Richard. Not Rich, or Richie. Certainly the fuck not Dick. His name was Richard Grayson, and he made damn sure people called him exactly that. Woe to they who called him otherwise. Donning his sunglasses, Richard stepped out of the plane, and into the blazing sun that roasted the stretch of dry, flat land that served as their runway. The only person he allowed to call him anything else was his girlfriend, Kori. Sometimes, in their more intimate moments, she would call him "beloved", and Richard would absolutely melt. He didn't consider himself a romantic by any stretch of the imagination, he simply lacked the tenderness required, but Kori Andre made him want to be. She was an absolute marvel because, somehow, she found the good in everything, and nothing seemed to bring her down. Literally, nothing. Even when on one of their last missions they had been knee-deep in insurgents, and trying to fight their way out of town, she had been commenting on how lovely the weather was. She was just that kind of optimistic.
And then, by an impossible turn of events, she had fallen in love with Richard of all people. Mr. serious, stick-in-the-mud, all-work-no-play, grouchy Richard. Why was beyond him, but he stopped asking questions a while ago. Now he just wanted to do right by her. Because he loved her. He just had to say the goddamn words. Kori had been saying she loved him for a while now, and he had yet to return the words. Which made him a supreme ass. He knew it, Vic knew it, Gar knew it, and Raven knew it. Kori, of course, loved him regardless. It's just that, if he said the words it would make it real, and if it was real, it could break. Richard hated being vulnerable, and being committed made him feel vulnerable. It was stupid, and it wasn't fair to Kori, but he couldn't quite make himself let go of the line of thinking.
He did one more visual sweep of the surrounding area before making his way down the stairs to the sandy ground. It seemed okay so far, but none of them had their weapons yet, so they were at their weakest. His feet hit the dirt, and he made a beeline for the nearest shelter, a somewhat dilapidated brick building, followed by Kori, Raven, and Gar, while Vic made sure Paulson remained on the plane. Richard entered cautiously, checking his dead angles before moving too far in. There was a local ground crew that had already started unloading their luggage from the aircraft, and were bringing their stuff inside, milling about like worker ants. He saw the case that he was after, a bulky, matte black thing that was marked by a golden 'R' on a red circle, and walked towards it. Inside were his weapons and gear, which he grabbed gratefully.
Richard slung his assault rifle, an M4 A1 carbine with a vertical forward grip and holographic sight, over his shoulder after checking that everything was in working order with the weapon. He went to the door, and signaled to Vic, and Paulson that it was relatively safe to move from the plane to the building. He covered them while they jogged over as Raven and Gar cleared the area of the workers. When they were safely inside, he turned and saw that Kori was setting out everyone's things so that they wouldn't have to go searching, which made him smile. She really was a very kind and considerate person, and it showed in little gestures like this.
As everyone else got ready, Richard stood watch, so that at least one of them wouldn't be caught offguard in case of a surprise. He saw Gar and Raven, and noticed that Kori had set their gear next to each other. It was kind of eerie how easily they worked together, handing each other pieces of gear wordlessly. Well, Gar was talking. He actually never seemed to shut up. He had short, straight, dark red hair that always seemed messy, dark green eyes that ceaselessly twinkled with mischief, and a smile that made you want to laugh along with him while at the same time punch him in the face. Richard sighed in mild exasperation as Gar donned his tan tactical vest over his gray shirt, the words BEAST MODE ENGAGED stenciled offkilter in a radioactive green across his chest. Even though he was a great addition to the team, and Richard didn't really regret bringing him on, Gar definitely came with certain quirks. Like his sense of humor, or thing for sweets, or propensity for pranks. But, Richard supposed, they all had weird things about them.
Raven, for instance. Raven was standoffish, and cold, preferring the quiet and dark to other people. The only person he'd ever seen Raven actually open up to was, strangely, Gar. A mystery that would forever remain unsolved. She had exotic violet eyes that could pierce Kevlar, black hair with indigo highlights, and she'd shaved the right side of her head. On the exposed scalp there, there was an intricate tattoo of knotted lines, symbols, and shapes. Normally she would have three silver earrings in that ear as well, two rings higher up, and a tiny chain from her lobe, but since they were on a mission they were just black studs, though she still had a black ring through her bottom lip, and a black stud on the right side of her nose. She slid on her vest, and Richard read the words stenciled there in a vibrant purple. FUCK OFF. Gar's ability to spread his weirdness to others was uncanny.
This one quirk had rubbed off on all of them in fact. Vic had stenciled on his vest in electric blue BOOYAH! And Kori had stenciled LOVE IS THE ANSWER in a startling pink on hers. Richard wondered if he should've forbade everyone from decorating their gear like this but now it was too late. On his own vest Richard had a mantra Bruce had drilled into him at a young age. SI VIS PACEM, PARA BELLUM, in blood red. If you seek peace, prepare for war. His adoptive father was a hard man, military turned police, and highly decorated at that. Bruce had trained Richard since he was young in everything he knew, so it wasn't really a surprise Richard was in this particular line of work.
Kori was the first to finish preparing, so as the others continued she wandered over to Richard, and motioned for him to go and finish putting on his gear. She held her weapon, a TAR-21 with a reflex sight, easily, but readily in front of her, her long hair tied up in a warrior's braid, and hanging loosely almost to the small of her back. As Richard went to start putting on his vest and holsters, he observed Paulson. The man rubbed him the wrong way. He definitely wasn't telling Richard everything, which wasn't a problem normally, but Richard was already getting a bad feeling about this job. And it didn't help that Paulson was just standing there against the wall with his phone, like he didn't have a care in the world. If he felt so goddamn safe, why did he hire Richard's company in the first place? Shoving his pistol, a Beretta M9, into his thigh holster, Richard decided to keep his nose out of it, but remain on high alert.
"All right, so tell me where these cars are." Vic said, his voice coming from Richard's left.
Richard pointed towards the door near the back. "They should be out there. Paulson said that the tools and supplies you need would be right next to them."
With a skeptical look, Vic strode over to the doorway and stepped outside. Turning to his right Richard spoke quietly to Raven and Gar as they loaded ammo into various magazines.
"So?"
Raven glanced at him, but continued to put round after round into a magazine. "So what?"
"You guys spoke with him, right? What do you think?"
"Scumbag. Gets his way, usually through charm or leverage. Hits on anything remotely feminine. Probably was a con man at some point. Too much hair product." Came Raven's terse reply.
"He's fun to be around. Great sense of humor, smooth talker, definitely knows his movies, and highly educated. Would not like to go up against him in a game of trivia!" Gar said amicably, unwrapping a cherry lollipop and placing it in his mouth.
"So you like him then?" Richard asked, raising an eyebrow at the sweet.
Gar shook his head. "I didn't say that. He smells wrong."
Richard blinked twice before he processed what Gar had said. "Excuse me? He smells wrong?"
"Yeah huh. Like… off. Not bad, but definitely not good either. I don't know how to explain it. Maybe too much hair product, like Rae-Rae says."
Glancing at Raven, who just shrugged when he caught her eye, Richard pinched the bridge of his nose. "Right. One of these days we're going to get your head checked, Gar."
Gar just grinned, fitting a dark, matte green baseball cap snugly on his head.
"Out of curiosity," Raven said. "What, exactly, do I smell like?"
Taking the lollipop out of his mouth, and turning towards her, Gar smiled mischievously. "Delicious." He said, waggling his eyebrows.
Raven just rolled her eyes, and smacked him in the back of the head.
"Listen guys." Richard said, calling their attention back to him. "We don't exactly know much about this guy, and that concerns me. What concerns me even more is the amount of detail he supplied about this business trip he's on, which is to say, very little. He might've hired us just because of the danger inherent in the area, but something tells me there's more to it than that, so I want you guys to pay especially close attention to him."
"Fine." Raven said, though she clearly didn't relish the idea.
"You got it, boss!" Gar exclaimed, chipper as ever.
"Good." Richard said, turning, and walking towards Kori. She stood near the doorway, off to the side and by the wall. As he approached, her vigilant expression softened some, and when their eyes met she started beaming. Richard really couldn't stop himself from smiling in return.
"My love." She whispered in greeting.
His mouth twitched as he tried to return her affection, but he couldn't. Not yet.
"Kori." He whispered back.
If she was hurt, she didn't show it. "Well, what's the situation?" She asked in her light French accent.
"Unclear." He replied as he stood next to her to help watch. "But we definitely don't trust this guy."
Kori hummed in agreement. "I believe that is wise, as he seems to be the shady type. Also, he has done the flirting towards me."
That got Richard's attention. "I'm sorry, what?"
"Worry not. I have made it very clear I am not the interested." She reassured him with an amused little smile.
Richard simply grumbled in response. He should have a better hold on himself, really. Kori got hit on all the time, but whenever he found out about it his immediate reaction was outrage, followed quickly by anger. He wasn't the jealous type, but Richard had gotten used to anything nice in his life being torn away, so he thought it was understandable that he was very protective, and maybe even possessive. And anyway, it was pretty obvious that he and Kori were thing. Paulson should know better.
.
.
Four hours later, Vic announced that he had done all he could to the two vehicles they'd be traveling in, and that they were as ready as he could make them. The group loaded up everything into the SUVs, and began their journey within the next half hour. The SUVs were older, and kind of beat up, barely functional for their purposes, which Richard didn't like. One was a faded red color, rust clearly visible on the underside, and coated in a fine layer sandy dust, while the other might've been blue with the same problems. Vic had either welded or bolted metal plates to the side windows of each, cutting horizontal slits in each so that the passengers could peer out without exposing themselves. The windshields, and the back windows were left alone for the sake of visibility. The same metal had been bolted on the inside of the doors for a little more protection, but any more than that would leave the cars heavier than they wanted. As it stood, the vehicles were riding lower to the ground than they should, and Vic wouldn't stop complaining. He had also fine-tuned the engines as well as he could, so they were running much better now. For all his griping, he had actually done a lot more than they thought he could, and in less time.
Vic was driving the blue SUV with Richard in the passenger seat, Gar and Paulson sitting in the back. Kori, and Raven were driving up ahead with all the extra gear and supplies in the red SUV, navigating the road for the team. They'd been riding in silence for a little while now, and Richard was trying to decide how best to go about extracting information from Paulson.
"So!" Gar said suddenly. "Bobby P, care to explain what we're doing here?"
Richard's eyes bulged, and he almost face palmed himself. He instantly regretted not sending Gar with the girls in the other SUV. The guy had no concept of subtlety. Out of the corner of his eye Richard could see Vic smirking, and he frowned at the large man. This was not something to laugh at.
"Well, I can't tell you much." Paulson said in a bemused tone. "My business here is very hush-hush, you understand."
"Of course, of course!" Gar said. "The thing is, my boss here gets very high strung if he doesn't have all the facts, and then he's no fun at all."
Richard whipped around in his seat to glare at his redheaded subordinate, but all that did was elicit an innocent smile from Gar, and a short burst of laughter from Paulson.
"I see." Paulson said, grinning underneath his designer sunglasses. "Well, let's just say I'm meeting a contact here, and he has something I need."
"The vagueness, the secrecy, the drama! I'm getting goosebumps here, man!" Gar said excitedly. "Should we know what this guy looks like? Will he have henchmen? Should we expect a shootout?"
"No no no." Paulson said, waving one hand dismissively. "He'll have some men, but there shouldn't be any danger. Not if he wants his money."
"Don't tell me that briefcase there is the money you're going to pay him with."
"Of course not! This is just something to sweeten the deal, I have someone waiting for my call with his actual payment. Plus, if he betrays me no one will want to do business with him again."
"Cool. So, we're here just as insurance while you negotiate with this guy."
"Actually, the terms of our agreement are already set. I'm just here to conclude our dealings."
"That's good." Richard said. "I don't want this to be any more complicated than it needs to be."
Richard's frown deepened as he watched Gar place a hand on Paulson's shoulder.
"Relax, Richard!" Gar said, grinning. "Our employer here says it'll be easy."
Paulson shrugged off Gar's hand, and dusted the shoulder of his suit. "Well, it'll be simple anyway. Show up, show I am a man of my word, make him hold up his end of the deal, and then we leave."
"Hmmm." Richard hummed skeptically. The tingling in the back of his neck said that it would be anything but simple or easy. Too late to back out now though.
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Weeks and weeks of banging my head against this chapter, and this is all can come up with for you guys. It's pitiful I know, but hopefully not too bad? Let me know in the reviews. I'm still working on the next chapter in The Things We Hide, and the epilogue of If I Wasn't Broken, so those will be up soon. Hopefully. I took a bit of a break actually, that's why it's been so long since my last update, but I'm going to start writing the next chapter of Chaotic Neutral, so that should be up soon too. Maybe even before the other two. Thanks for reading, and also for your patience. Follow, favorite, review please!
– Mocha