Noelle - Day 318 (R-ME-SSy)

Hey guys!
I know what you're thinking, Messy Marvel is back already?  We were supposed to have a cool Minecraft post today!!  Nooeeeeeelle!

Well, I'm feeling lazy!  And that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

The Survivors (Parts 53 & 54)

Ricardo Perri, it turned out, owned a weapons shop a few blocks away from the train yard.  The smog drifting from the work yard engulfed them, making Red and Blue cough.  Jess and Sam were used to smog, mostly because they were used to New York, so the dusty air barely bothered them.

“Voy a ir en primer lugar, ya me veo realmente normal. Te ves extraño,” Jess said in an insisting voice.

Red didn’t even look at Sam.  “She’s going to go in first because she looks like a regular person,” She translated, loading her stun gun.

Sam nodded once.  He wasn’t particularly fond of this plan, but if Jess said was going to go in there alone, she was going in there alone.

Jess glanced at them to make sure her message had been understood, then walked in the front door, making a cute little bell attached to the door jingle.  A man leaning up against the wall in the back jumped, then pretended that he hadn’t been dozing on the job.

“Perdón, ¿hablas español?”  She said politely.  The guy, somewhere around eighteen or twenty years old, shook his head, confused.

Jess nearly rolled her eyes but remembered that she was trying to be kind.  This guy was too young to be Ricardo Perri, though perhaps he was an accomplice.  No reason to blow my cover so early, she thought, but said aloud, “Is the manager available?”

The kid nodded.  Time to take it up a notch.  “If you could tell him an old friend is waiting for him up front?”

This time, the guy looked uncomfortable.  “He doesn’t want to be bothered,” He said, his voice laced with a heavy Russian accent.

Jess smiled, pretending to be timid.  Please don’t make me flirt.  I hate flirting.  It’s stupid, Jess thought, vaguely frustrated.  Sam would never stop teasing me.  The guy wasn’t buying it.

Well, he’s asking for it.

She locked her eyes on his, tracing her finger over the edge of the counter.  The guy watched her without saying a word.  Using her best, slyest voice, Jess whispered, “You can drop the accent.  I know you’re British.”

“What- how- I am not!”

“Sure thing, whatever you say, hon.  Speaking of which, you single?”  Jess kept her voice light and her fingers twisting through her hair, but her insides were boiling.  Please don’t let Sam be hearing this, Jess prayed.

The guy’s back stiffened.  If he’s trained, he’ll attack, Jess thought analytically while keeping that stupid, flirtatious smile plastered on her face.  If not, then I can get some info from this guy.  “Yes,” the guy said, and indeed, he had a British accent and definitely not a Russian one.

“Cool,”  Jess said sweetly.  “Maybe we can, oh I dunno,” She looked down at the counter, as if she was shy (actually, she was looking for security cameras) and finished, “Go out sometime.  Anyway, hon, I’m looking for a 5-20-K Energizer Dart Rifle.  Do you guys carry that?”

“Um,” The man said.  Obviously, you’re not a part of the organization, Prince Charming, Jess thought to herself.  “I don’t know.”

Jess leaned across the counter conspiratorially and whispered, “Well then, Mister, you better go get the manager so he can help me.  We can keep this conversation a secret, right?  I can trust you?”

“Of course,” The guy said hurriedly.  Jess smiled again and tapped him on the nose.

“Better go get him, heartbreaker,” She murmured, her voice still flirty.  The kid hurried into the back, blushing, and the twinkling smile slid off Jess’s faster than you can imagine.

“Wow,” said a voice from behind her, while the cheerful bell rang out.  “You really brain-washed that guy.”

“Bravo, bravo,” Red teased.

“Shut up,” Jess snapped.

“Great performance!”  Sam said, pretending to applaud her.

“Sam, one more word on the subject and I swear,” Jess growled, not taking her eyes off the door into the back of the shop.  Prince Charming was taking way too long, unless Jess had underestimated the size of this building.  Which never happened.

Suddenly, an oily haired man appeared, smiling graciously and speaking in rapid-fire Spanish.  “Mi asistente ha ido a buscar su arma para usted, querido.”

Jess’s smile became a little forced and Red, who was pretending to look interested in a rifle in the corner, hissed.  “Elise, what did he say?”  Sam muttered.

“He called her darling.”

“Oh.  Please don’t kill him, Jess.”

She ignored the two whispering teens in the corner and said, “Claro. Tengo un par de preguntas sobre el mismo, ya sabes. Y voy a estar pagando en efectivo.”

Perri’s smile became even wider and more evil looking.  “No, darling, you’re not going to pay at all.  Because there is no such thing as a 5-20-K Energizer Dart Rifle and you know it, don’t you?”

Jess sighed.  “¿Por qué estas cosas siempre me pasan?”  She said in a lamenting sort of voice and attacked.

*******

Red could tell right away - Ricardo Perri was well trained.  Martial arts, judging by the way he was standing, but probably more of a gun guy.  Something about him.  Yes, definitely a gun sort of person.

Ricardo was speaking in rapid fire Spanish, smiling graciously into Katy’s frozen face.  “Mi asistente ha ido a buscar su arma para usted, querido.”  Red tensed as her mind quickly translated the words into english.

“My assistant went to get the gun for you, darling.”  That’s what he had said?  Darling?

Katy would hate that.  She had never liked people calling her sweetie and this man, with his hair slicked back greasily, was totally not going to get away with it.

Sam poked her in the shoulder.  “Elise, what did he say?”  Red explained in whispered tones, suddenly self-conscious of the fact that she was wearing body armor.  It had been a long time since she had gone out in public with this sort of getup.

Perri’s polite smile turned to a sneer he said loud enough for Sam, Red, and Blue all hear, “No, darling, you’re not going to pay at all.  Because there is no such thing as a 5-20-K Energizer Dart Rifle and you know it, don’t you?”

Jess frowned sadly and said in Spanish, “Why does this always happen to me?”  And punched Ricardo in the face.

“I have you right where I want you, Clara,” He said, wiping blood from his lip and clambering right back up to his feet.

“Is that so?” Jess snapped, uneasy.

“Actually, it is,” Ricardo sneered.  “This is how I like my lizards...trapped and ready to be pinned by the tail.”

“If that wasn’t such a bad threat, I’m sure I would have a returning snappy insult, probably about how lizards’ tails fall off and grow back.  But...it’s a bad threat,” She mused.  “Now, are we going to fight to the death, or are you going to tell me where the base is?”

“Fight to the death.”

“Wrong choice.”

Jess swung her arm forward, not even touching Ricardo.  Sam had the sense to jump back - Blue was soon teetering on the edge of a chasm that you would not normally find your average Ukrainian store.  She gasped as Red yanked her back.  The darkness inside loomed up, leaving Ricardo nearly plummeting off the edge.  His arms pinwheeled wildly, but before his foot could slip, Jess stretched out a hand.  He froze in midair.

“The only reason you’re not falling to your death is because I slipped one of these in your t-shirt pocket when I punched,” Jess said nonchalantly, holding up a tiny bead.  “It latches onto whatever it hits and stays there until I force it off.  It contains just enough stone for me to hold you in place.”

Perri laughed, playing the part of the evil henchmen so well that Sam shuddered.  “You think you’re soooo clever, you fool.  My soldiers will be here soon, and you can only hold me for so long.  You powers wane even now, I can tell.”

“Now what kind of stuck-up uses the word ‘wane’?” Red demanded.

“This kind of idiot,” Perri said stubbornly.

Jess’s arm did look tired.  Her fingertips were grey and strained.  She was really reaching, holding Ricardo in place like that.  He lowered a little in the air.  “Just tell...tell us where the base is,” Jess growled.

“Never,” Ricardo spat.

Jess did that little head shake that Sam knew that she always did before a fight.  Uh-oh, he thought and waited for the explosion.

“Fine then,” She quipped and released her hold on him.  Ricardo plummeted into the chasm, his scream so loud that Prince Charming came running out from the back.  Red twisted her hands and he vanished in a scarlet flash, probably (and hopefully) just to somewhere else in the town.

Ricardo kept screaming, his raw shout fading into the darkness.

“Out of curiosity, how deep is this this hole?”  Sam said calmly.

“I’m slowing his fall,” Jess said snappily.  “We don’t actually want him dead.”

Sam raised an eyebrow and Ricardo suddenly became a lot louder.  He suddenly came rushing back up to the surface, flailing in mid air.  Jess stepped up to the edge of her own cliff, saying, “Don’t struggle, Ricardo.  I might accidentally drop you, and that would just be absolutely horrible.  The dark side would be losing a valuable team member.  That was your warning shot - you won’t get another.  Now where’s the base?”

The man stopped struggling and grinned widely in Jess’s face.  “I would rather die,” He said and grabbed onto her wrist.  Surprised, Jess lost control and they both slipped over the edge.

Sam peered down into the pit.  “Well...who’s gonna get them?”

§§§

Sorry for this long post! I hope you enjoyed and I really will (maybe) post Minecraft stuff tomorrow! Sorry for the hold up.

Don't forget to comment, and now...to our daily!

[this daily has been sponsored by Web Head's Criminal Catch-n-Don't-Release Program!]

Star Wars Princesses and their companions!

This one's for you Elena...NOW POST!!!

Bye everybody!