Spook
Christina clicked into her e-mail, faintly bored. Ok, she was very bored. She hadn't thought she'd ever miss her old job but here she was...missing the thrill of the chase. Loved it, missed it, needed it...hello, what was this? Hmm. She read the e-mail, eyebrows rising slightly. They wanted her to go after Christian Thomas? They'd better pay her better then *that*. Taylor Hanson and Mouse were one thing...Christian Thomas was a killer. A dyed in the blood nasty little violent thug. She tapped out a message, and soon recieved a reply. Well, they must really want him badly. She upped her price.
After a few hours of back and forthing, Christina was en route to Houston, all the infomation she needed in her computer and one of the teams she had used before waiting for her. She got out of the plane and hurried into the airport. Time to set the stage for this.
Christina looked at the line in front of the club, and sighed. She looked a lot different to when Christian had seen her last. Contacts made her brilliant green eyes a dark chocolatey, and her hair was fluffed and styled very differently to the usual bun. Two brilliant blue streaks and the delicately applied makeup completed her transformation into a beautiful young woman with a touch of Negro blood. Rather then Indian. She was soon waved inside, hips swaying to the beat of the music. Target spotted. Did he always wear the shades? Probably.
She got a drink from the bar and then settled to gazing at Christian thoughtfully from a nearby table, looking just like a girl out for a good time. Now, remember the N'Awlins accent. Christabelle from N'Awlins. If he asks, which he probably will, your father was white, but your mother was a mulatto. Hence the shade of your skin and the slight frizz to your hair. Thank god that stuff comes out.
Christian
Christian was feeling slightly out of place. He wasn't used to feeling out of place. He hated feeling out of place.
He swirled the liquor around in his glass, watching the ice cubes circle slowly before taking another drink. One of the waitresses was eyeing him off, but she was annoying him already. Typical blonde ditz and completely lacking subtlety.
He leant back into the corner booth and gazed around the room boredly.
Spook
Christina decided to make the first move. She got up to get another drink, passing by his table. What happened next wasn't planned, but she managed to use it anyway. A very drunk man crashed into her, which in turn sent her against Christian's table. "Idiote!" The Creole accent came easily to her lips as she turned her head to hiss at the man, one hand on her sore hip. "I am so sorry, m'siuer. Je suis desole," she said to Christian in a husky voice. "Ah, non! Get y'r hands off me!" She slapped the man as he pinched her ass. "Go before I send y' crying t' y'r maman, gross blanc," she sneered at him, drawing herself up. "Y'r drunk."
"I'm not drunk. Why don't we go back to my place and get better acquantited?"
"Je pense...non. Not even if y' were de last man on de face of de earth." Her eyes smouldered, and the man put his hands on either side of her waist, pinning her to Christian's table. "Let go of me now, y' drunken loup."
Christian
Christian chuckled quietly to himself, before slipping sideways out of the booth.
He tapped the man on the shoulder, and smiled when he turned around.
"Hi."
"Piss off," the man spat, turning back to Christina.
"Ah... I think not. See... I think you should leave her alone. And, judging by her reaction, she does too," he raised an eyebrow.
When he was ignored, he put a hand on the man's shoulder and spun him around. The man took a swing at his eye and missed. Christian grabbed his arm and twisted it behind him effortlessly before kneeing the guy in the chest. He looked up boredly at his watching audience.
"Sorry," he smiled with a small chuckle, "man's had a bit too much to drink."
He pulled the guy up and put an arm around his shoulders as if they were friends. The majority of people turned away.
Once the man recovered slightly, he took another swing at Christian's face. Christian ducked, bringing his elbow down onto the bottom of the guy's neck. He fell to his knees with a cringe, before Christian grabbed him by the back of the shirt and hauled him up.
"Hey!" came another man's voice suddenly, "man! What happened?!"
"Oh, he hit the table," Christian frowned a little, patting the beaten guy's face a little as he cursed at him.
"Yeah, sure. Give him here."
Christian smiled at the guy as his friend led him away. He looked over his shoulder and flipped him a birdie, which Christian only returned. A couple of guys at the bar started laughing.
Spook
"Merci beacoup, m'sieur," Christina said to Christian, smiling herself. "It is so rare t' see a gentleman willing t' 'elp un madm'sille in distress. Merci beaucoup." She flashed him a brilliant smile. "Je m'appelle Christabelle. I'm from N'Awlins. And y' would be...?" She raised an eyebrow slightly in a coquettish gesture.
Christian
"Ah there's a hero in every bar. I just decided to take the job for the night," Christian shrugged.
"Name's Christian," he replied, before noticing she looked vaguely familiar...
"Have we... met before?"
Spook
Christina pursed her lips slightly, the dark red lipstick making them look very full and kissable. "Je ne pense pas...unless y' have been to N'Awlins before? Mais, I do no' dink I could forget y' if I met y'." She blinked her long eyelashes slowly.
Christian
Christian nodded slightly.
"Well I've been there, but not recently," he admitted.
He glanced at his watch, then at a clock on the wall. It was already getting to the early hours of the morning, and he didn't particularly want to let Tanya down.
"Well it's kinda late. Do you live nearby? Can you get home ok?"
Spook
"Je pense..." Christina glanced towards the door, made her eyes a little wider. "Actuellement, if y' offerin'...could y' walk me part of de way? I do not think that man understands 'non' a'tall."
Christian
"No problem," Christian shrugged, stepping aside and putting a hand on her back as a sign to move toward the door.
They made their way to the front, and outside, before he removed his hand.
"So... how far away do you live?" he raised an eyebrow.
Spook
Christina looked around, making a bit of a tsking noise. "From 'ere? No' far. Merci, Christian," she gave his name the French inflection rather then the Anglicised one he used. "I understand N'Awlins, but I only arrived in 'Ousten las' month." She started walking, shivering slightly now they were out of the club, heels clicking over the pavement.
Christian
Christian hesitated as her accent slipped a little, but shrugged it off.
"Do you ah... do you live alone? With your parents? A boyfriend?" Although if you have a boyfriend he sure needs his ass kicked for leaving you out here...
Spook
"Ah non. Je n'ai pas un petit ami!" Christina giggled, playing her role. "If I did, I wouldn't be at de clubs. My maman is in N'Awlins. I'm staying wit' some 'tite filles who are daughters of amies of my maman. C'est un petit apartement, mais, it home, tu sais?" She flashed him a look over her shoulder. Come on, hurry it up, guys... a man stepped out of the shadows. "Merde," she said in a tone of disgust for Christian's benefit. It was one of her guys, but he wasn't supposed to know that. "Go home, Louis! It was over before I left, and it still over now!"
"Putain!" The dark haired man spat. "Y' picking up 'tit garcons now, Cristabelle?"
"Take dat back, y' tcheue poule!" Her hand flew out and slapped him across the face. He caught it in a hard grip and she cried out in pain.
"Forgotten so soon, ma petite? Y' *are mine*." She kicked him as he tried to force her backwards.
"Baises-moi!"
"Only since y' ask so nicely..."
"I swear to le bon Dieu, Louis, let go of me now, or y' will no longer be le grande etalon," she hissed, then spat in his face. While they kept Christian's attention focused on the fight, the other members of the team snuck up quietly in order to effect the capture.
Christian
Christian rolled his eyes.
This guy was substantially bigger than he was, but even if he cheated by using his power a little he knew he could match him.
"Hey," he frowned, using his own weight to pull the guy off her and spin him around.
"I think she said something whatever you two had being over? He raised his eyebrows sarcastically, "normally that translates to... leave her alone. And seeing as she happens to be with someone at the time, it can also mean 'leave me alone or th guy I'm with could kick your sorry ass'."
Spook
"He's a gentleman, someting y' ne'er were, y' coonass," Christina spat.
"Go home to y'r maman," the man she'd named Louis growled at Christian.
And one, two, three! Christina gave the signal and an almost silent puff of air heralded the launching of the tranquisler dart.
Christian
Christian was about to make another snide remark, before trained ears heard the dart gun fire.
He spun around, eyes locked onto the dart as he put his hand up in a stop signal. The dart froze not a centimetre from the palm of his hand.
He cocked his head as he studied it for a split second, spun it around, and shot it back in the opposite direction. He heard a cry from the shadows, before raising his eyebrows in an 'uh oh' manner.
Spook
Christina let her mouth drop open in shock, and stumbled backwards slightly. "Y', y' a mutant? Un diable?!"
"Au 'voir, Christabelle, I'm leaving!" Louis took to his heels. A veritable volley of darts flew towards Christian, and Christina suppressed the urge to roll her eyes. Right, give him more weapons... She wasn't working with this lot again.
Christian
With a wave of his right arm, Christian sent all darts back toward their firers. Blimmin' amateurs.
Then he turned on Christina.
"If you know of mutants, then who the hell are you?" he glared.
Spook
"Je suis Christabelle, ah non, s'il te plait, don' 'urt me..." Christina babbled, cursing the idiots she had employed in her mind. "Les mutants, les diables, a mutant in N'Awlins killed many, many people. Exploded un theatre. I'll do anything y' want, just s'il vous plait, don' hurt me..."
"Get down, ma'am!" A harsh voice barked.
Christina squeaked in apparent fear and dropped. Enter stage two... a gas grenade hit the ground in front of Christian. Now Christian couldn't see her eyes, she rolled them in disbelief. Idiots! "Dieu..."
A van squealed up, and men jumped out. Stupid, stupid American government...this was rapidly turning into a debacle...
Christian
Christian cursed to himself, waving the gas away with a flick of his wrist. Using his atom manipulation, he turned it into water vapour, before spotting the van.
Humans. Scared so easily.
Without even glancing at Christina, he lifted his right hand a little and the van rose a few metres from the ground. He saw a few men duck forward, but he didn't let them hit the ground.
Spook
Christina moved slightly, bringing her body up ready to spring. A wad of chloroform soaked cloth in her hand, she leapt for Christian's back, clamping the material over his mouth and nose.
Christian
Almost snarling, Christian did the same thing to her that Craig had done to Leroy.
He gave her an atomic shock.
He ducked away as she recoiled, threw the cloth away and started coughing. The van had fallen to the ground, smashing the windows and leaving the men to duck for cover.
Christian grunted as he finally got himself together again, then looked around.
"$#!+ this."
He took off down the street.
Spook
"Dammit, get after him," Christina hissed, accent roughening from the Creole drawl as she shakily got to her feet. Dammit, that had hurt. The man saluted and pelted after Christian. "All I want is one thing to go right tonight, is that too much to ask?!" She went over to the car and slipped inside. "Drive," she ordered the driver as she started to get changed, slamming the door shut. The car squealed after Christian.
Christian
Christian glanced over his shoulder as he ran, seeing the car take up the pursuit.
"Dammit," he hissed under his breath.
He ducked into an alleyway, pushing his sunglasses onto the top of his head. As he made it out the other side and onto a quiet street, a second car came screeching around the nearest corner, the driver flicking their headlights onto high beam.
Christian cringed, momentarily blinded before ducking into the nearest alley across the street. There was a large dumpster at the entrance, so the car couldn't get through.
Spook
Dressed in her normal cammie pants and tight black top, boots zipped up tightly, Christina got out of the car, tying her hair back into a tight pony, eyes a brilliant green and blue hair additions discarded. A final swipe at her lips and face with a tissue saw most of the makeup removed. "I can't believe this. Idiots. You don't give a telekinetic more things to throw!" Nevertheless, she got her shotgun out of the backseat and loaded it as she padded into the alley after Christian. A few handsignals saw her men fan out.
Christian
Christian almost growled to himself as he ran. He wasn't used to being the target.
He ducked out of the end of the alley, and into the next. He ran straight through until he lost sight of the person chasing, then into another and hid behind a dumpster.
Holding his breath, he listened silently for anyone approaching.
Spook
Silently, Christnia moved up the alleyway, hands around her gun. Wait...there was the silhouette of a body. She took careful aim, pulled back the trigger without a noise, and fired. The shotgun blast was shockingly loud in the night, and she watched the figure jerk backwards from a hit before she was running towards it and reloading.
Christian
Christian heard the shot and a few yells from the alley across the street. Keeping amazingly calm - obviously through his training - he kept his ears and eyes alert without being seen.
When he saw the silhouette of a woman approaching a man with a shotgun, he sank behind the dumpster a little to stay hidden.
Spook
"Aw, shit," Christina said in disgust as she saw she hadn't hit Christian. She'd hit some homeless guy instead. "Look, here, take a hundred bucks and piss off!" The guy nodded wordlessly, and ran off, one hand clutching the notes she'd handed him and the other one over the bloody wound in his shoulder. Christina scowled angrily. "Right, now I'm really pissed. Why the *hell* did I say I'd do this? Patrotic duty, my *ass*. Next time I hear someone say that, I'm slapping another five mill onto the pricetag." She ejected the spent cartridges with a metallic sound onto the ground at her feet, then reloaded. "Here, Chrissy, Chrissy..." She almost snickered, then decided to point her gun in a random direction, and shoot.
Christian
Christian cursed silently as his hand flew to his bicep.
He sat back behind the dumpster holding his breath, listening to her footsteps fade away.
"$#!+," he cursed, pulling his left hand away.
Blood. The bullet had just skimmed his skin, enough to make it bleed.
Spook
Christina stalked out of the alleyway, fuming. She went up to the leader of the men the Government had supplied her with. "Right. You lot screwed the pooch on this one. I'm keeping the five mill I took as a seeker's fee. Next time you wanna talk business, you better be prepared to pay me a hell of a lot more, and get some better people to back me up." She stalked off to her car, got in, slammed the door behind her and squealed off.
Christian
Christian took a deep breath and let it out slowly when he heard her leave.
Holding onto his bicep, he stood and made his way to the next main street. He caught a few buses, and made it back to Tanya's house soon after.
"Tanya?!" he called as he entered the front door.
Tanya
"In the kitchen," Tanya called.
Tanya pulled the oven tray out. She then put the pizza on the tray, closed the oven and set the timer. Twenty minutes was all it needed for pizzary goodness.
Christian
"Christian headed toward her voice, and leant his left shoulder against the doorway when he got to the kitchen.
He pushed his sunglasses back up from where they'd slipped down, and raised his eyebrows as he held his shoulder.
"Umm... you wouldn't happen to know of a healer up this late, would you?" he asked softly.
Tanya
Tanya looked at him.
"I can get one," she promised, then nodded towards his shoulder. "Is it bad?"
Christian
Christian lifted his hand a little. All he could see from his direction was blood.
"Just a double-barrel shotgun bullet," he replied, "it just kinda skimmed me."
Tanya
Tanya paused thoughtfully, then nodded.
"Okey-dokey," she replied.
She made a quick call.
"You eaten?"
Christian
"Umm... yeah, but hours ago," he replied hopefully, sitting at the kitchen table.
He leant forward a little, resting his left elbow on his knee. His sunglasses fell a little from his head, so he shook them off onto the table.
Tanya
"Well, I'm cooking pizza in case you decide you want any," Tanya smiled.
She opened up the fridge and pulled out some orange juice.
"So, do you want to tell me what happened? Or would you rather keep that to yourself?"
Christian
"Well I'm not all that sure what happened in the first place," Christian raised his eyebrows, looking down at the table.
"Maybe... I don't know. Someone was after me for something."
He screwed his face up.
"Maybe I should have told you something about the other day..."
Tanya
Tanya heard some flickerings of thought, but in her usual way chose to ignore it and let him tell the story.
"Go on," she encouraged.
Christian
"You remember how you told me about rescuing Taylor from Nevada?"
He looked up at her for a moment, then down to the floor.
"I was approached by a guy in the street a few days ago on the way back from getting a few things... he obviously thought I was Taylor. He started going on about how it wasn't safe for me to be out, and mentioned Jane and some girl named Natalia. His name was Blakesley."
Tanya
Tanya gave a low whistle.
"Damn bastard..."
Christian
"Well anyway, maybe it had something to do with him. He seemed kinda interested in taking me in. Not that he's going to get that far," he chuckled a little.
"Or if he does, it won't be for long. If..."
He hesitated.
"Seeing as YIRAAS have a death warrant on him, I wouldn't be down for murder if I killed him, right?"
Tanya
Tanya shook her head.
"You have an opportunity to kill him, be my guest."
A malcious smile crossed her face and she cracked her knuckles.
"When I encounter bastards like that, sometimes I don't give them the blessing of death. I damage their minds so severely there's no turning back and they go insane."
Christian
Christian grinned.
"Craig would probably do the same."
He lifted his head a little and closed his eyes as he smelt the cooking pizza.
"I told Blakesley about Chloe. Sort of. Just mentioned her name. COuld be fun to let her onto him after what he's done."
Tanya
"It would indeed," Tanya agreed.
Tanya stretched.
"I wonder what ol' Craig is up to?"'
Christian
Christian took a deep breath and sighed.
"If only I knew," he looked up toward the door, holding back a gulp.
"When's that healer getting here?"
Tanya
"Lauren'll be here soon," Tanya replied.
The doorbell rang.
"Speak of the devil," she grinned, and stood up to answer it.
A few moments later, Tanya and Lauren rejoined Christian in the kitchen.
"Let's take a look at this shoulder of yours," Lauren said.
Christian
Christian moved his hand from his shoulder, cupping it so the blood would mess the floor.
"Sorry in advance if I get blood anywhere," he looked up at Tanya.
"Looks like someone almost got shot," Lauren raised her eyebrows.
"Yeah."
Tanya
"Kids these days," Tanya grinned.
Lauren shook her head in amusement, then put her hand on Christian's shoulder. A moment later...
"There we go, done."
"Thanks," Tanya said.
Christian
Christian held his blood-covered hand out, then stood up.
"I'd better go and have a shower or something and get cleaned up."
He left the room and made his way to the bathroom where he splattered the blood from his hand into the basin and washed it down the drain. Then he washed his shoulder off, beforeing carefully removing his shirt.
Tanya
"Thanks again, Lauren," Tanya said.
"No problem," Lauren replied.
They chatted a little longer before Lauren left and the pizza finished cooking.