I DARE YOU!!!"

Kalini looked over at the girl swallowing nervous before looking at the leopard. "I am not with the theives. I am not here to hurt you. I'm just on my way home. " She saw the blood thinking it was hurt. "Are you hurt?"

Kalini looked over at the girl carrying a wrench swallowing nervous. "I am not with the theives. I am not here to hurt the leopard . I'm just on my way home. " She heard a girl looking at the leopard again gasping at the blood thinking it was hurt from the attack. "Are you hurt?"

Kuma tried to clear his vision, but an illusion bender was obviously at work here, and not a very good one at that. He could hear shouting from across the street, but saw nothing. Somebody was playing with his eyes. So he decided not to use them. He realized that he had four other perfectly good senses, and he would use them to his advantage. He tore a piece of fabric from his shirt and wrapped it around his eyes, blindfolding himself. He then ran across the street, focusing completely on sound.

Two female voices collided with the shouting male voices, one strong and commanding, the other smaller and weaker, likely younger. Yet it was obvious that they were both young overall. The stronger voice was accompanied by the familiar grunts of battle. The other voice was closer to the ground, and she seemed to be checking if someone, or something was okay. The feel of Cato's fur confirmed Kuma's suspicions. He turned his attention in the direction of the fighting woman. Avoiding the location of her voice, her attacked, using the way her voice was carried to decide where his enemies were.

Before long, Kuma was swinging at nothing. He pulled off the blindfold to find all of the men either dead or unconscious, the illusion spell broken. Beside him stood a strong woman wielding possibly the most beautiful blade Kuma had seen. Kneeling on the ground next to Cato was a younger woman, likely in her late teens, checking the snow leopard's wounds. Unfortunately, Cato was unconscious.

Kalini pulled out a kit going to work stiching up the cat. "Are you this beautiful animals owner? He will be okay he just needs to rest."

(Loo, Trace has a wrench, not a blade)

Trace stood there, wielding her wrench like a blade, slashing at the thieves until only one was left. She couldn't stand the look on his face as he laid beneath her foot, the boot bracing him to the ground and restricting his movements. "Tell me why I shouldn't just continue knocking the snot out of you right now. What could possibly stop my wrench from making contact with that perfectly soft skull of yours?" She asked as the thug tried to wrestle his way out of the trap. The more he wrestled, the more she leaned toward that side of her body, shifting the weight onto that boot and his ribs. "Please, your going to crush me." The thug called out as he struggled under her. "Then answer my question. WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!" Trace yelled, swinging the wrench down and burying it into the Earth there beside his head, close enough to scare but not close enough to hurt him. "We were after the leopard, but it's not worth it anymore. PLEASE LET ME GO!!" the man screamed out in cowardice. Trace took a breath, raised the wrench above her head, then rested it gently on her shoulder. "The leopard, eh. Then I guess the owner of the leopard deserves to decide your fate." Trace said as she looked over her shoulder toward the gentleman that had been caught in the fray. Without a thought, Trace dropped a blacksmith's sledgehammer, that had had the handle cut down to normal length, down on the man's chest and walked over to the man. "His judgment is yours. Just tell me what to do. Honestly, I just want to land my wrench into the side of his skull, but I don't get to decide."