It's Dangerous Business

The sun announced the next day with sunshine and lots of wind.
The killer woke up quite late, Elena and Richard had already had their third coffee and 2nd croissant by now.
With a major headache and aching muscles did she slowly crawl out of the small bed and headed into the bathroom, not saying a word to her two friends, who rose their hands to greet her, chewing their croissants still.
She quickly took a shower and came out feeling a little fresher and more clear in her mind.
"So .. someone sure had fun last night." Elena began, Richard grinning big, trying not to laugh.
"Ah sheesh .." Rubi just mumbled and shook her head, rolling her eyes.
"So what next?" Richard dared to ask, offering Rubi a piece of the croissant. She denied it.
"I don't know .. maybe we should all go our own ways now. The drug guys will have tons of problems for who knows how long anyways, so."
Silence followed. Even though nobody admit it, they've all had their fun during this whole, crazy, wild adventure.
Rubi gave herself a push, and against her own nature she offered;
"Well .. what about you guys coming to my place until we find out more about what's going on in the world, and how we can profit from it?" she grinned, and her two friends soon did too.

The sun was about to set again when the trio arrived at a abandoned area wich had a crashed plane in the center. “uhm Rubi? Where are we?” Elena asked. “Why did you brough us here? Not gonna gun us and leave us here are you? Richard asked nervously. “Don’t be silly! This is what I call home” The killer said and she walked towards the crashed plane. The duo stared at the god forsaken place and decided to follow her. “perfect place for a killer” Richard mubled, followed by a empty beer can got thrown to his head. “I heard that!” Rubi yelled and Elena chuckled. Rubi sat down and opened up another can of beer while offering the duo one as well. The taxi driver desided to pass, since he had enough beer for the couple of days. The trio watched at the sunset and suddenly it had gotten all cold in the deserted area. “It’s so cold! And I’m so tired!” Elena then said. “Oh, you can sleep here!” and Rubi threw down some matrasses on the ground with, nice, thick blankets. “Well it’s better then the floor overrunned with beer and other trash” Richard then said followed by a “Ouch” when Rubi threw a second beer can towards him. “hey stop that!” the taxi driver said. “Not till you stop complaining about my home!” Rubi then sneered. After a good laugh the trio desided that it was time for another night of rest. Who knows when their next adventure will be?

"So... what about showing us your place here?", Elena suggested, sitting on the floor and looking out on the desert, while Richard was inspecting Rubi's hideout with a more or less disgusted look on his face. "Good idea, we don't have anything specific to do anyway. I mean, we won't find any of these guys for now, 'cause we lost the trail... soooo, you could maybe show us some of your moves or train us a bit?", Richard suggestingly explained. "Train you? Oh well, why not." The killer jumped down the platform of the plane the trio was sitting in and walked across the dusty floor until she reached some kind of plateau she climbed up. "Up here", she yelled, when Elena and Richard went around like two lost morons. "Oh, there she is", the reporter laughed and saw their friend standing on a higher place, where you could see a cable leading down to another one of those frameworks.

“Oh no… Not climbing up there…” the taxi driver complainet. Elena was already halfway and gave Richard some help. The killer stood above waiting and getting impatient, so she just rolled of the cable already. Richard froze when he saw that followed by a big sigh. “I will never be able to do that! What if I suddenly let go and break something!?” Elena helped him up further. When they got up Elena mumbled that it was pretty high. Richard, who wanted to impress Elena picked his gun out of his pocket and jumped with the gun between his hands towards the cable. “Whoa!!!” he yelled followed by a loud yell of Rubi who duck away. What followed next was very painfull for the duo to see. Richard smacked with his face against the wooden pole and came hard on the wooden planks. “ooooh…” Rubi mumbled and shook her head. Elena followed down on a very professional way and helped Richard up. “Ouch… first the beer cans and now this…” Elena got away some of the blood which was dripping out of his brown hair. “You’re gonna be alright. Lie down for a bit!” Elena ordered. And the duo walked away from Rubi. Rubi sighed. “Seems we have a lot of training to do with that guy…”

As soon as they've been heading out, out into another hot and dry day in the desert, they soon found themselves almost crashing together with a woman, dressed in pure green.
"Whoa!" they all shouted at once and managed not to run into each other all the way, but the woman stopped right in front of them.
"Now who are you!? And what are you doing on my ground?!" Rubi growled, pulling one of her pistols, loading them obviously.
The stranger made a soothing hand gesture, trying to calm the killer "Calm it!" she took a deep breath "I've been chased by Hyllian troops .. I thought that area seemed rather save and .." she turned her head and then looked back at the still confused trio "it seems to BE save."
"The Hyllian?" Richard asked, lifting an eyebrow.
"New government. Not heard of it yet?"
"No." Rubi answered annoyed.
"They are small .. but they will be bigger. They are startin' to make advertisement everywhere. Troops, covered in bullet-proof armor, carrying big weapons on their backs, axes .. or swords that seem to have some kind of new technology in them, that allows them to shoot as well .. "
"Why haven't we heard of them?" Elena asked, crossing her arms.
"They are new, just like I said. They are more popular in some areas around the world. I tried to move, in order to escape them .. they've taken over the little island I've been living on .. we've been living on" the woman's face took a sad expression.
"Sounds like a story." Richard said, looking at Rubi.
She finally sighed and went back to the plane, the others following her.

"Sooooo, those Hy...hyli...thiiiiings. Who are they?", Elena tried to find out, when the mysterious woman dressed in green sat on the opposit side of the room, on some old chair which it was almost impossible to sit at. "Won't you give her some proper chair?", Richard lifted his eyebrow, when Rubi was cutting smilies into the "wall" of her house with her sword. "What? I don't know her, why should I give her the goood stuff?", she joked like a drug addict talking about heroin, while she was sitting on the only chair in that room which wasn't about to collapse any minute.

Trying to get somewhat comfortable, she moved as few as she could.
Coughing, to clean her throat, she continued what she had to say:
"The Hyllian is the island I lived on. The hyllian troops were supposed to take care of us, but instead they did just the opposite. I am working for an organisation called the Iris. Which is trying to figure out, what the Hyllian troops are really after."
"But what does that have to do with you? Why get involved in all that?" Elena asked.
The woman in green hesitated for a while, the question seemed to hurt her.
"They blew up my home, along with all the kids I took care off, they also captured my uncle."
It was silent for a while, but Rubi's sigh broke it.
"I am sorry for you, but it ain't our business, sweetie."
Richard and Elena gave her the evil eye.
"Come on, Rubi! Can't you be nice here and there?" Elena dared.
Now it was Elena who got an evil eye from Rubi.
"I am already being way too nice with you guys!" she answered back.
Both sighed, knew that they won the killer over anyways.
"Guess you can stay. But .. we don't even know your name just yet." Richard brought in.
"Jade ... my name is Jade." a slight smile came over her face.
"Well .. welcome in the club, Jade!" Elena smiled big.

Riding in his car, in a deserted place, U.S. Marshall Raylan givens was heading out to a small place with a crashed plane.
He was given a assignment to find a woman named Rubi Malone. The reason was that she might be involved in a lot of cases they did lately. Along with 2 of her companions. When he arrived at the small place, He stepped out of his car. "Anybody here?" he yelled with his kentucky accent. A blonde woman came out of the entrance of the plane wreckage. "uhm.. Who might you be?" she said. "Good afternoon miss, my name's Raylan Givens." he tipped his finger on his hat. "I'm here to find miss Rubi Malone?"
"Why you're looking for her?" The blonde woman asked. The marshall then hold up his badge. "I think she might be involved in some cases we did earlier ma'am." What Raylan saw next was a schocked expression on the woman's face. 'what's goin' on here?' he then thought.

"Uh... please wait a second will ya", Elena smiled and as soon as the officer rolled his eyes, she dissapeared inside of the plane wrack again. "Uh... Rubi? You got some... company", she said, rubbing the back of her head. The killer roled her eyes and went outside on the platform, crossing her arms. "Who are you?", she hissed down. "Are you Miss Malone?" - "I asked first", Rubi went on. "Yah... you did. Well, my name is Raylan Givens. U.S. Marshall. And you are?"

"Your worst nightmare if you don't get your business ass off my ground in a minute" she answered growling, getting one of her pistols ready, smiling satisfied.
The agent smiled and shook his head "I am afraid that's not gonna happen, Miss Malone. You've been involved with the drug dealers, haven't you?"
"Didn't get any for myself unfortunately" she answered, playing with her gun still.
Richard and Elena gave each other a worried look, Jade decided for herself to stay back.
"So you have been involved." it was no question, he made a simple statement.
Rubi finally nodded, ready to fight if she had to.
"So?" she asked. waiting for what he would do next.

“That means that you had certain people involved as well…” The Marshal continued. “Ever heard of Richard Alpert and Elena Fisher?” Richard and Elena backed off a bit with shocked faces. Jade had no idea what was going on so she asked. “Shh!” was all she got back from a worried Elena. Rubi had no more patience. “Well, Yeh, got them here in the plane as hostage…” Rubi answered sarcastically. Raylan chuckled. “Very funny, miss Malone” “Well thanks.” And she started to play with her gun as Raylan slowly got his hand towards his holster. There followed a silence when suddenly Richard stepped out of the plane and showed himself to the marshal. “I’m sorry but we’ve done nothing wrong we only tried to help!” he then said. “So you must be Mister Alpert then.” Marshal Givens then said with a smile. “Well… uuhm…” but the taxi driver got cut off by Rubi. “So… What you want us to do cowboy?” “Well we want you to testify against a certain man.” He began with an even bigger smile. “What man?” Elena then stepped out as well. “Ah, miss Fisher, Hello again." and he turned himself to Rubi again. "Well a certain man who is the biggest drug dealer.” The trio frowned and looked at each other. “We’ve got the guy which made you go through a lot of trouble… And we want him locked up you see?” And he took off his hat. “Pfew… it’s really hot here ain’t it?” “You mean… you’ve got the big boss of all bosses of the drug dealer bosses boss?” Rubi then asked confused. “Yeh.” And Raylan nodded. “Well then what are we waiting for! Let’s lock this guy up!” Richard said happily. “uhm.. but should we trust him?”Elena then asked worried. “Beats me come on Elena!” Richard then said. And the taxi driver climbed down, ready to go and testify.

"There they are... my god, why is it so hard to figure out where those modern-time killer hideouts are...", she rolled her eyes, getting out of her Land Rover. "Woa... who's that guy?!" Chloe was about to enter the place through a whole in the big fence, when she saw a cop-like figure in front of a broken plane together with the trio. "Shit... he must've got them!", she hissed, hiding behind a few barrels laying around not too far away. "Oh crap... he's got a gun in his hands", the Australian fortune hunter figured out and sneaked forward so she would be able to knock the stranger out. Not able to hear what they were talking about she considered it the best thing to get out of her hideout and jump towards the bad guy before he was capable of doing them any harm. With a loud yell she did so and ran straight into the guy when she tackled him and they both fell at the dusty ground. "CHLOE?", Rubi was the first one who reacted and jumped down the plane right after Richard. Both of them joined the cop and the lady, when Elena also climbed down the killer's home. "Get off him, he's on our side!", the journalist laughed and pulled the courier off of the Marshall. "A cop? On our side? You gotta be kidding me!", Chloe said pretty confused and raised from the ground, while whiping the dust of her pants. "Come on", Richard smiled and obviously was happy about the woman's return, when he grabbed her arm and helped her getting up. "Woa, lady, you know that this will cost ya a lot of money!" - "Yah... right. Got plenty. You know... drug business and stuff", Chloe laughed and apparently scored at Rubi's black humor, as the killer raised her hand to earn a highfive from the partner in crime.

She heard it all, yet had no idea what they were talking about, or what was going on. But she sensed that it might had something to do with the Hyllian troop. If it was a dangerous man they were after, she felt the need to help them, and just hope that she could find the kids and her uncle as well.
Slowly climbing out and down the plane she stood behind the group, raising a hand, trying to catch their attention.
"Ehm .. what about me?" she asked insecure.
The cop whipped some more dust off his clothes and coughed to free his lungs from some sand.
"And you are?" he asked.
"Oh she .. " Elena began.
"Talking about Hyllians, and danger and other bullshit." Rubi mumbled, crossing her arms.
The Cop tilt his head, looking at the woman in green with more interest.
"The Hyllian, hm? I've heard of those before. A small group, very unpopular here, but I've heard they took over a whole island."
Jade nodded, hope shining in her eyes.
"I don't know what to do, young lady. So far all I got are rumors, but we can always use help. I see you have a camera with you" he pointed at the old camera, hanging down her chest, like a necklace.
She nodded smiling.
"I am working for the Iris, they are trying to figure out more of these Hyllian troops. I could help you with that drug guy. I've done researches before."
The cop seemed satisfied and nodded smiling.
"Then jump right in."
And the killer, journalist, taxi driver, photographer, rebel and cop got in the car together, heading towards a new adventure.

“So…” Richard began. “shut up!” Rubi then commanded. “What a lovely gang you five are…” Raylan said. “Uhm… I never hung out with this group, sir.” Jade said, who sat with Chloe, Elena and Rubi in the back. The marshal chuckled. “okay then.” A silence fell. “It’s nice to sit in a car again” Richard said happily. After that line, an awkward silence fell and suddenly Elena started to laugh. “What’s so funny miss Fisher?” Raylan said with a big grin. “He, he. It’s just that he’s a taxi driver… Guess it’s in his blood to drive.” And Richard smiled. “Why do marshals always have these kind of new looking expensive cars…” Rubi then said annoyed. Ignoring the killer the marshal asked a few questions to the group. About what happened to them and how they got involved in all this trouble. “Well and that’s how I ended up with those 2.” Richard just finished his story. “No you didn’t!! You said you joined us cause you liked me!” Elena then said annoyed. Chloe was laughing “ha ha you guys are funny.” And Raylan grinned along. “So all what you guys have done was purely self defense?” “yes sir Mr. marshal!” Rubi said with full boredom in her voice. “Okay, Then I will phone this over to our station and then the only thing we can do is hope that the guy will stay behind bars.” Raylan said when they arrived at a seashore. “Well here it is miss… Jade?” Jade got out of the car along with the other woman and looked over at the sea. “Well… How do we get at the damn island?” Chloe then said. “By boat?” the taxi driver said. The Marshal got out and pulled his phone out of his jacket. “You guys just stay here, and I will make the magic call.” And he walked off from the group dialing the number of his office.

"So... you're from... that island?" Jade nodded and looked into confused faces. "Huh... how come nobody knew what's going on over there?", the journalist went on, leaning against a tree. "Well..." - "Boat's ordered", Raylan smiled, putting his mobile back into his pocket and heading towards the small group sitting and standing aroud at the coast of the sea.

"It was an experience. A group of people have decided to try it live isolated and form a new society. A better one that the one known here. In the common world. Science and Physics grew, but socialism? Nah. Just became worse. I was actually born there, believe it or not. My parent were killed, they've been acting suspicious, so said the Hyllian troops ... but really, they found something, they didn't want them to, so they shut them up before it could reach publicity" Jade explained, everyone listening closely, Richard flicking a nose man, Elena in deep thoughts over what she heard, along with their new found friend the cop, Rubi just starring at the sea annoyed, her arms crossed.
"And you think the head of the drug dealers might be involved?" Elena asked the lady in green.
"I do" she nodded.
"I think, they have to give their troops a special serum, which connects them to their armor." she grabbed her camera and told the others to form a circle around her. Jade's camera showed them a picture of a brought man, muscular and big. He wore green, tight and tense looking armor, what shocked them was his face.
"Usually they wear masks for that matter" Jade added.
His face was totally deformed, it looked like it had been burned, the veins coming out, very visible to the naked eye. The eyes big and almost totally white and pale, like the skin.
No one found words to describe what the camera showed.

“So…” the taxi driver began but fell silence again. There where just no words for it to describe that monster showing on the camera. “I think we are having a major problem here guys” the marshal then added. “You’re not kidding” Chloe said. When suddenly they heard a man shouting. “Hey there Raylan!” and the group turned to the noise. A boat came along in the water. “Ah, well that was fast.” “so where you guys heading?” the man said. “Just to a small island.” Rubi then said rudely. “Hmmpf…” the man looked away. “So you guys ready? Elena said with already one leg on the boat. “wha? Wait a minute!? Do we even have weapons to take out that thing!?” Richard then said concerned. “Yeh well if we get attacked we have a marshal looking after our asses” “Rubi!” “Yeh, well sorry but it’s true!” “You have weapons to ma’am” the man with the hat then said. “You’re right mr. Marshal. Now let’s head towards there!” Jade then continued. And they all got on the boat.

"Uh... guys? No offense but could you perhaps... give me some place?", Chloe asked, when she was the only one standing inside of the boat, when the others were sitting. "Oh.. I'm sorry", Rubi said and scooted over, rolling her eyes. "Thank you kindly", the Australian said and sat down, sighing loudly enough for everyone to hear and look at her. "What? I'm stressed", she said and everyone looked at her even more. "Just... tell me when I gotta shut up" - "SHUT UP!" - "Okay okay..." The boat was coming closer to the literally tiny island in the middle of the ocean as the driver began to talk again. "So... what's the matter with that island?", he asked his Marshall compagnion. "Uh well... just acompagnying these guys, you remember that drug case we had?" - "The Crimsons?" - "Yah.. well.. something big's going on..."

"Crimson" Jade mumbled, paying few attention to that strange crew.
She has heard that name before, and she was sure it was in connection with the Hyllian troops.
But then, doubts entered her mind. Was it wise to even involve these people? What if they turned out to be an even bigger threat to their people?
They didn't seem familiar with .. the Hyllian civilization, neither their inhabitants, the terrain nor the species.
A sigh left the young woman's lips, she leaned her head back and looked at the clouds.

All of this concerned the killer little. But she did think of pulling a good face to a bad game, so to speak.
She might will get some money, after all these obstacles are over and she can enjoy her cold beer again.
It all sounded odd and strange to her. The world had forgotten about her, so she had forgotten about the world.
What happened to it, just rolled right off her back.
Checking her guns she waited until they'd arrive at the island.

After about an hour or two they sighted an island.
Passing several big stone entrances, huge archways, they drove with their little boat through a water street, so to say.
Right and left was the city, a city made of white stone. Beautiful and enchanting, big screens showing news and commercials, jets and flyers flying above them like cars on a street, along with several boats passing them, left and right. Thousands of people, black, white, olive, all skin types. But the strangest was yet to come.
"Do they have PERMISSION for that?!" Elena shouted, hardly heard over all that noise.
Goats and pigs, walking on their legs like human, dressed like human, acting like human. Smiling and waving at them, some talking with each other, some with other human, doing their shopping, anything else in their daily, obviously normal and peaceful life.
Even Rubi's jaw had dropped open.
"Holy beer can ... " she mumbled.
"What do you say to that, Mr. Cop?!" she hissed, lifting an eyebrow.
But the cop was smiling.
"I might wanna take a closer look on all that!" he said excitedly.
Jade smiled, but only on the outside. It might seemed peaceful, but it was only skin-deep.
And she was still worried over contacting them. For years and years, the outer world has forgotten them on their island, but now they were discovered once more.
Still, Jade kept hope in having picked good people, who were more concerned about people's safety than law and permissions.

"What the..." Elena's mouth was still open as she looked around and saw things even she could've never imagined. "Wow... that's even worse than anything I ever saw", she said with her eyes opened widely, when Jade was obviously angry about her statement. "Oh... no, not that way", the journalist laughed and pat the woman in green's shoulder. "And... how come nobody ever noticed this?", Chloe started talking now, when she already stood up waiting for the boat to dock at the tiny harbour. "Well... those who come... will stay here... that's their law. The Hyllian troops are after the people arriving here... they capture everyone. But we have better chances, you have me, I know everything about this place. Plus you have guns..."

Rubi didn't seem to be too convinced, but she knew she wasn't able to get out of it anymore by now.
"So we are trapped?!" Richard pointed out, not really asking, but more like a horrible doubt he said out loud.
"Not trapped. You can get around. I've managed to escape or not?" Jade grinned, obviously happier, now that she was back on familiar terrain.
They followed her quietly, their eyes taking in everything they saw, the beautiful, clean buildings, with flowers here and there, the streets were nice, people seemed to be friendly and greeted them a lot, asked how they were doing.
Soon, after everyone else was lost but Jade, they entered one of the bigger buildings, with a huge shield over it, saying "Mooki's Hooki's".
"Creative name" Rubi announced flat.
"Hey Mooch!" Jade greeted the guy, with big, black sunglasses behind the counter, who was cleaning it at that moment.
"Hi Jade. New friends?"
"New friends in da boat!" she shouted happily, which startled Elena and Richard.
"What the ..."
"Pst, was a code word. Now follow me"
After the bar keeper had pushed a button under his counter, no one heard or saw anything, yet, once they followed Jade they soon found out.
"A ... cupboard." Rubi mumbled.
"in in in!" Jade answered grinning.
Feeling like complete idiots, first Elena and Richard stood in the cupboard, as it suddenly turned.
Then Jade and the Cop, along with a grumpy Rubi followed.
The found themselves in a secret room, equipped with tons of computers, speakers and other high-tech things.
"Hi Jade!" they soon heard a voice from downstairs.
Jade first, the others followed her quietly.
"Hi Basted!" she greeted her friend. A cat.
A cat walking like a human, dressed like one, talking like one.
Along with her, three other guys were there.
One who didn't say anything but messed with the PCs, one who looked pretty average and young, who came up to greet them too, and a black guy, wearing sunglasses as well, who just nodded.
"That's the Iris group." Jade explained smiling.

"Well... hey there guys", Chloe said with a pretty loud voice, sounding like she doesn't care about anything unless it's not getting any weirder. The group looked around, when all the members of Jade's organisation didn't pay much attention on the strangers and just went on with their work. "That's some good stuff you have there...", Rubi started when everyone looked at her with a strange look. "God there's more to life than drugs, you junkies!", the killer defended herself. "How did you get your hands on all that computer stuff?" Elena obviously was amazed at the amount of technology in this room, as well as Richard and Chloe had their mouths open, going around and observing everything.

"We have some who help us" started the cat woman.
"Some of the people are on our side, we win more each day .. yet also lose some at times." she finished.
"That's what we do. We publish the cruel truth behind the Hyllian troops, Jade's our photographer as you may have noticed" the young guy now said.
"She wanted to get more help outside the island, which we found was complete suicide ... but ... "
"I surprise you all the time" the woman in green finished smiling.
"Indeed you do. She takes the pictures, she probably has shown you the .. creepy one, yes?" the black guy joined in.
The Australian, journalist, taxi driver and killer nodded, along with the cop.
"Here's the album." the cat said, handing them quite a thick book.
Mostly it was garbage. Garbage trucks full of tanks with dripping oil or other dangerous substances, broken houses or burned things. But also pictures where these guys in the uniforms were beating up people, kidnapping them, dealing with weird boxes, probably full of drugs and other things.
"We make newspaper but also get people out there, to do some commercial so to says." the cat then said.
"We heard you are looking for some drug dealer" the black one announced.
"Well, he might be involved with all this."
"We've been wondering indeed" now the Cop finally said, after he had been quiet for a while.
"He just vanished, like a ghost. Gone."
"Then the best place for him to hide, might be an island nobody ever knew of before."
Silence followed his words.