This Means War Ch. 02

Hey guys! Sorry for such a long wait for just the second chapter! I was hoping to get this one done posted sooner, but I had sent it back to my editor after I had made some changes, but my editor sort of... disappeared? I hope it's okay, even without the second edit. Enjoy!

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A gentle shaking of Kyra's shoulder drifted her away from sleep before a hard tug on the same shoulder finally snapped her from her slumber. She quickly jolted to a stiffened upright position, her vision still tinted red from her dream of her most recent assassination. Her small adrenaline rush subsided and awareness graced her with its presence.

"Wake up!" a deep, male voice called to her. She lulled her head to the side, relaxing and engaging her innocent civilian facade once again. Her partially opened eyes took in a well built, young man dressed in Hora's typical, deep blue, police uniform. It was adorned with Hora's intricate lilac insignia sewed onto the right breast pocket.

"Wwhaat?" A small slur of sleepiness escaped her lips to draw out her little act.

The officer grumbled deeply before slowly pulling Kyra out of the truck by her forearm, which she made a show out of by stumbling and forcing the officer to catch her before she ate some of the asphalt. As soon as the officer had gotten her out of the way and in an upright position, it allowed the others on her bench to pile out and form a group behind the truck. Immediately, heavily armed guards flanked the group's sides before proceeding to move them along towards the capital building, where they would be logged into the criminal database.

Kyra finally allowed herself to straighten up and look fully awake before she took in the darkening blue sky of the evening. She glimpsed at the nicely paved roads and poured sidewalks that were flawless and absent of cracks. The capital building of Hora was made from concrete but had nicely polished marble columns that supported the twenty-five foot lip of the top of the building. The steps towards the building looked just as nice as the rest of it. The building was three stories high, but it looked quite minuscule compared to the ten and fifteen story buildings surrounding the city's center and capital building. Hora was a decent country, just beginning to flourish into something beautiful.

"Dylan, get a move on and get that girl into the capital. We need her logged and tagged before sundown. You should know the orders by now." A stern female voice filled Kyra's ears before the woman stepped into her view, holding a sniffling woman by the forearm. The woman's brunette hair was put up into a tight bun, and she was also wearing the usual police uniform of Hora's capital, but it was adorned with a captain's badge pinned above the left breast pocket.

She could feel the officer holding her forearm stiffen as his grip got just a bit tighter before speaking to his captain, "Yes, ma'am!"

The young officer tugged on Kyra's arm, leading her up the steps towards the capital building's entrance. He pushed the door open with his free hand, smoothly guiding her through the main entrance. The front desk was located twenty feet directly in front of the entrance doors and was carved from a polished redwood and took up a fair proportion of the length of the room. All the attention, though, went mostly to the glistening marble floors. Unfortunately, Kyra couldn't take in anymore of the gorgeous capital building since the officer was already tugging her through long hallways and corridors of the building. The pair then rapidly entered a small medical wing, fast approaching one of the many, white and sterile doors. He quickly unlocked and opened a the door that lead into an equally sterile and white room that contained only a few white cabinets and a metal examining table that was bolted to the floor.

"You wait here until the nurse comes to log and tag you." With that, the young officer exited and closed the door, which locked behind him with a simple click.

Kyra quickly walked over to the cabinets, careful to open them after covering her hand with her sleeve. After opening the third cabinet, she spotted a box of disposable latex gloves, which she promptly removed a pair from the box and pulled them onto her hands. Afterwards, she put things to how they were before and took a seat on the examining table, making sure to sit on her hands and hide them from view.

A few minutes ticked by before an exhausted and overworked nurse entered the room. Her sandy brown hair was haphazardly pulled back into a ponytail, and her eyes had deep bags under them. She didn't look too happy, either.

"Let's make this quick and get it over with. All I need is your fingerprint, a blood sample, and your signature at the bottom of this form." She placed a clipboard with several pieces of paper and a pen attached to it onto the examining table next to Kyra. "I hope your not squeamish with needles because it's going in you one way or another."

As the nurse turned away to get to work at the cabinets, Kyra got off her hands and soundlessly slid off the table. She took a few steps towards the nurse before delivering a solid punch to the base of the nurse's neck before wrapping one arm around the nurse's waist and clamping a hand over her mouth as she pinched the nurse's nose closed.

The nurse sucked in deeply, only to meet the resistance of Kyra's hand. Immediately, the nurse thrashed about trying to pry Kyra's hand away from her mouth, all the while trying to suck in the smallest amount of precious air. In a matter of moments the nurse slumped into Kyra's arms. Immediately, she removed her hand from the nurse's mouth, allowing the nurse to breathe once again as she laid the nurse onto the floor.

She gave her a quick search and found the key to the door in no time. After stripping the woman of her uniform and changing into it, Kyra used her own, dirty clothes to tie the woman to the leg of the examining table. Quickly, she shoved the key into the lock and opened the door as casually as possible, after grabbing the clipboard to look like it was just another day of working at the capital. Taking long strides down the hallway, Kyra made her way through the capital building with ease, not taking any moment to admire the architect and design of the building.

The doors of the capital building released her into the open, evening air of the city. She took a long, deep breath, ready to see her sister and superior once again.

"Where are you going? All expelled criminals from Fell are to report to the Holding Block after being logged into the database, and it doesn't look like you have been logged in," the same woman from earlier roughly grasped her forearm, dragging Kyra over to a sleek black car before handcuffing her arms behind her back and roughly shoving her into the car. "Did you really expect to get away that easily from me?"

The only reaction Kyra could give the woman was shocked silence.

As soon as both of them were in the car, and it was lurching forward into traffic, Kyra let a smile spread across her lips. "How have you been, sis? It's been... What? Three years now?"

"Just about, girly!" The key to the handcuffs thudded against the seat next to her. "It's nice finally seeing you. How was living in Fell for three years?"

Kyra sighed, "Exhausting. You should have been there, Laura. Can you believe our superior made me work as a grocery check-out clerk?"

As soon as she was able to grab the key and wiggle it into the lock, the handcuffs clicked open and fell onto the seat, allowing Kyra to bring her wrists to the front of her. She quickly peeked out the window, staring at the cars as they passed them by.

"I actually can believe him doing that to you. Ryan has always teased you by doing those kind of things," Laura gave a quick look at Kyra with a smirk plastered on her face, "Anyway... I hope you're okay with being shipped out into the war zone in Terran as soon as we get to the Hold."

"Of course I am! I feel like I'm doing something more than just sitting around when I'm over there."

Laura's tone had quickly changed, and Kyra could see that her expression had become dark as she climbed into the passenger seat next to Laura.

Laura stared into her eyes. "Terran is falling, and Ryan wants you to be there when it happens," She gave a quick look at the road before looking back at Kyra, "He wants you to be taken as a Prisoner of War to take Fell down from the inside."

Kyra stared at the road, grinning. "You know I love inside jobs like these. I can't wait." A small bubble of laughter escaped her lips.

"Kyra, this one isn't going to be as easy. You're going to have to do something big to capture the attention of the Rulers of Fell before you're taken, so you can really take them down."

"That won't be hard at all."

It was time to get back in the game.