Lindsay shook his head.

"Nope." he said.

"Go ahead." he told her.

"I'm going to stay out here and keep looking around." he went on.

"See if I can't find anything useful." he continued.

"I doubt it... but anything might be handy that was left behind." he shrugged. "It seems a lot was left when this place was shut down." he muttered.

"A shame it's been going to waste." he then commented.

Lindsay had already been racing towards where Anna had called from, but suddenly froze when he heard the thud, and then the silence.

"....ANNA!?" he called out.

"ANNA!" he then shouted, as he picked up his pace immensely.

"ANNA!" he repeated, as he tore through the warehouse, honing in on where he'd heard the noise come from.

He then raced towards the room he'd heard her call from, and dashed inside, unsure as to what he'd find.

"Anna!?" Lindsay called down.

"What happened!?" he asked.

"Do you need help!?" he asked further, as he scanned what he could see.

'Damn... this is dusty...' he thought.

He then noticed the blood that was left.

'...that hurt her...' he thought further, concerned now.

"Are you badly hurt!?" he then asked her. "I see blood up here!"

A few seconds later, she heard his voice call to her from across the space.

"Hey!" he called back.

"Over here!" he said.

The two of them then started to make their way towards each other, meeting in the middle.

"Hey again." Lindsay replied.

"What happened there?" he asked.

"Was the floor broken or something?" he asked further.

"Well, to be fair, I AM better at bouncing back from fatal injuries than you are." Lindsay responded.

"...would be a fire hazard, though..." he then admitted.

"Regardless, as long as nothing's seriously wrong, and you're okay." he then said.

"Guess this means you definitely won't be going on a run for a little longer." he went on.

"Which is fine. I'll make sure we have food." he assured her.

"Yeah, see you later." Lindsay replied as she headed off.

He then looked out the window, and sighed.

"At least the weather's nice." he said.

'For whatever THAT'S worth...' he then thought.

-A little over a week later, in another location-

A woman made her way down the hallways of what seemed to be an office building, until she made her way into a receptionist's office. She was told to sit and wait for a moment... so she did.

And she was only waiting for a few moments, before the secretary spoke.

"Agent Sharp will see you now."

"I realize that, but we need your talents." the man behind the desk responded.

He then handed her a file, to which she accepted and looked through.

"Local law enforcement cannot track these people." he said. "They've done nothing more than theft right now, but we can't be sure thing will get out of hand." he went on.

"From the reports inside, we can determine they are mages, at the very least." he continued.

"And the Triad and Council have deferred this case to us, as they're both currently dealing with a massive scandal. You know the one I'm referring to." he then said, shaking his head.

"Regardless, your talents are just what we need for tracking these individuals, but I realize that doing it alone may be a tall order, even for you." he continued.

"So I'm allowing you to choose your partner for this assignment."

Sharp raised an eyebrow when she said that.

"Oh?" he asked.

"Interesting." he said, going to his computer and bringing up some personnel files.

"Why Jake?" he asked her.

"And no, I do not doubt his abilities or anything like this. It's just that whenever an agent has the choice of their own partner, it's required that there be an explanation." he then told her.

"Yes, I have veto power in this situation, but I doubt I'll be using it." he went on, making sure she knew. "However, red tap and all, I need reasons as to why."

Sharp just smirked in response.

"That was plenty." he assured her.

"All right, then Jake it is." he said.

"One second." he then said further, before thinking for a moment.

"All right, how do you want to go about telling him?" he asked her.

"I want you to head out ASAP, but we'll need a replacement for his guard duties." he went on.

"Do you want me to call him up here, or grab him on your way out?"

"Mira?" Sharp asked.

"Sure, that works." he told her.

"Now, go." he ordered. "Time is of the essence." he continued.

"It's getting to be bad enough that they're considering making this an open hunt for all the guild system." he then warned her.

"And with that, I've told you everything." he finished.

"Good luck out there."