The night of San Francisco held many lights, lighting up the city brightly. Though, because of this the stars were very rarely noticeable. The tall buildings towered into the night sky, as cars drove through the streets, and the few pedestrians hobbled home after a long days work. It was a normal night, a peaceful night, and all was well.

"No! My beautiful vase!"

Well, almost peaceful. A woman's scream echoed through the air, cutting through the silence as sirens roared in the distance, getting closer with every passing second before finally arriving on the scene. People would stop and stare as police officers stepped out of the car's, coming into view of a fancy antiques store. The banners were decorated in bright purples, with the word Afia embossed in gold stretched across the front of the building.

"Where did that little bastard go?! I swear I'm going to kill them the next time they step foot here!" The woman roared, as one of the police officers jogged over to her, carrying a notepad; others rushed into the store, searching for clues.

"Ma'am, can you tell me what happened here?" asked the officer, readying his pen.

The woman snorted in frustration and nodded. "Ye I can tell ya... That damn thief came in here and stole my prized antique, an Egyptian vase! Oh... it was so beautiful, too..." The woman sobbed, crying in anguish and fretting miserably.

"Do you have a description of this thief, Ma'am?" the officer asked, already predicting the answer.

The woman glared at him with distaste and grunted, crossing her arms and looking at him as if he should know. "Who else is it gonna be, It's that damn GreyTail you pathetic cops have failed to capture!" she screamed at him.

The police officer flinched at her scream and sighed. He expected as much; again that rotten thief had come and gone. It would be nice if one of his teammates found something for a change, but no such luck.

"Sorry, David, nothing's here except an open window," reported his partner.

David sighed; what were they to do? If they didn't catch this thief soon, it would make a mockery of not just his team, but the whole police force.

"David... maybe we should hand it over to Claire Jordans? After all, she's caught the most criminals in the force, and she knows this area. Heck, she only lives a few blocks down. I'm sure she can catch this criminal," reported his partner, leaning up against the Police car.

David thought for a moment. It was true, Claire was the best officer around here, and had caught more criminals than David and his partner combined. Though, he wanted to keep this case for himself to get promoted. If he managed to capture the GreyTail thief as they were calling the criminal, he'd be famous. Sadly, he knew his partner was right, and figured that he was way over his head with this case anyway.

"Alright, call in officer Jordans. I'm sick of this case anyway."

--Two Days Later--

The alleys were dark, hidden from the city lights. All was quiet, except for the sound of running footsteps. One belonged to a fleeing man, looking quite terrified of his chaser. A tall, twenty-one year old, beautiful and well built woman with long brown hair and cold, ice blue eyes was tearing down the alleyway, catching up to him in mere moments as she kicked the back of his left leg, sending him tumbling to the ground.

He looked up at his chaser, terror stricken across his face.

Claire looked down at her target, wearing a dark blue officer's uniform; a M1911 handgun was strapped to her calf, and a baton was on her hip, not that she needed it. She was cold, ruthless, and could take on nearly anyone she wanted, and come out on top. The guy beneath her was crawling away, dragging his left leg along with him, as she sighed and rolled her eyes at his stupidity. Walking over to him, she kicked his side and pulled the handgun from its holster, pointing it at his right leg.

"Stay still, unless you want to be dragging both your legs," she calmly spoke, not showing the slightest hint of remorse. The man flinched, cowering beneath her, and then the rambling happened.

They all do it, start bumbling about how they didn't mean to steal, and they were forced to do it, all that crap. Claire just did her usual routine; she kicked him sharply in the neck, and he went out cold. She simply glared at the pitiful thief below her, and soon other police officers arrived on the scene and took the thief away to be questioned. She watched as her commanding officer came over and greeted her, congratulating her on another successful catch. She simply nodded in response.

"Good work Miss Jordans, another spectacular capture, with one less thief on the streets." Claire simply stood and nodded, crossing her arms, glancing the older man over. He stood nearly a foot taller than her at six foot five, with a well defined body, black stubble and short, military style hair. He wore a similar uniform to Claire's, except his was black, and decorated with various medals and badges.

"Thank you commander, although it was nothing special. The robbery was sloppy, with fingerprints everywhere, so even if I didn't catch him, you would have found him easily. But if that is all, then I shall take my leave," she replied smoothly, turning on her heal to walk away. She only made it a few steps however, before the Commander called after her.

"Actually Claire, that's not all. I came over here to ask you to take up another mission. For the last five months, a thief only known as GreyTail has been pillaging stores in a large area, with no local pattern. I've had three different task groups sent after it, including sniffer dogs, but they've all come up short. With your track record in consideration, I would like you to take up this mission yourself; I have a feeling you might find something others are missing," he said, standing before her.

"Fine. I'll head to the station now to pick up the reports," she replied, heading to her car.

After picking up the reports, she headed back outside the station, through the parking lot to her car. Finally, a challenge, she thought, as she dug through her bag for her keys. Suddenly, she felt weird shivers flicker across her spine, as her body went limp; she collapsed to the floor, her vision going hazy as a cloth was pressed tight over her lips, a weird chemical smell lingering around it. Her eyelids grew heavy, and the last thing she saw was a tuft of silver hair coming in close, and soft red lips kissing hers.