It wasn't as if she had a choice.

Ranger ran.

Cursing herself for a fool for not noticing the merchant's bodyguard, she weaved through the dense crowd, taking a longer path reminiscent of a semicircle in order to lose her pursuer by distance. Turned out that it didn't work as well as she'd planned.

The guard, having predicted Ranger's path through the crowd, was waiting for her at the alley.

To put it tactfully, they collided. To put it untactfully, the bodyguard tackled Ranger to the ground. In a desperate moment of panic, Ranger drew a dagger and swung upward, aiming to slam the pommel into the guard's jaw. It worked, but not well enough.

The bodyguard grabbed her hand and twisted savagely, causing Ranger to drop the knife - which fell right into the waiting hand of the guard, who pressed it none too gently against the Ender Hybrid's throat.

Ranger froze. Any movement on her part would result in slitting her own throat. The guard growled "Who are you?"

"I go by Ranger."

"What the devil kind of name is that?"

"My name, obviously."

The moment the bodyguard spoke, Ranger came to a somewhat odd realization. The guard was a girl - and several years younger than her, making the defeat all the more humiliating.

"You're a thief." Not a question.

"It would appear so." Just to make the girl angry, Ranger pulled the bag of diamonds from her cloak and waved it mockingly. "It also appears that you are a rather awful guard."

"And you're an arrogant brat who doesn't know when to shut up."

Ranger blinked.

Within the space of three seconds, the guard was on the ground, trying to regain the ability to breathe. Ranger's strike had only traveled about six inches, but it had all the strength of her shoulder and arm behind it. The impact on the guard was crushing.

Ranger gave the guard a crooked grin. "Just how long have you been a guard?"

The girl, who had started to breathe again, replied "I just started today. I was required to."

"How unfortunate. Well, I've been a thief for near on three years, so experience wins." Ranger said, and plucked her dagger from the girl's hand. "A bit of advice: thieves don't like people taking their possessions."

"I know your name. I know what you look like. I know how you fight, and how you operate. I could give that information to the law enforcement, and they'll have you arrested. And they can trace those diamonds back to you." The girl sounded oddly calm now.

"True, true. But I can't kill you, so that puts me in a bad position." Ranger looked mildly disappointed, and the girl's calm facade fractured for a moment, revealing a bit of fear, which was hastily covered up.

"I could make you a deal," the girl said. "You see, I'm required to live in a building I really don't want to be in. This is the one day out of the year I'm allowed outside, and I have to spend it doing something to serve the citizens of Minecraftia. If you help me get out of that building, I won't report you to the authorities."

Ranger pondered that for a moment. "Seems like a reasonable compromise. What's the building called?"

The girl paused for a moment, then reached into her pocket and pulled out a slip of laminated paper. Handing it to Ranger, she said "Everything you need to know in order to break me out is on that paper."

Before Ranger could question it further, the girl was gone.

Curious, she opened the paper. As she read the first sentence, she almost dropped it.

McCollen's Mental Institution
(638) 294-9365
830 Jadson Avenue, Riller's Mountain, Minecraftia; 52729
Name: Prophelia (Pro)
Gender: Female
Age: 14
Extremely violent, lacking empathy; danger to public safety.

"Holy Notch...what have I gotten myself into?"