| daemonz, suspects, and chosen ones... oh my (part 1) | |
Perfect Kismet characters © and written by me. Chaotic Harmony characters © and written by Melanie Weaver-Anderson. Wild Fictives characters © and written by Cara Russell. "Oh my GOD!!!" *** Maggie crossed the spacious floor of his bedroom with a wide mischievous grin on her face, enjoying the feel of plush rugs on her bare feet and that of the flared cuffs of her jeans as they whipped around her ankles."Caaaareful Lance," she murmured, straddling the lap he was so kind to provide by seating himself on the edge of the expansive bed. Running her fingers through his hair, fully aware she was messing up his carefully tossed locks, she let her voice become breathy and lustful. "Go suggesting naughty stuff like that and I miiiiiight just have to take you up on it..." She let the sentence trail off into a deep kiss. Finally breaking away for air, Maggie trailed her fingers lightly along his jaw and softly down his neck to rest on his chest. "Missed you, Lance." She whispered, meaning it. *** Lance leaned into Maggie's touch, presenting her with a more real version of his trademark smirk. "Don't you know that I don't say it if I don't mean it, Mags? I missed you, too, you know."Exchanging kisses, Lance let his hands roam just a bit before settling them along the line of buttons on Maggie's shirt, methodically starting on the clasps at the bottom... when the cell he'd tossed on a chair upon entering the room started ringing with a very familiar tune. "Dammit," he breathed against her neck, "ignore it." Which was advice he himself tried for the first few chimes.... but it went on and on and on and why isn't my voicemail picking it up? and on and on... "Can't he take a hint?" he half-growled and half-whined, rolling Maggie over onto the bed and kissing her one more time before going to look for the still-ringing annoyance. "This had better be good, Jones. I told you last night that Maggie was comin' over, you prick." *** "This isn't Jones," Vyris said, her tone flat yet resounding with a bit of frustration. "But you can tell me when the last time you called him was.""Shit... he's bleeding..." Vyris turned to look back, then immediately returned her attention to the phone in her hand that rang with nothing but static. "Phone's dead," she growled. "Well, there goes THAT idea." "Where am I driving?" Diablo asked, growing wary of the stream of cars slowly getting in line behind them. "And don't you think you need to try that number back? Considering the last thing they hear is someone's bleeding... oh shit, Jones is bleeding??" Slowly moving two blue dreadlocks from her eyes, Vyris took in a deap, calming breath. "The phone can wait," she answered. "Considering that the phone reception is suddenly shit and we're in the middle of an almost derilect area of town... chances are we're approaching one of CyberPunk's places, yes? Check the navigational system." A few taps of his gloved fingers brought up a small 3D map. "Right on the money as always," he grinned, spotting the flashing red light. "Ten blocks from here, and if I know CP, this place is tripwired to keep unwanted fucks out." "Then we call it in," Vyris added, grabbing up a different phone and sighing once more as the other line picked up. "CP, we're in downtown Chicago... please tell me you can cover our asses and get us to a safe spot." Rowan watched from the back seat as the street lights began to glow more abnormally than they should have. "Uh... tell me that's CyberPunk doing that..." she said softly, watching the lights begin to fire out beams of energy behind Diablo's SUV. "That's CyberPunk doing that," Meeka repeated, though her eyes were fixated on unseen things above the chaos moreso than the impact of the weapons and the destructive explosions they were making. Lanora bit her lip, clutching Jynx tighter in her arms. "How far is the place?" she asked, her tone nervous. "I have no idea what's wrong with Jones here." Diablo picked up more speed, taking the approaching corner at a dangerous speed. "One more alley and we're there," he answered. "When we get in, the phone should work fine, Vy." "Then I'll worry about calling when I get inside," she answered curtly. "For now, we have a bigger problem that needs our attention." * The main medlab was not what most people would expect. Most hospitals were full of needles and iv bags and the like. This one, however, was full of electronical equipment, wire jacks, computer terminals... ... the perfect medlab for a group of hackers. The man seated at the only desk in the cluttered room took his glasses from his face and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Wild blond hair spiked back behind his face, he tossed a newly made report aside and tried to break down the information like a textbook... and found himself failing. "There's no way to process this without hands on absorption," he mumbled to himself. His brother was an enigma, and even putting his hands on him never kept the information stored. It was always lucid, like a dream... fresh immediately after absorption, but gone as the days went by. The sudden commotion of his medlab doors flying open brought him and his weapon at attention. "The hell?" he gasped, watching as the group of tired and disheveled people stormed in, laying Jynx down on the table in front of him. "He's hurt," Diablo said, watching Job's face tense up. "We need you to fix him up, Job." *** "What did he want?" Maggie asked, her goal just to draw Lance's gaze back to see her where she was left, only streached out, arms above her head causing her shirt to pull taught over her chest and a generous amount of belly exposed thanks to the undone buttons.But considering the odd expression on his face as he stared at the small device, the answer was going to be interesting one way or the other. *** "...what the..." Lance mumbled, not looking as he immediately tried calling Jynx's phone back only to get a Service Unavailable message. "It wasn't him. It was some chick who wanted to know when I'd talked to him and then someone said he was bleeding and..." he trailed off with a shrug, only to look up and find Maggie posing for his benefit. He groaned dramatically.Glancing back at the phone consideringly, he put it back down on the chair and made his way across the room. "I don't get it," Lance continued, levering himself over Maggie on the bed. "Can you make sense of it?" he asked, with a kiss to her neck. "He's hurt I guess... but they know where he is if he's with them... what's that got to do with me?" "I don't even know where they're at... or who I was speaking to." A trail of kisses. "Should I be doing something?" *** "... you're joking, right?"Job backed away a step or two, nervously tugging at the black leather gloves still covering his hands. "Why didn't you guys take him to Parker... or Wicca... why me?" "Suck it up, Job," Vyris growled, crossing her arms over her chest. "We really didn't have much time to work with, and there's no telling what's wrong with him. You'll have to do it." Job swallowed hard, slowly inching the leather off his fingers. "Back up," he sighed, resigning himself to the task now stuck in his lap. "If this goes down anything like the first time, it's gonna get messy." Diablo moved Meeka, Rowan, and Lanora back, moving them all to the far wall and behind him. Vyris stepped backward a few paces, but stayed close enough to grab Job out of harms way if the procedure went in that direction. Job shut his eyes and took a deep breath, then slowly moved up the two shirts from the sight of the bleeding. "From exterior inspection," he mumbled, "looks to be either a bullet wound or... wait..." His eyes fixated on the scarred tissue around the entry wound and the exit wound that became visible on a further inspection on Jynx's side. "Or it could have been a laser type weapon," he added. Job took one last look at the other occupants of the room, then slowly placed his bare hands down on the feverish skin of Jynx's back. His head jerked a bit, his eyes glowing suddenly with the same light normally found in Jynx's just before a surge of his power. Job struggled to concentrate through the sudden fusion of Jynx's powers into his own body, forcing himself to focus on the medical aspect of the body and disallowing his own power to fully absorb and dissect the powers that resided in his friend. "Punctured lung," he said analytically through clenched teeth. "Grazed spine, fractured disk..." As if a switch turned on inside Job's mind, he quickly became calm and serene, eyes glowing like a heavenly angel as an aura of power enveloped his body. His once tangible hands dove with ease inside Jynx's back, a sudden burst of telekinesis maneuvering the damaged tissue this way and that in an effort to restitch it. Another change of the aura's spectrum about Job and the wounds on Jynx, visible and unseen inside him, began to stitch together as if they were never there. Vyris watched with a mix of anticipation and awe, the atomic restructuring ability of Job's always miraculous and astounding to watch. Then, just as quickly as the switch in Job's mind was turned on, it found it's way off again. The sudden surge of residual energy from Jynx tossed Job across his desk and against the back wall. He groaned, giving the room a signal that he was ok, but the lack of movement on his end moved Vyris' feet swiftly to his aid. "... damn... Jones and... his luck," he mumbled, taking Vyris' gloved hand as he struggled to his feet. She helped him steady his footing, wrapping one arm gently about her shoulders. "What the hell hit him, Job?" she asked, watching Lanora and the others move to Jynx's side. "...dunno," he said weakly. "Even CyberNET doesn't use that sort of weaponry." He sat down in his chair, sinking in as far as he could go before rubbing the bridge of his nose in both contemplation and exhaustion. "Whoever did it is pretty advanced," he continued. "They used a weapon capable of not only passing through the body like a high speed bullet, but able to cause ricochet type damage on the way through without slowing down it's velocity. The burn marks on either end of the exit and entry areas of his skin tell me it's energy based in origin... but I'd have to see the actual weapon to be sure I'm right." Diablo leaned over Job's desk, only glancing once over his shoulder at Jynx. "Is he gonna be ok?" he asked. "Are you gonna be ok?" "Jynx will be fine in a few hours," Job sighed once more. "I'm sure I'll be alright... apparently the initial clusterfuck encounter jarred my body and prepared it for future dealings. Still gives a nasty bite when the surgery is done..." Vyris reached into her pocket, pulling Jynx's cellphone out once more. "I think the last number called out was Lance," she said, scrolling through the phone's memory. "But I'm still not finding the number that called him tonight." "Where the hell is MD?" Job asked, looking around and realizing she was not part of the entourage. "Surely she woulda sensed something not quite right." "MD is off on some vacation with someone named Caleb Bailey," Diablo offered as an answer, though his tone was quite perterbed. "I have no fucking clue why she's still gone or where to reach her at. But yeah... had she actually BEEN here, this probably wouldn't have happened." Lanora frowned, turning her gaze back to her recovering friend. "You can't always depend on MD to keep Jynx outta trouble," she said softly. "She needs a break from daily work just like the rest of us... just find out who called him. Ok?" Vyris pulled the hood of her oversized jacket up on her head. "Seems sorta funny," she mused aloud. "If someone knew MD wasn't here..." "Dead men can't talk." All eyes moved onto Meeka, who seemed as always fixated on someone who wasn't in the room. "If Jynx is dead, he can't talk about what he knows." Job arched an eyebrow, his expression one of exasperated confusion. "Ooookay," he said. "And exactly what would Jynx be talking about that would put him in harm's way?" "Spirits don't know that much, smart ass," Meeka mumbled, veering her sight to Job. "All I can gather is that he knew too much and so someone was taking him out." Job rose to his feet slowly, his body still reeling from the last blast to his system. "I don't know what the fuck to tell you guys," he yawned. "I can, however, get CP down here to run a security scan on different companies that could be targeting him.... but I'm telling ya, that's not a CyberNET weapon that shot him. Best call Lance and get whatever information you can from him... maybe he can shed some light on all this." "Who ISN'T targeting Jones?" Vyris sighed, dialing the phone again. "Lance seemed rather preoccupied when I called before..." Diablo slowly took the phone from her and placed it to his ear. "Dunno about you, Vy," he smirked, "but I'll gladly interrupt someone's nookie time if it means we don't have to run from unknown forces again." *** While her eyes closed in pleasure and smile played about her lips, Maggie's hand found it's way back into Lance's hair, once again messing and caressing as she let his voice and touch push away any unnecessary fear fear she might have on Jynx's behalf... and absolutely no doubt as to what she'd like to be doing that particular moment."Just keep doing what you're doing," she murmured, discreetly shifting, positioning her strong legs on either side of his torso, and guiding his head flush with hers. "Besides --" She kicked out, leveraging herself and creating enough momentum to roll them both over playfully further onto the bed, so she was once more straddling his thighs, and looking down at his exposed top half splayed out before her. "-- if there's anything you could do, they'd have said." Maggie reached out and ran her hand down the center of Lance's torso, tracing it's shape teasingly before falling to rest on the buckle of the belt she had neglected to remove earlier when she relieved him of his shirt. She leaned forward, hoisting herself over him, making sure her hair fell down over her shoulders to tickle his skin. "Which just leaves you... and me..." She whispered into his ear. "...together." She sucked on his earlobe gently while tugging his belt undone, wondering how long it'd take him to realize that she had gotten him nearly naked while she was still nearly fully dressed. *** Lance laughed, only slightly surprised when it came out more huskily than he'd intended. Reaching up, he caught at Maggie's shirt, intent on getting the rest of the buttons undone and the shirt off even as she worked his pants. "Together... sounds good."* The phone ringing brought Lance out of his lethargic daze. His hand stilled where he had been idly playing with Maggie's hair, the second he recognized the ringtone. Groaning, he realized he'd left by the door again in his earlier haste, so he placed a quick kiss on the top of Maggie's head... then stole the sheet from her with a grin, making his way quickly across the room. "Yo. Jynx? You gonna tell me what's going on now? I'm all ears." *** "Nope," Diablo sighed. "I'm not quite as knocked the fuck out as he is right now... but maybe next time your phone rings, it'll be him. Hopefully."He looked around the vacant room, trying to gather his thoughts. Two hours ago he knew exactly what he was going to ask Lance... but two hours led to dead ends in Cyberpunk's searches and Vyris not being able to find Moondancer. It also led to a break in redialing on the phone, which gave no solid answer, save that Lance's number was the one that showed up calling four hours prior. It was still a big confusing merry-go-round and Diablo was no closer to finding any sort of answers. No one was. He drummed his nails against Job's vacant desk, glancing over at Jynx and wondering when he was going to wake up. Job had said he would be alright in a few hours. "Listen, homes," he continued, taking a deep breath. "This is important. We're not sure what's going on here... but is there any chance that you or someone you and Jynx know called him from your phone... about four hours ago... and laid down some pivotal world-changing information? As in the kind that could get him killed?" *** "Uh," Lance's face showed his confusion as he tried to mentally retrace his day and where he - and conversely, his phone - might've been four hours prior. "No?""Wait..." Lance looked across the room to where Maggie was looking at him inquisitively and merely shrugged helplessly. "No, still no... as far as I know, no earthshattering intelligence ever comes from this phone... er..." he rolled his eyes at himself, "hah, yeah, we'll just go with that." "Wuzzup?" *** "Great to hear."Diablo moved to Job's chair and sunk into it, defeatedly. "Four hours ago," he sighed, "Jynx got a phone call. Lanora was with him, but she said he just sorta acted like he didn't know what the fuck was going on and shrugged it off." He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a devil engraved zippo lighter. "About an hour after that, we started getting chased and shot at by some sick fucks who had, what we thought, nothing better to do. "We found out," he continued, "about ten minutes into the ordeal that they only wanted to kill Jones. Long story short, Jynx got hit with one of their weapons and is now an unconscious slumbering mofo and we have no idea what the hell is going on." The zippo flickered to life as Diablo lit his cigarette and exhaled. "Is there any way you can bring your phone down here?" he asked. "If you need a speedy transport, we can get it for you... of course after you're done with your nookie and all... Only thing I can figure, and I'm no hacker genius mind, is to hook up your phone here and see who hacked into the line. If you say you didn't make a call but had it on you... yeah, that's the only thing I can guess." *** ((Maggie parts by Cara, heeee))A look of disbelief crossed Lance's face, "...you really think I would've answered the phone again if I was not through with the 'nookie'? Psh." Thinking, he moved around the room, gathering bits of clothing. "Nah, I don't need transport, I'll just go bug Joe... he needs to practice, anyway," he decided, an evil grin on his face as bugging Joe was becoming quite a hobby lately. Sending Maggie a questioning look as he started tossing her clothes - one peice at a time, of course - he returned to the phone conversation. "Maggie and Joe and the phone and I will be there in a bit.... wherever there is?" Directions and clothes in-tact, the two headed out the back. Since Lance was technically not welcome at the Kasmiras' he'd decided the best approach was to walk the few blocks over; shiny cars in the driveway wouldn't possibly be a dead giveaway. Along the way, Lance pointed out certain rooms in the house, and then features of the grounds, the outdoor pool and stables, and provided stories about some of their long-term neighbors as they passed by houses, making the walk go by even faster. Before long, Lance had stopped in the middle of the sidewalk of a decent enough street. "Joe-boy lives right there," he pointed, grinning, "but I think it'd be better if you go to the door." "Make me work," Maggie said with a grin, sauntering off to carry out the task. Forcing her posture and stride into something more feminine and girl-next-door-ly, she walked up to the front door and rang the bell. Finally answered by what seemed to be Joe's grandparents, she beamed with a sweet smile and asked "Is Joe in?" The older couple exchanged a look, where they were huddled together in the doorway. This was different, mostly because this looked like a good girl. "Yes," Mrs. Kasmira remembered to answer, proffering a smile, "Yes, he is. I'll go get him. It'll be but a minute." Mr. Kasmira stood and stared for a little longer, before remembering that wasn't a nice thing to do. He smiled sheepishly and drifted back off to the kitchen, leaving Maggie alone in the doorway until Joe came thundering down the stairs. Seeing who 'the nice little brunette girl asking for you' at the door was, he pulled up short in confusion and not just a little suspicion. "Hey, Maggie... 'sup?" Maggie cast a glance to the elderly man puttering around the kitchen in the doddy way only old men can achieve, and figured far away would be a better place to discuss matters of... well, anything that involved everything. "Weeell... I'm having trouble with my homework" She said, edging near a full fledged pout. "I thought maybe since you're so smart you could help me out...?" She trailed off, accentuating with a hopeful puppy dog look. Joe's eyes narrowed as his suspicion grew. He tried to get a look around Maggie, but didn't see anything offhand. Giving up, he sighed, sure he was gonna be the butt of a joke in the near future. "Okaaaay, just a sec," he acquiesced, turned to call a quick 'going out!' to his way-too-happy guardians, then moved outside with Maggie, shutting the door firmly behind him. "Okay, NOW what's your story?" *** "What, no 'take advantage of the pretty girl'?" Maggie exclaimed in mock jest. "No 'homework... is that really what you need help with'? Straight to the 'what's your story'? You're no fun." She said, finishing by sticking her tongue out from a grin."The story is..." Maggie began more seriously. "Jynx is in trouble on the other side of the continent and Lance's cellphone is the only clue to determining the currently nameless foe. And as I understand it, Lance over there," She jerked her head to indicate the far side of the street. "Intends to use you as transport." *** Joe returned Maggie's grin. "I didn't mean to be fun. After all, it's Lance intending to use me. If the 'pretty girl' were out to use me instead... well, then I could maybe, possibly, be just a little more fun," he ended in true male fashion, waggling eyebrows and all."You know," he added mischieviously. "If I don't come back in one piece it's going to severely tarnish your sterling reputation at my house even before they find out how I know you." *** Maggie giggled. "Maybe later... I might take you up on that... in a few years time." She winked. ***
Lance mock-scowled at the pair making their way in his direction, positive the laughter they were sharing had something to do with him. This deduction had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Joe kept looking at him and laughing harder.
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