Red's story corner

I know I've been working on it for a while, but here's the first of many to come! These stories will explain what some of my other OCs have been up to during the events of Darkest Days, the newest addition to our RP family.

I know this first chapter is mainly a lot of exposition and fluff and crap, but bear with me, it gets better, I promise!
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“Boss! We go-HOLD STILL!- we got the girl! What shoDAMMIT STOP THAT!” A tall henchman dragged a young, blindfolded and gagged woman behind him by the hair, whom was doing her level best via squirming and writhing like a snake to make bringing her to the Penguin as miserable and difficult as possible. But the boss was clear that he wanted her undamaged and ‘in prime bloody condition’ and was paying him well to boot, so he put up with what he had to.

For now, at any rate.

“Just bring her over her, ya’ bloody nitwit!” Penguin cawed. Agreeing all too happily, the henchman hauled her over to a chair in the middle of the run down room and forced her into the seat. It was then that Penguin removed her blindfold and looked at her with a most unpleasant smile. “Miss Sarah Roper. You know, it’s not very bloody often I have a buyer ask for a girl by name, much less offer me FIVE MILLION squid for one!” he squawked with delight. ‘Tch, keep telling yourself that, big bird.’ Sarah thought to herself, with a mild degree of personal amusement, despite her situation at the moment. “Lucky you’re so expensive- otherwise, me boy here might’ve taught you some manners on the way here.” He stated mockingly.

Sarah gave him a look of sheer contempt. She squirmed violently against her bonds, but Carl’s clamp on her was like a steel trap, and he didn’t budge an inch. “I ain’t scared of you, poppet. Not when you’re tied up there like me shoelaces, at any rate.” Penguin shot at her teasingly. “Oy, Carl! Take little miss to the back here with the other one- her buyer ought to be here just a few hours before hers, so she can wait with the rest of the cargo.” He snorted to the brutish henchman that had brought Sarah in earlier. “Right away, boss.” He sighed wearily, replacing the blindfold over her face, despite her irritating resistance. He kept her at arm’s length, trying his level best to avoid another bruising of his shins or whatever else she could dole out, as he hauled her out of the chair and out the door.

In a nutshell, it was the brig of the ‘Final Offer’ that was their final destination, Penguin’s boat and little HQ. Until he could get some better real estate in the city and sell the thing for scrap, of course. And it was obvious that their destination was pretty far from where Penguin’s little office on the bridge was. It took at least a good ten minutes for Carl to haul her around, much to his vocal chagrin. “Like haulin’ five million bucks I can’t even touch. Of all the damn dumb jobs….” He grumbled. And Sarah knew that this spectacle wasn’t going un- noticed- she could hear jeers from other goons on the ship on their little trek. “Hey Carl, did Christmas come early for YOU or what?!” Was her favorite, which Carl only replied with a “If it did, would I be here with you morons?” in his most un- happy grunt he could muster.

But, of course, Sarah inevitably heard the tell- tale sound of a door being opened and her being yanked inside. He hauled her up to one of the cells in the brig, opened the door, and tossed her in- wrappings and all. He wasn’t going to bother with THIS one more then he had to. “You two have fun. Now that I’m outta’ here, I certainly am” He snorted, quickly taking his leave of the room as he slammed and locked the cell. Barely a moment after he left though, Sarah heard a sympathetic voice from next to her- no doubt her new ‘roommate’ here. “Looks like they were pretty damn easy on you- when they hauled ME here, I didn’t look HALF that good.” The girl explained, un- doing the blindfold from her eyes and removing the gag. She was about Sarah’s age, perhaps slightly older. She had long, teal hair-most likely dyed- and a long tattoo of a Chinese dragon coiled around her right arm. Her eyes were a light bronze, like a copper coin. There was a sympathetic quality to her, but not in that condensing sort of way. Her clothes were rather dirty and unkept, hinting that she'd been here for a bit. “Well, my alleged buyer is allegedly paying top dollar for me in prime shape tonight; I guess Penguin doesn’t want to damage his alleged ‘merchandise’ or whatever. Allegedly, that is.” She replied casually.

In truth, of course, there was no buyer. Sarah had planned it all from the start, right down to sending Penguin the anonymous request for five million in exchange for her. She specified a huge amount because she really wanted the penguin to come and get her and drag her right down here, to this exact room, so she could personally guarantee that his next ‘sale’ wouldn’t happen. And it worked to perfection, Penguin had taken the bait like a pro, and she was in prime position to bust the two of them out. And see to it that Penguin and she had some ‘quality time’ when she was done- they needed to talk about a few things.

However, she didn’t want to tell this girl that quite yet- better to make it all look authentic as it happened. “Then you’re REALLY lucky- from what I hear, most of these buyers are just looking for some ass they can use on the cheap until you’re a dead battery. Then they sell you to make glue or something. You’re probably going to the middle east or something to be some guy’s bazillionth wife or whatever.” The other girl joked, but with a depressed emptiness in her voice. “For what it’s worth, my name is Christine.” She said with a slight friendly smile as she finally un- did the ropes keeping Sarah’s wrists bound. “I’m Sarah, Sarah Roper.” Sarah replied, getting to her feet and stretching out. “Thanks for your help with that, by the way.” She said gratefully. “Don’t mention it. Least we can do for each other, y’know?” Christine replied, sitting on the cot in the cell and crossing her legs Indian style. Sarah took a look around- the other cells were all empty, but it was obvious they had others in them in the past, and by the looks of a few as recently as maybe a day or two ago.

“So, what’s your story? How’d you get here?” Sarah asked Christine curiously. Sarah was stuck waiting for the moment until the next part of her plan could be executed, might as well get to know her company. “Well, it’s a pretty damn long story, but I can give you the short version.” Christine explained. Sarah nodded in agreement- she just must this girl, she didn’t expect to hear her full life story or anything. “Short version is, I’m from really, REALLY far away. I couldn’t get a job since I’m, well…. Not here LEGALLY. I took up a few small jobs here and there under the table, but nothing more then helping out at the Black Swan for a few hours or anything.” She explained. She then scrunched her legs up defensively. “Until one day one of the Penguin’s boys decided to try and shove his hands up my shirt. I managed to get away from him- even broke his nose- but he found me and hour later with some of his buddies. They dragged me back here after…..” Christine didn’t need to finish her story for Sarah to know how it ended.

Christine stopped her story there, clearly neither wanting nor needing to go on from there.  So, she pissed off one of Penguin’s boys, and now was basically about to live out her life in misery. Sarah found it disgusting one human could do this to another, but as sad as it was, wasn’t surprised that one would. But Sarah couldn’t bear to see the emptiness in Christine’s eyes- call it sympathy, or whatever you liked. Sarah got up and strode over to Christine, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, don’t sweat it. Trust me, before the end of today, they’ll wish they’d left you the hell alone.” Sarah reassured her. Christine wanted to be inspired- she really did- but she saw no out. “Sweet of you, but we’re in a cage to be auctioned off for top dollar. Willpower doesn't come easy right now.” She explained, a sad emptiness in her voice. But Sarah only grinned bigger. “Trust me, it'll all work out.” She stated confidently.

But her train of thought was interrupted by the door to the room slamming open, two large men she hadn’t seen before clamoring through. Their faces looked uncomfortably happy, and their eyes went straight to her. Christine flinched away, but Sarah was grinning on the inside. It wasn’t going to be THIS easy, was it? Her plan looked like it was about to happen quicker then she thought! “Now, we heard the boss bird talking about some new meat. Like, not even so much as a scratch on her, THAT kind of new meat.” The taller of the two goons called out, his voice clearly displaying that no good was about to come from what he intended. “Word is, your pretty little ass is worth five million- the boss is all a twitter about it upstairs.” The shorter one taunted, as the two closed the gap up to her cell door. Sarah noticed that the shorter guy’s nose was bruised and crooked, clearly broken recently.

Sarah would have to hurt that one especially well.

“But we got to thinking…. Is she REALLY five million bucks worth? I mean, that’s a lotta’ clams for just one little bitch like you.” He furthered, procuring a set of keys from his pocket for the door. Sarah narrowed her eyes- bingo. This was going to be a cinch. And who said there’s no such thing as luck? “Why don’t you get in here and find out?” Sarah coaxed, trying to goad them into approaching. Christine’s eyes shot wide open with a ‘What the hell are you doing?!’ look scrawled all over her face. But Sarah already had this all figured out. “You bet we are! We gotta’ test the goods, see, and make sure our dear ol’ boss is getting every penny outta’ your ass. And you, my dear, are going to get ‘tested’ REAL well.” The taller thug sneered, and the door popped open. Yeah, Sarah didn’t need the ability to read minds in order to tell that these two idiots thought they were in for an easy score tonight.

And boy, were they SO wrong. Sarah’s eyes quickly blazed a bright emerald, and the taller of the two thugs suddenly froze on the spot as soon as they locked eyes. His will was twisted about, soft and pliable as play dough in Sarah’s mind. “Hey, Jeff, what’s the holdup, man? We ain’t got any action all damn day, don’t dick arou-“ The shorter thug never got to finish his sentence before ‘Jeff’ wheeled around and planted his foot in his face, creaming the back of his head against the bars of the cell behind him and knocking him out with a satisfying WHAM. Sarah couldn’t help but see a mix of shock and satisfaction all over Christine’s face.

“Mark?! Oh geeze, what happened?!” The tall thug stammered, snapping out of the trance and looking at his passed out co- hort. But, it wasn’t long before he joined his friend in the bliss of un – consciousness. As his back was to the open cell door and he was hunched over trying to wake up his friend, he barely even noticed Sarah coming up behind him until he felt the brunt force of the back of her heel forcibly ramming his face down into the floor, knocking him out virtually instantly. “And for the records, I am worth SO much more then just five million, dumbfuck.” Sarah shot at the two unconscious bodies sarcastically as she relieved the shorter thug, whom the bigger one had called Mark, of his keys. Those were going to come in handy. “You- you trashed them both! And it didn’t even look like you were TRYING!” Christine exclaimed in shock, emerging from her open cell and trotting over. “I wasn’t trying, really. These two idiots were child’s play.” Sarah explained confidently, continuing to rummage through the two thugs’ belongings to see if there was anything else useful.

Christine wasn’t sure what blew her away more- the fact that Sarah just absolutely decimated two of Penguin’s top cronies, or the fact that she didn’t even seem to NOTICE that she just did. “But how- how did you do that? That was amazing!” Christine asked excitedly, as Sarah went cell to cell, un- doing all the locks. “You mean how did I turn that big dork’s brain into mush?” She asked curiously. In the back of her mind, Sarah was glad to see Christine excited, as opposed to the depressed thing she saw when she was first brought down here.

Besides, she had a cute smile.

No, she thought to herself, not the time. “It wasn’t much, just your basic psychic control, not very hard really.” Sarah replied casually. For her, it was no big deal- compared to the freaks and psychos she’d deal with in the past, those two were hardly worth the effort it took to slap them around. Or, you know, make them slap each OTHER around.

It took Christine a second to recover from the shock of what she'd just seen. “Anyways, I take it this is the part where we both get the hell out, huh?” Christine asked hurriedly- clearly, she didn’t want to be here more then she had to, but she didn’t want to just bail on her newfound rescuer either. “You can go, if you think you can make it out without getting hurt. As for me…” Sarah yanked a gun out of Mark’s pocket. He wasn’t going to need it. “I have to have a little chat with the big bird in charge around here.” She explained, stuffing it into the pockets of her jacket. But Christine was blown away. “Why would you WANT to go see him?” She asked in confusion. They were free, why go DEEPER into the ship? “Because he’s got something I want.” Sarah stated, getting to her feet and heading for the door. And it was true- most of the reason for coming here was to stop his next little trade, which she had when she freed Christine. But bird boy had something she wanted, and she intended to get it before she left.

“Well then, at LEAST let me go with you.” Christine said. She wasn’t more who was more shocked, Sarah for hearing it, or Christine for actually saying it herself. “You just helped me, so let me help you.” She explained, wondering wh needed to be convinced more- her of Sarah. “And I won’t slow you down. I’m more helpful then you think. Besides, I’m no fan of Penguin right now either.” Christine stated, but it was more like pleading. Something about Sarah seemed to just… draw Christine in. In her bleakest moment, this young woman had just swooped in and saved her from spending her life in absolute misery. Maybe it was gratitude, maybe it was something else entirely, she didn’t know. All she knew was that she didn’t to be away from her...

Sarah sighed- it didn’t take a mind reader to see that ‘no’ wouldn’t be a plausible answer. Plus, if she really COULD help, Sarah supposed she’d need all she could get for what she had to do. “Fine, come with me. Not like I could say no to that face anyways.” She sighed in submission. Christine tried to hide it, but hearing that Sarah WANTED her along was rather exciting. “Now, what say we BOTH give the Penguin a visit, hm? Sarah asked, silently opening the door. “You bet, right behind you.” Christine stated, a newfound confidence in her voice. “Just don’t enjoy the view behind me TOO much.” Sarah jokingly replied, flirtatiousness in her voice, warranting a slight blush from Christine as she opened the door, and snuck off down the hall, her new friend right behind her….

Here ya' go kiddies, chapter 2;
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To call keeping out of sight of Penguin’s boys difficult would be far too modest. It’s not like he had armed guards roaming the halls or goons around every corner, like in some video game. These were guys just sitting down to a beer, watching TV, or bragging as loud as humanly possible about who was going to get the biggest cut from the boss this week. But, unfortunately, this meant that they could potentially just stay in one spot for hours- or just talk about really stupid shit….

“Oy, you see Carl earlier? Never seen a guy so pissed about hauling some girl away.” Sarah over- heard one of the gangsters say to another. “Think maybe he just up and went gay?” His cohort asked. “Who knows. And it’s your turn, dumbass.” The first one replied, getting back to whatever card game they were playing. Ugh, for Sarah, hearing some of this mundane little small talk was simply painful. But nonetheless, she ignored it and slipped behind the two. This wasn’t her first rodeo; she’d snuck around places on her own. Her parents were, after all, some of the best there were at this kind of crap when they were in their prime.

And, to her credit, Sarah realized that Christine was keeping up remarkably well herself. It wasn’t like she didn’t give the girl due credit already, since she wanted to give her a hand, but she could tell when someone was a newbie to this kind of stuff, and Christine was clearly no stranger to sneaking around. The way she moved and darted from corner to corner, closet to closet and shadow to shadow, keeping right next to Sarah every step of the way was pretty impressive. The way she melded around the corners and kept in perfect rhythm, it was almost extraterrestrial.

“So, Chrissie- can I call you Chrissie?- you seem to have no trouble keeping up. This sneakiness thing nothing new for you….?” Sarah asked quietly as they snuck about one of the many long, empty stretches of hallway of the FO. It seemed like the builder made this ship to deliberately torment anyone walking in it, as far as Sarah was concerned. “What, you mean what we’re doing now? It’s just…. Easy for me I guess.” She replied, but she was clearly hiding something. But Sarah didn’t press the point- they’d have time enough for that later.

“How about YOU? I’d sure like to know a little more about you, you know.” Christine asked quietly, but a forceful curiosity in her voice. This girl shows up out of nowhere, busts her out, for all practical purposes flirts with her, and is now heading off to butt heads with a major crime boss like she’d done it a dozen times. “Would you believe me if I said my dad was a commando and my mom was a spy?” Sarah relayed, like it was no big deal. “Actually, I think I do.” Christine agreed. Sure, why not. It’d explain a lot really, and after today, she wouldn’t doubt much of anything really.

After what seemed like an eternity of sneaking about corners, prowling halls, dodging sight and avoiding being caught- at times VERY narrowly- they peered around a corner at a hall that ended at a heavily guarded door. ‘This should be it.’ Sarah mouthed wordlessly to Chrissie. ‘Are you sure?’ Christine mouthed back. Sarah cupped her head to her ear, signaling Christine to listen.

“And I want to know the MOMENT a buyer shows up asking for the girl!” She heard penguin crowing from the other side of the door. Yup, this was the place. “Five million, Carl! Five million squids, all for one little slag! Think of what we could DO with that! I could buy all kinds of new little guns to blast that goddamned Batman outta’ his cape, a decent little place uptown, and still ‘ave enough left over to do something about that dumb look you’ve always got on your face!” Penguin cackled in delight, clearly excited about the buyer that would never come. Sarah could only imagine the disgruntled look on Carl’s face at hearing his boss carry on.

But the door was flanked by three armed men. Of course, he wouldn’t leave it guarded by just one or two guys- that’d be too damn easy. And of course, Penguin was expecting a high profile buyer to come, so Sarah realized she should’ve thought about that from the start. Sarah was contemplating using her mind control ability, but it only worked on one person at a time, and if she couldn’t take them all out quickly and quietly at once, they’d have a serious issue on their hands. She continued to run though scenarios in her mind, desperately trying to come up with something. “Should’ve planned better for this…” She chastised herself under her breath.

But her train of thought was interrupted by the feeling of a tapping on her shoulder. “Actually, I might have an idea.” Christine whispered. “I’m open to anything right now.” Sarah stated back, listening intently. “Still got that gun?” Christine asked. “Sure, here it is…” Sarah pulled it out and safely passed it off to Christine. “Now- and trust me on this- how does putting on a little act sound?” She asked further. At first, Sarah was about to refuse- it sounded like bad idea at first, and she didn’t want to endanger Christine any more then she had to. But after a second, she realized that they really had no other options. Besides, Christine had proven herself capable thus far. “Sure, why not.” She submitted. “Good, now turn around and play along. No matter WHAT, ok?” Christine instructed, putting the weapon to the back of her head and nudging her out into the open where the other thugs could see, with Sarah choosing to put their fate in her hands as she complied...

“What the hell is this?!” The closer of the three doormen asked in shock when he saw the two. “I caught this little bitch trying to sneak out. And word is, she’s worth a lot of cash.” Christine hissed. Sarah was blown away by her performance- it was almost scary how good she was acting. But the doorman seemed less impressed. “Wasn’t you supposed to be sold yourself…?” He asked skeptically, his hands ever so slightly tensing around the handle of his weapon. But Christine flowed with it like clockwork. “I just saved your boss a five million dollar loss. I want a cut of it AND my ability to walk out free, or else he’s going to be out of that cash completely- they don’t pay well for DEAD girls, do they?” Christine taunted, the malice in her voice sharp as a knife. It was almost scary really. “What makes you think I won’t just shoot you? You’d fetch a good pay, but she’ll fetch more.” The thug shot back. “You really want to test if your trigger finger is quicker then mine? Or that you won’t hit her by mistake?” Christine dared. Sarah couldn’t help but feel a bead of sweat roll down her brow- she REALLY hoped Christine could pull this off. But then she saw the thug begin to falter- a look of uncertainty was sprawled on his face. COULD he potentially shot her before she could waste the other broad? Hell, she WAS probably desperate enough to shoot, after all. “I’ve been little more then a toy in a cage the last few days, so don’t think I won’t try anything to get out of here.” Christine jabbed. But it was the ‘CHA-CLACK’ of her cocking the gun that made Sarah break out in goose bumps.

Lucky for her, the doorman decided to give in. “Ok, just calm down, bitch. It’s your funeral if you wanna’ bonk the boss’s nose with this, not mine.” The doorman submitted, opening the door into the Penguin’s office. “Hey! I thought I told you idiots to keep that bloody door closed unless you’ve got my buyer!” Penguin called out, shortly before the look of frustration on his face turned to shock. Christine lightly pushed Sarah’s back with the gun, indicating for her to go inside. “What’s the meanin’ of this?!” He hissed between clenched teeth as Christine tossed Sarah to the ground at his feet. Sarah spat a curse under her breath for emphasis. “I trusted you, you bitch.” She snorted, trying her best to play the part. But Christine was still playing the game herself. “You thought wrong, dumbass.” She hissed, and she pressed her down with her foot, her gun leveled right at the back of Sarah’s head. “The meaning of THIS, you angry little bird, is that I’m turning her in- she tried to break us out. My reward is not just leaving, but a slice of that sweet, sweet five million you’ve been promised for her cute little ass. Otherwise, you’ll be short one five million dollar girl.” Christine spat, her voice sharp and demanding.

Penguin wasn’t intimidated, not in the least. “Smarter if you just up and hoofed it, poppet. Because I’ve got another proposal;” Penguin waved his grubby hand, and Carl and the three doormen pointed their weapons all at Christine. “I put you BACK in that cell, and after my boys use you worse then a truck- stop toilet, I’ll sell you both and keep every bleeding cent. How’s THAT?” Penguin threatened angrily. The mere thought of splitting money that he saw as rightfully his with a girl he barely considered more then somebody’s future sex toy was borderline insulting, ESPECIALLY when she herself could easily fetch him some good cash. Pretty little ones like her were good money, and he didn’t like being cheated out of a good pay day.

But his thoughts were interrupted but the sudden BLAM! Of Carl’s gun discharging into the arm of one of the two doormen, who dropped his own weapon and began writhing in agony. “Carl!? What the fuck!?” The other gunman barely had time to finish his sentence before he also took a shot to the shoulder, cursing like a sailor as he dropped like a rock. Tch, that’s what you get when you get your cronies from Craigslist, these guys were the worst babies Sarah had seen in a long time. The last gunman managed to get off a shot of his own, but in the confusion of their little trick, missed hitting anything but the drywall by a mile and in return got a bullet in the leg from Christine’s gun. Again, Sarah was borderline scared by just how GOOD she was at this. “What the- oh you sneaky little bitches!” Penguin cursed, suddenly realizing the glowing green aura in Carl’s eyes was the same as in Sarah’s and piecing together that he had just been had. Christine removed her foot from Sarah’s back, who got up and dusted herself off. ‘Carl’ turned his focus to the penguin. “Now, surely we can talk about this…?” Penguin pleaded, realizing that he was in a corner now.

“You mean talk about how you were about to sell me as some rich prick’s little fuck toy?” Christine spat, the focus of her weapon now being the Penguin. There was obvious intent in her voice- Sarah got the feeling that she wasn’t acting any more. Unlike Sarah, she’d spent a few days in that little cramped cell, she’d had men come in the middle of the night and want to ‘sample the goods.’ She’d been violated in every sense of the word, and now that SHE was the one with the power, payback looked pretty damn good. Penguin looked like he was about to dash for a nearby umbrella- no doubt concealing some kind of gimmicky weapon or other- but he was quickly deterred by a bullet, missing him by mere inches. “Don’t give me MORE reasons, just don’t.” Christine ordered, exercising as much restraint as she humanly could.

“Besides, I’d rather talk about how there never WAS five million dollars in the first place, and that I was playing you like a harp from hell.” Sarah interjected- it was obvious that Christine had every intention of using that gun if she had her way, so Sarah tried her level best to keep her attention from that. And the look on Penguin’s face when he heard about there not being five million? Oh, it was simply delicious for BOTH girls.

“Y- you made it all the hell up? WHY!? You would KNOW I’d come and snatch you, why the HELL would you put a price tag on your OWN arse?!” Penguin stammered, not quite getting the picture here. “Well big bird, you see, there’s two reasons. Number one, this little operation of yours? I over heard some ass at the Black swan yacking about your little operation so yeah, decided this needed to die and be buried like, yesterday. So this is over.” Sarah ordered. It was obvious the Penguin wanted to protest, but Sarah didn’t give him a choice. “And two;” Sarah popped her knuckles in anticipation. “About a month ago, you made a sale of a controlled substance named ‘Unihexium’. I’ve been tracking someone down who uses the stuff for his operations. So you better start talking about that sale, before I decided to let my friend here convince you instead.” Sarah seethed as she gestured towards Christine, all too happily keeping her gun trained on. “You think I keep goddamn receipts?! I don’t exactly take down their phone numbers and email addresses!” A paper trail would just be trouble, so Penguin rarely bothered recording his less then savory sales. But as far as Sarah cared? Wrong answer, and it cost him a sock to the nose. “ANSWERS, Penguin. NOW.” Sarah re- iterated. “Augh, dammit, ok. Never saw the buyer, he sent an errand boy to fetch it. Forked over some real good money for it. All I know is he said it was going to somewhere in Coast city. All I got, honest.” Penguin blathered, lavishing attention to his newly renovated nose.

But to say Sarah was feeling any sort of sympathy would have been a blatant lie. Even in the safest of hands, U-hex was dangerous stuff. In the WRONG hands, it would spell out a lot of problems for a lot of people. Penguin glanced around nervously. “So, uh, can I go?” Penguin barely finished his sentence before he got a roundhouse kick upside the head, courtesy of Sarah, that knocked him out cold. Penguin then dropped to the ground like a ton of bricks.

Sarah stretched out her leg for emphasis- man, did that feel GOOD. “Better then he deserves.” Christine snorted. But Sarah shrugged it off. “Either way, it’s not our place. We shot those clowns up, that’s more then enough.” Sarah stated. She then finally turned to Carl, still completely under her control- as far as Sarah was concerned, he was their ticket out. All they’d need to do was hide the three doormen they whipped. And that was easy enough. She motioned wordlessly to Christine, who stuffed her gun deep into her pocket, and between her Sarah and Carl, they easily dragged the three unconscious bodies into the office and shut the door behind them as they left, locking it tight with the keys Sarah had pinched earlier.

And not a moment too soon, either. As soon as the three were outside, about five goons showed up, weapons drawn. “Hey, Carl! What the hell’s going on, we heard gunshots!” One of them exclaimed. But now it was Sarah’s turn to act. She had Carl keep a weapon trained on the two of them. As Sarah mouthed the words, Carl spoke them. “THESE two dumb bitches tried to get fresh and jump the boss. Lucky I was there in time.” ‘Carl’ barked out. “Heh, they don’t LOOK like they just tried to off the boss.” Another one observed, but looked like he was putting trust in Carl- he must’ve been a bigshot in Penguin’s little hierarchy. ‘Carl’ grabbed the two of them roughly by the hair. “Trust me; these two dumb broads are going to look it when I finish with them.” Carl threatened. Sarah was lucky she was dealing with total idiots- they looked like they bought every word. “We still better at least check on the boss.” The thug stated. “Boss is in the middle of negotiations- five million dollar bitch just tried to rough him up so he’s talking prices right now, he don’t want any interruptions.” Carl parroted. And it seemed enough to deter these morons- with a shrug, they turned about and left.

As soon as they were gone from earshot, Sarah let out a sigh. “That was almost too close.” She muttered. “But you pulled it off.” Christine stated. “WE pulled it off, you mean. Without you we never would’ve got into Penguin’s office in the first place, so don’t sell yourself short.” Sarah corrected, not forgetting Christine’s performance earlier. “But we can argue about who was better later- I don’t want to be here when Penguin wakes up.” Sarah explained. Christine nodded in agreement, all too happy to be out of here now that their work was done. The rest was simple; with Carl ‘escorting’ the two of them, they could walk in plain sight right out the door.

Which, of course, they did.

Using the story that Carl was taking them outside to wait for the buyer- and making him recite it like a parrot every time they were asked- most of the morons on board didn’t really give it a second thought. When they stepped onto the dock and off the ship, Sarah never thought she’d be so happy to just get a whiff of that rancid Gotham air, and Christine seemed like she just won the lottery she was so glad. She had Carl escort them to a nearby alley, just off the docks, before she issued a final mental command to him to take a nap, and he slumped over like a ton of bricks.

Keeping him under her control wasn’t hard- her talent for controlling people for some reason was only affected by how many times she used it to enter someone’s mind, not the duration of a single mind control. As long as she kept her focus and willed it, she had trained with her powers since she was a child and could keep someone of a weak mind under her control for a long time without exhausting herself. Of course, someone of a stronger mind would take a lot more effort and will to control, but Carl and the goons from earlier were barely even worth the hassle.

Now that they were as good as free, Christine and Sarah could finally breathe easy. “I don’t know about you, but I’m not in a rush to do THAT again.” Sarah exclaimed as she stretched her arms. Christine quietly caught her breath off to the side. “I’m just happy you came along when you did. You really saved my ass back there, you know?” She stated gratefully. “Well, don’t thank me until we get a little further away.” Sarah explained, walking over to the side. There was a tarp covering a motorcycle, which Sarah had planted here earlier for just this reason. “You wanna’ come with me? You probably need somewhere to crash for the night.” She offered, wheeling it out into the alley as she tossed the tarp off to the side. “Of course!” Christine blurted out. She had nowhere else to go, and the beautiful stranger that saved her was offering her a ride home and a rest? It was like a wish come true, as far as she cared.

Sarah slung a leg over the bike, and nodded to the seat behind her, indicating for her to follow suit. “Then just plant that little behind of yours right there.” She instructed as she wrapped her hands around the handles. Christine did as she asked and sat down behind her on the bike eagerly, excited to put some distance between her and this place. “Just grab on sweetie, and we’ll kiss this part of town goodbye.” She explained, taking one last glance at Carl’s slumbering carcass before she turned the key and roared the bike to life.

A little bashfully, Christine constricted her arms around Sarah’s waist as the bike lurched out of the alley, the machine snarling like some predatory cat pouncing from a bush. They turned onto the road, melting into the rest of traffic. The roar of the bike, the rush of cars they passed, the sight of the lights whizzing by…. It was soothing beyond words. Christine sub- consciously hugged Sarah’s waist a little tighter, knowing all her problems for the past few days were vanishing behind them at seventy miles an hour. She closed her eyes and took it all in- the wind on her face, the metronome of the engine, the smell of whatever perfume or whatever it was Sarah used, the feel of her waist between her arms…. It was a rush she never felt before, and it made her feel a certain peace, a calmness that made her smile like an idiot as they zoomed off…