Althea decided to go out in the night as she was trying to get out of the apartment if it weren't for Viktor's big broad body blocking her way.

"Can't let you leave. Dangerous." Viktor said, not moving on bit.

"I can handle myself, Vik. I can fight." Althea sighed, knowing this is getting nowhere.

"And look vhat happened to you. You, reckless." he said, pointing to her bandaged shoulder.

"I know, but I'll be careful this time. I promise I'll come back without another injury. I just wanted to get some fresh air and maybe do some shopping." she said.

"No." he stated, crossing his arms.

"Please?"

"No."

"Pretty please?"

"No."

Althea couldn't help but stare at him like he's acting out as a stubborn little child that refused to sleep.

"Viktor, do you trust me?"

Viktor looked at her.

"Of course, I do."

"Then please let me pass. Just a night walk and I will come back. I have a disguise, you know."

He doesn't know what to do as Althea looked at him with determination and assurance.

"Please, I can do this."

Viktor stare at her as she stare back, having a staring contest. Neither of them blink for a moment until he eventually closes his eye and sighs. He moves his body aside for her to get to the door.

"Go."

Althea smiled in victory as she happily hopped over to the door.

"Thank you, Viktor."

"But..."

Turning, she sees something tossed at her and quickly catches it in one hand to see a Switchblade and a Heavy Autopistol. He also tossed her a key to his apartment.

"You'll need them to defend yourself in case anything happens. Don't let anyone see you with that."

Nodding, Althea places the weapons and a key into her bag.

"Thanks. I'll see you soon."

She then opened the door and left as Viktor watches her go through the window.

"Be safe, Althea..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Althea happily walks down the street to see shopping center as she heads into grocery store first to buy food and other things for her to cook when she gets back to Viktor along with some ingredients for the secret alcohol drink since she's aware that it's illegal, but she knows as she learns from history class that in 1933 the alcohol will be legal. She may be working and living with the mafia, Althea though finds it fun and thrilling. She then heads her next stop that got her lured in: Famous-Barr. Althea heads inside and was in awe at how breathtaking this place is. She sees all sets of clothing, shoes, hats, jewelries, and others. It made her feel like she's in her own shopping mall in her own modern day home. She sightsee all other things that she laid her eyes on and so far she only found a nice outfit she could wear and quickly bought it seeing that the price is fair and not too expensive.

She then heads to the jewelry area as she looks at them through the glass. Althea then gasps to see a beautiful vintage navy blue and champagne ivory pearl rhinestone bracelet.

She calls out to the buyer to take a look at it as they brought it out for her to take a closer look. She inspects it in awe and tries it on around her wrist as it fits her.

"How much?"

"$210."

"I'll buy this, please."

"Right away."

After buying a bracelet, it was time for her to leave as she believed she had enough shopping for today as she heads out of the building and into the street. Althea was just walking by when she spotted Mordecai. Her breath hitched at the sight of him and followed from the safe distance. Mordecai stopped by to check on his watch. She hides around the corner and watches him. She turns as the cart drives closer on a road. Using the car as a moving shield, Althea hides from Mordecai and walks through the crowd and crouches alongside it. She nervously peers through the window as she passes him, undetected. She scurries from the car to the parked car and crouches behind it.

Across the street, Mordecai looks up from his watch and continues his walking. Althea creeps beside the car. Her eyes moving from window to window, watching Mordecai pass. She hurries behind another parked car and sees him heading into the alleyway and stopping again. With a defeated look, Althea squats behind the car and waits. Her eyes shift to a bucket full of water that's leaning against the wall where the apartment is. Althea glances over to Mordecai then ducks as he turns in her direction.

Shaking his head thinking it was nothing, he looks at his watch again to make sure the time is right and goes to check on his suitcase when a water splashes him. Stunned, Mordecai glances around and spots Althea running down the street. He immediately recognizes her.

"Hey! Althea! Hey!" he shouted as he chases after her.

Althea sprints down the street, passing vendors with their carts. Mordecai follow her across the road to an alleyway. Althea topples the stack of boxes, knocking them in front of her pursuer. Around the corner, men load up items in the back of the truck. Althea scales a pile boxes beside them and climbs to a roof. Behind her, Mordecai swiftly follows without a sweat. Althea looks back at him and quickly jumps back down the street and continues running as Mordecai lands and follows.

"Althea!"

Ignoring him, Althea defensively tips over a stack of bottle filled crates. But Mordecai quickly surmount them. She races through a set of double doors in a six foot high wall then pulls them shut. She finds a piece of wire hanging from nearby and laces it through two handles from the doors, binding them together as Mordecai struggles to open the doors. Althea steps back and waits as the door rattles. She takes a deep breath as she watches him until she heard him stop. She stops and looks at the doors, thinking that he's done. But then Mordecai leaps over the wall. Althea bolts and Mordecai sprints after her.

The chase continues on as they race behind residential buildings where drawing clothes hang on lines. Althea reaches the outer gate of the complex and races through its wide green doors into an alley. She halts as she notices the dead end. She glances around frantically then hurries to the door that leads to an apartment and rattles them. Turning from a locked door, she sees Mordecai enter the alley. Althea quickly runs and tries to run up to a wall, but Mordecai grabs her and wraps his arms around her to hold her. She hastily elbows him in the ribs and backs away as Mordecai hold his side in pain. She tries to run past him when he instantly grabs her hand.

"Althea, please. Just let me talk to you." Mordecai said, panting.

"What is there to talk about? I know what you did." Althea scowled, looking at him.

"I know. You're upset and I don't blame you, but please. Let's not talk here. I can rent us a room in a hotel where we can have a proper discussion."

Althea stare at him for a moment and sees that he's serious. It's clear he wants an explanation from her, but at the same time she wants an explanation from him since she just learned that he used to be in the Lackadaisy group. She sighs in defeat and allows Mordecai to lead her to the Maribel Hotel, still holding her hand as they head to the desk where the two cat men are.

"I would like to rent a room for two people, please." he said to the concierges.

Before they knew it, they're now inside a room with Althea sitting on the bed with Mordecai standing in front of her as he removes his hat.

"Tell me, who are you and what are you?" he asked.

Althea sighs and starts explaining.

"I'm a human from another world. We're just like you guys, except being cats. I don't know how or why, but all I know is that I somehow got sent into your world through the closet."

"A closet?" he raised his eyebrow.

"Yeah, shocking, I know. That's why I've been covering my face when I first got here, I've been called... a freak. Good thing one of the nice cat lady told me to run because she knew they wouldn't understand me.." she said, looking down. "You're probably thinking I'm a freak now that you've seen me."

"...No. I don't. You're not a freak. You're a... unique girl and one of a kind." he said softly.

Althea looks up at him in shock.

"Really?"

"Really. Besides, if I think you're a freak, wouldn't I eliminate you right now?"

Staring at him, she sees no hostile in Mordecai and notices his gun is on the table, proving that he's not willing to harm her. This made her smile.

"Thanks... for understanding me and accepting me."

Mordecai gives her a small smile before frowning. This made her sit up slightly at his sudden turn of emotion.

"Now, onto the important question: why are you with the Lackadaisy?"

Hearing that made Althea scoff, much to his surprise.

"I could ask you the same thing, but differently. Why did you leave the Lackadaisy?"

"I asked you first." he narrowed his eyes.

"Fair enough. After I ran, Ms. May found me and took me in when no one else would, but she did. She saw how terrified and lost I am, and didn't hesitate to help me. Ever since then, I owe her for saving my life and now I'm returning a favor by helping her get Lackadaisy back in business." she said proudly.

"You realize that you're in a dangerous situation with the mafias." Mordecai stated, gesturing to her bandaged shoulder.

"Appreciate your concern, but I can handle myself. I've killed at least... some crazy intruders." she said with a hint of embarrassment.

"How? With your weapon?" he asked.

"With my physical strength." she answered.

"...You don't appear strong, no offense." he commented.

"Looks can be deceiving. But now that I've answered your question, answer mine."

Mordecai knew that she would ask that question and sighs.

"Very well.."

Before he could open his mouth to explain, a knock was heard from the door. They turned to the door for a moment as it was knocked again. Curious, Althea gets up from the bed and walks over to it and peeks through a peephole. She sees a room service waiter and turns to Mordecai.

"It's just room service." she said.

But what she didn't expect is Mordecai to look confused and cautious.

"I didn't order any." he said.

As if on cue, Althea hears a click of a gun and immediately tackles Mordecai to the bed as bullets shoots through the door, window, and other objects. The cat assassin smirks and reloads his gun as he goes to open the door when a switchblade shoots through the door and stabs him against the wall through the head, instantly killing him. Mordecai stares up at Althea in shock, who threw a switchblade after taking it out of her purse.

"Wow..." he commented before quickly calming down. "W-We should carry him into the room. Try not to leave a blood trail."

Nodding, Althea got off of him and walked over and carefully removed the switchblade from the corpse's head before grabbing him into a room and covering him up in a white blanket with a help of Mordecai as they stare down at him.

"At least it's only him, right?" she asked with worry.

"No. I have a feeling there are a lot of enemies on this hotel. I don't know or why they're after me, but we need to leave this room now." he said, picking up his gun before clicking it on.

Althea quickly put her veil hat back on and takes her stuff as Mordecai did the same as he placed his hat back on before they quickly flee the room not before he made a call to let the room service know that they had a violent argument and would like to move to a different room.

"Where should we go?" she asked.

"There's a party taking place in Lounge No. 2. We're being followed." he explained, glancing at a  presence hiding behind them.

"I sense it too. Let's lose them before they find out where we're going." she said as the two walk as fast as they can.

Once they made it into a party, Althea freezes which Mordecai notices.

"Althea?" he called with concern.

"Bloodlust." she thought with fear. "They're coming! And in this huge crowd?! If I intercept and kill them, it'll cause a commotion."

"Althea?" Mordecai called back.

Snapping her out of her trance, she turns to him and grabs his cufflink from his sleeve.

"Pardon."

"W-What? No! My cufflink!" he shrieked in horror.

"Sorry, but I need it."

Althea looks around carefully.

"Peacefully, without killing them..."

She eventually spots a cat man sitting on a chair, holding a champagne. She senses that he has a hidden weapon in his paw.

"Have they noticed me? No, my location should still be safe." a cat assassin thought, holding out a sharp needle attached to his finger paw. "I can take them down! All I've gotta do is inject them with this poison as I pass by."

With an evil smirk, he gets up to face Althea and Mordecai.

"I'll make sure it's quick—huh?!"

What he didn't expect is for Althea to look at him straight in the eyes before his life flashed before his eyes as a flying cufflink hits him straight into the neck and clicks his glass of champagne. He was then knocked out as he sits back down, making him appear drunk and passed out as a waiter looks down at him with concern.

"Sir, you've had too much drink." he warned him.

Althea sighed in relief while Mordecai stared at her, looking speechless.

"And we're safe."

"Huh? What is? Can I get my cufflink back?" he asked.

Another cat assassin that was watching them was shocked as he sweat nervously.

"Wh-What the?! What just happened to him?!"

He watched the two walk past by and into a dancing room. He sees another assassin in the same room as they're in and nodded to him to get them.

"Roger."

Althea and Mordecai walk past the dancing couples when another cat assassin attempts to go near Mordecai and grab him when Althea come to his rescue and grabbed his paws in a tight grip.

"O-Oh, my." she acted surprised as she faced him with a fake smile. "Are you asking me to dance with you?"

The cat assassin stare at her with horror and in pain as she tightened her grip on his paws even harder.

"I'm terribly sorry. I'm not very good at dancing." Althea said.

She then starts spinning the assassin around for a second to make them appear that they're dancing.

"And you know, I may not look it, but I have a boyfriend, so I'll have to decline." she said, glancing at Mordecai, who blushed in shock.

Before the assassin could react, Althea broke his paws with a sickening crack before karate chopping him in the neck, knocking him out. He then collapses on the chair to make it appear that he's tired.

"Have a wonderful night. Please stay quiet for a while." she said before walking away with Mordecai.

"H-How'd you know they'd be here?" he asked quietly.

"I have a good sense of bloodlust when I see one." she explained. "It looks like we lost them. Let's hurry."

"R-Right. Let's head downstairs. Once we go through the promenade, we'll be in the second class area." he said.

They then made it to the shopping promenade as they walk by others normally. Little did they know, another assassin that's big and muscular is already there waiting for them as he starts walking towards them. But just as Althea and Mordecai walk past him, a flying chained sickle comes flying towards them to which Althea pushed Mordecai down as they duck from the incoming attack, not realizing her veil hat was cut off and fallen off of her head. A sickle flies back the owner as the assassin darkly stares at them menacingly. Althea stares at the assassin in shock while Mordecai takes a deep breath to calm himself from the sudden action.

"I didn't sense his bloodlust up until the last second. He's... strong."

Althea gets into her fighting stance along with Mordecai as he holds his gun. She looks around to see that everyone is not here, much to her relief, but she tenses up to see more assassins as they completely surround them. The muscled assassin spins the end of his sickle that have spikes and throws it towards Althea and Mordecai. Quickly taking out her switchblade, she uses it to knock out the spike away from them.

"You think you can take care of those guys while I deal with him?" she said to Mordecai.

"Of course, I can. Just be careful." he replied with a glare.

"Try not to kill them. We can't spill blood, remember?"

"I know."

With the agreement made, their battle starts now as Althea faces the muscled assassin as he catches his spike back to him. She charges straight towards him with speed but she quickly jumps back to see him throw his spike towards her again. She dodges and blocks every attack he throws at her as he spins his weapon after she jumps away from him. Althea glances back at Mordecai with worry, only to see him knocking off the assassins fluently without a problem while knocking some out with the handle of his gun.

Relieved that he's okay, she charges back at the muscled assassin who throws his chained weapon at her again. She ducks from it before quickly jumping away in a zigzag as he attempts to hit her again and again. The muscled assassin gets annoyed as he pulled his chained weapon back. He needs to finish her off along with Mordecai so that he can get paid. Gripping his weapon tight, he looks up and gets ready to attack only to freeze in terror. Charging towards him was Althea, but her body was all shadowed and her eyes glowing red that are full of anger and murder with her teeth gritted. Shrieking a bit, he backed away and threw his chained weapon at her only for her to move aside as she kept charging.

He goes to move his chains to her side when she stabbed her switchblade to the ground to attach the chain with it to hold it down. As soon as she's close to him, the end of his chained weapon nearly hit his head as it goes through his hair before the end of the weapon was broken off and Althea swiftly goes behind him, holding the chains. The muscled assassin quickly turned around and swung his sickle, but she blocked it with his own chains and wrapped it around his wrist, making him lose the hold of his sickle as it drops to the ground. She then jumps high into the air above him and wrapped the chains around his body, completely binding him. The muscled assassin looks up to her with fear as she stare down at him threateningly, her fingers pointing out towards him as she speedily hits every spot of his body before landing gracefully beside him. The muscled assassin's head was leaned back after her hits before collapsing on the floor.

Althea turns to see all the bodies of the assassins completely knocked out and battered as Mordecai dusting his hands off and placing his gun back into his jacket pocket. She approaches him.

"You sure did a good job taking care of them." she said with a smile.

"So are you. Taking down that big guy with swinging chains is pretty much interesting to see." he replied.

This made her feel flattered to hear that. Suddenly, they heard clapping and turned to see Serafine and Nico standing before them with a smile.

"My, that was amazing to see." Serafine said.

"I didn't think I'd see this action in person. Especially a pretty lady like yourself." Nico added, gazing at Althea.

"How did you find us?" Mordecai demanded, feeling tensed to see them.

Althea touched her head and her eyes widened in horror to realize that she lost her hat during the fight.

"Shit..." she muttered.

"You were late for the meeting, so we decided to go out to check on you. Though I didn't expect to see a fight with you fighting alongside this strange girl." Serafine explained, glancing at Althea.

"What's your name, sweetheart?" Nico asked, looking at her up and down.

"...Althea. Althea Spade."

"The Althea? The one that danced with Mordecai at the party? That's quite a shock." Nico commented with slight surprise.

"Are you... acquaintances of Mordecai?" Althea asked.

"No. Just partners." Mordecai quickly answered.

"Aww, that's just mean." Serafine pouted. "Anyways, now that you're here. Let's head back to our room to have a proper discussion. You come with as well, Althea."

"...Why should I? What if I don't want to? You going to kill me?" Althea glared.

This made Serafine and Nico chuckle.

"Oh, man. Straight to the point, eh? I like it." Nico said.

"If you're worried about anyone seeing you or hear anything about you, don't worry. We won't tell anyone. Let's keep this as a secret between us." Sera winked.

Althea doesn't know if she should trust them, not liking the vibe going on with those two. Mordecai knew that they now know her secret and couldn't help in wanting to protect her from them. He glances at her then to the Savoy siblings before he places a paw on her shoulder.

"Let's just follow them. We don't have a choice. Besides, I need to have a discussion with them anyways."

Althea looks at him with worry, but he gives her an assuring nod.

"...Okay. I'll come. But we should take care of the bodies before anyone takes notice."

"Oh, don't you worry. We'll take care of that." Serafine said, glancing at the downed men.