Battle Scars (Kingsman: The Secret Service)

01- Liz Preston

The air was cold, chilly enough to raise goosebumps on the girl's arms as she raced through the streets of London at night. Unfortunately, in the midst of everything, Liz Preston had forgotten to grab a jacket on her way out of the house earlier this evening. Her arms were protected by a thin, long sleeved shirt that had once been a pretty blue color, but has now faded to a blue that hardly resembles a color anymore. Her worn out converse sneakers pounded against the cement ground as she raced down the road.

With a quick glance over her shoulder, Liz saw just how close Johnson's gang was to catching up with her. Swearing under her breath, Liz took a sharp right turn down an alleyway, silently hoping that this wasn't a dead end.

Loud laughter comes from behind Liz as soon as she realizes that the alleyway ends with a brick wall about twenty feet away. She abruptly stops, glancing all around the alleyway for a way out or else she'll be screwed in about forty five seconds. On the right side of the alleyway, a dumpster is pressed up against the wall with a fire escape ladder partially hanging down a few feet away. Liz races over to the dumpser, boosts herself up, and races across the top of the dumpster to jump and grab ahold of the first rung of the ladder.

"Where ya think you're goin', Princess?" Johnson calls out from where him and his gang are standing beside the dumpster. He pats one of his friends on the chest, laughing.

Her legs swing in the air with nothing to put them on. The muscles in Liz's arm strain slightly as she pulls herself up enough to grab on to the next rung. She's never been one to be extremely physically strong, but when it came down to it, times like these, Liz found herself more than capable of taking care of herself. After her dad died when she was three, Liz was forced to grow up quickly and learn to take care of herself, considering that her mum wasn't going to. After the first episode of her mother being drunk and bringing a guy home, Liz knew it was the end of her loving mother. Now, her mom was a drunk and constantly bringing a new guy home that was nothing but bad news.

"Can't go far, Princess!" Johnson yells from the ground.

Liz takes a second to glance down at the ground to see Johnson trying to reach out for the ladder. Once the toe of her sneakers are able to hit the first rung, Liz takes no time in climbing up quickly. She races up each level of the fire escape, taking just a few seconds to look down to see how far away they are.

Heavy pants escape from Liz's mouth as she finally reaches the roof. In a way, Johnson was right about having no place to go. That would be correct for any normal person, but Liz was far from normal. Two years ago, she ran into a guy, Mike Fisher, who was brilliant at parkour, a sport that Liz has begun to excel at now at the age of twenty two.

"Aha!" Johnson's voice comes from behind her.

She whirls around to see Johnson just reaching the roof with his gang behind him.

"No where to run, Princess." He keeps up with the nickname he started for her when her mom first brought him home a year ago. Although her mom brings new guys home every week, Johnson has managed to stick around in her mother's life and making Liz's life a living hell. "Now, how about you come back with us and we can, you know, relax." He smirks.

The guys behind him roar with laughter and start whispering about the things they want to do to Liz.

Liz's nose wrinkles in disgust. "Piss off."

Johnson's eyes harden. "What did you say?"

"I said piss off. Want me to spell it out for you?" Liz crosses her arms over her chest. She stands in the middle of the roof, but while Johnson thinks she's stuck, she's just waiting for the right time to make her move. Liz has always been good at being ten steps ahead of everyone else. Something that has kept her out of trouble for a long time.