RJ and Martin:
Chapter 8: Some Break
"Not it..." RJ crumbled another piece of paper and grabbed a new one to scramble some new notes. "OK, I get in the museum...front entrance..."
"Long day?"
Buffy's sudden voice talking to her from behind her chair made RJ yelp. "QUIET BACK THERE!" The voice of the librarian shouted.
"Sorry," RJ whispered sarcastically. Buffy pulled a chair near her and grabbed some of the crumbled papers RJ had discarded onto the desk.
"Figuring out for your Hope Diamond heist?" Buffy asked quietly.
"Yeah. The professor in Theft Tactics wants me to put much further thought on how I plan to steal the diamond," RJ said. "You tell him you want to steal in the daytime and he sentences you to do homework in the library until you figure something out."
"Eesh. He could have at least given you credit for thinking outside the box." Buffy looked through some of the papers that RJ had discarded. "You definetly got an artist's block here."
"Did you have that kind of problem when you stole from Fort Knox?" RJ crumbled another piece of paper.
"Nay. I just threw an exploding golf ball at the vault, and while the guards were distracted, I made a run for the gold." Buffy shrugged.
A light bulb effect came to RJ. She quickly took back all her discarded notes, threw them away in the nearest disposal bin, and rushed back to the table. She pulled out a piece of paper and wrote down new notes. "This may sound crazy, Buffy, but you gave me an idea!"
"How crazy is it?" Buffy arched an eyebrow.
"Crazy as in me thinking I should pass off as a visitor in the museum, place some sort of mini time bomb in the first and bottom floors, creates a fire, and while the security staff is busy ushering everyone out to safety, I easily get to the Hope Diamond, break its glass container, and walk away with it?" RJ gave a wide, toothy grin. Buffy rubbed her chin in thought.
"Well, it does sound decent, lassie...I hope the professor approves."
"Yes!"
A dinging sound came from RJ's laptop. She opened it and went to her Y.E.A.R.N member email account. "Crud. Melgo's got an appointment with her parents today. We were supposed to train together today after classes..."
"Can't you move it to tomorrow?"
"Well, we planned on doing our personal training every two days, but tomorrow's the monster truck rally that her cousin is hosting and her parents promised her uncle that they'd tragically be there. I guess that means that I'll have to make my first meeting with the Y.E.A.R.N gym treadmills."
"Or you can meet a girl's paradise! The spa!" Buffy suggested. RJ squealed and clapped her hands despite being in a library. Aside from wanting to see Big Ben so much, she always wanted to go to a spa and enjoy a real facial, mud bath, aromatherapy, and mani-pedi. Not like when her grandmother showed her how to paint her toenails with screaming pink.
"I'm in!" RJ said.
"Great. I'll meet you outside at four and we'll catch a shuttle."
"And before you do that, you ladies will learn to be quiet in a library!" The librarian jumped out of nowhere and shushed at them.
Later
The Beaufox Spa was one of those modern buildings that clashed with the old-fashioned ones in Down Street, another one of grand Minalshari 'mixed architecture' gigs. If you passed the old Smarty Mart building that looked like an early 21st century yellow warehouse, you'd find next to it the black-and-white modern building with a Taj Mahal like roof that serves as the Beaufox Spa. Like Très Chez Léon, it was one of those hangout areas in the villain haven where the owner played with prices based on the customer's wealth. If the customer had cash close to a hundred, they'd provide him or her with any treatment close to the amount, but the wealthiest could afford the best.
Martin and Gilliard arrived at Beaufox Spa around 4:15pm. Since it was a weekday, there weren't a lot of people here, only a few ladies and a couple men reading some magazines while waiting for their next available slot.
"That sandalwood fragrance is making my scales shiver," Gilliard sighed.
"We're not here for a treatment," Martin whispered before he headed to the secretary. "Excuse me, isn't it at the Beaufox Spa where you have the purest honey made of the youngest bees? I'm...looking for something to give to my mother." He swallowed as he tried to lie.
"Smooth." Gilliard gave him a smug grin, which got returned by a glare from Martin.
"What's the treatment?" the receptionist asked, as if she didn't care that she was dealing with a potential wealthy customer. She lost interest in him when she heard the glass door open and caught sight of who came in. "Hey, Buffy! How's it going? Who's your friend?"
"That's RJ," Buffy Killigan came in. Martin felt his gut froze when he saw RJ behind Buffy, dressed in the same red cropped topped, beige cargo pants, and teal sneakers he had seen her wear when he first encountered her at the dressing room cabinet. "RJ, that's Suzy. She used to be an old Y.E.A.R.N member."
"Until the economy crashed," Suzy rolled her eyes. "Now I'm stuck here!"
"Ahem!" Martin cleared his throat, causing them to turn their eyes towards them.
"Great," RJ muttered, "we accidently came to the country club in Up Street. Otherwise, how do you explain the snob clientele?" She crossed her arms.
"No, this is Beaufox Spa in Down Street," Suzy said.
"She was being sarcastic, Suzy," Buffy said.
"Oh."
"I'm not here for a treatment, I'm here to get products for my mother..." Martin swallowed his throat even more.
"Oh, a British aristocratic snob and a mother's boy!" RJ said. "That clear's things up!"
Martin clamped his mouth shut to hide his gritting teeth. As much as he wanted to punch anyone who insulted his mother, he had to remind himself what he came for. Besides, he thought, the moment I have her under my control, I'll teach her respect.
He then caught sight of her hair and remembered that he needed at least a strand of it, so he decided to play along.
"True, but at least I'm a snob who bothers to get his mommy her Mother's Day present in advance," he said calmly, pushing Buffy out of his way and purposely hurt RJ by twirling his index finger in of her bangs and forcing some strands of ginger blonde locks to coil on his finger.
"OUCH!" RJ pulled away. "What was that for?"
"I apologize. Did Mommy spend hours trying to straighten those bangs?" He gave a mocking pout.
RJ's fists clenched. She almost tried punching him before Suzy interrupted. "I hate to watch a couple argue, but may I ask again the type of treatment your mother wanted?" Her question made Martin ignore RJ, even though he did feel rather disturbed about Suzy suggesting that they were a couple. Like that would ever happen, he thought to himself.
"What options do you have with...honey?" he asked as patiently as he could.
Suzy's eyes gleamed. "You wanted to give your mother the honey treatment products? Why, she will be so touched!" She clapped her hands together. "Do you know which one she'd like?"
"Yes, she would very much like the purest honey made by the youngest bees..."
Somebody threw an acupuncture needle at him. Martin and the others dodged it before it hit the wall. Gasps were heard among the waiting guests as they saw an African-American man in his late forties dressed in a white working uniform walking towards them.
"Mr. Beaufox! That's unexpected," Buffy said.
"I hear somebody is daring me to sell to him my purest honey." Beaufox did a staring contest with Martin. "Is that so?"
"Yes. My...mother deserves the best." Martin swallowed. His fingers slightly rubbed the hair strands he still had stuck on them. Beaufox smirked at him and pulled something out of his shirt's pocket: a glass vial, roughly bigger than his thumb, containing white liquid pale enough to be lemonade.
"How is this honey?" RJ asked in confusion. This caused Beaufox to catch his eye on her and walk around her like a museum specimen. Martin saw her actually shedding a drop of sweat.
"Will you look at that," Beaufox said. "A pearl that slipped out of rough grass. Quite delicate, you could easily be broken without special treatment." RJ was visibly getting more uncomfortable by the second, Martin couldn't stand it as much as he was getting impatient.
"I'm assuming that seven hundred pounds from my credit cards don't interest you?" He temptingly started pulling out his wallet and shook it. The sound of credit cards hitting each other while being wrapped up in a leather coat obviously caught the man's attention and he ignored RJ. The latter looked confused at Martin, like she didn't expect him to do such a thing.
"Well, seven hundred pounds is close to nine hundred thousand dollars," Beaufox pondered out loud. "I suppose..."
"Add in an extra bottle and any spa treatment for the ladies and my friend, we'll make it one thousand dollars total." Martin shook his wallet.
"DEAL!" Beaufox excitedly ran to the storage room.
"WHAT?" RJ, Buffy, and Gilliard exclaimed.
"Excellent!" Suzy got up from her desk. "I will go fetch the spa robes while you get your payment ready!" The moment she was out of sight and the other clients went back to their business, Buffy caught Martin's wrist and made him turn to face her right in the eye.
"What screwed ye, Monkey Boy? A thousand bucks, your folks will skin you alive!"
"Can't you just be grateful?" Martin snapped. "I'm not doing this for you but because I wanted to get the product for my mother...and give Gilliard a break."
"Aw, the things we do." Gilliard pretended to be flattered. "I hope your mom doesn't think of grounding you!"
"Why would she ground him? Aren't aristocrats supposed to like expensive gifts?" RJ arched an eyebrow.
"You clearly haven't met his mom!" Gilliard snorted and pointed a finger at Martin.
"Let me guess. Simian Witch, super Monkey Powers, she'll turn him into a monkey just for ruining her financially?" RJ crossed her arms together and gave a joking smirk.
"Good one." Buffy high-fived her.
Beaufox came back with a box holding two bottles of the honey. Martin instantly paid up with his card. "The honey can be used for any treatment your mother desires: facial, aromatherapy, foot massage, juice resting...and it's still edible, so she'd love it in pancakes!"
"Juice resting?" RJ asked.
"It's a process where the client rests on a massaging table and sugary condiments are sprinkled or sprayed all over their body to both kill the bacteria and sooth down the body." Beaufox smirked. "Very useful for teenage crisis. I highly recommend trying it while you are here."
"Well, you three have fun." Martin patted Gilliard on the shoulder. "I'll see you back in England."
"OK. Good luck in Monte-Carlo and Maori," Gilliard said. He made a run for one of the white spa robes that Suzy brought over.
"Monte Carlo and Maori?" RJ gawked, an expression of envy appearing in her hazel eyes. "Lucky."
Martin frowned in confusion. Why on earth would she think he was lucky to go to the biggest gambling city in all of Europe and a tiny island in the Pacific Ocean? Normally, girls thought a guy was lucky, based on what he learned, if he was dating the most popular girl in school or knew this amazing TV director. Why would she envy him for going to two places that he personally didn't like?
"I'm just going there for personal business," he shrugged. "Nothing big."
He watched as RJ bit her lip, slightly making them bleed. "I'm guessing...since you're British...you've been at Big Ben?"
Martin was getting even more confused than usual. "Well I haven't gone inside it, but I've seen it whenever I go to London..." RJ's cheeks were reddening and she proceeded to cover her mouth with one hand. "I think I should get going." Martin clutched his box full of bottles and stormed out of the spa.
An hour later
Mixed feelings were boiling inside of RJ as she relaxed in one of the armchairs while one employee gave her a pedicure.
For one, she was enjoying the spa treatments Beaufox had placed out for them. The mud bath made her senses feel relaxed, the juice resting with honey and diced apples smoothened her skin, and now the pedicure. This felt like the life she always wanted. But for two, she was feeling internally confused about what she recently saw in Martin Fiske. Two days ago, he had been acting like a jerk because of a dress' price, and today, not only did he pull her hair, but this time he bothered to pay for their spa treatment, risk a ton of money just to get his mother a present, and he behaved weirdly when distracting Beaufox with money. Also...
"You know, I couldn't help put notice that you were rather curious about Martin's travels." Gilliard's voice cut her from her thoughts. While Buffy was in the sauna, Gilliard was sitting on the next armchair and enjoying getting his webbed feet claws being sharpened and his scales waxed. He was reading one of those villains' magazines that the spa employees left on the table for them to read. "You sounded rather jealous."
"I was," RJ sighed. "It's just...I was kind of homeschooled and until I ran away to join Y.E.A.R.N, I've never gone anywhere outside of home."
"Ouch," Gilliard said.
"So yeah, I got pretty jealous. Especially for the part of Big Ben. I always wanted to go there, but not in the sense of just seeing it. Like...actually going inside and climb all the way to the top until I'm standing on the roof and I look down at London like it's one giant postcard!" RJ said dreamingly.
"Sounds epic." Gilliard said. "So, how are you doing so far in Y.E.A.R.N? I'm guessing the number of members there are still low."
"You used to be a member?"
"I was a few years ago. I later quit to be partners with Martin. My dad also used to be in Y.E.A.R.N and used to be Martin's mother's apprentice in villainy. He was also on surrogate son terms with Monkey Fist even after Martin was born."
"What about your mom?"
"Eh." Gilliard shrugged. "She also studied at Y.E.A.R.N and later dated and married my dad, but they divorced eventually. She now works as a HenchCo secretary..."
"Secretary?" RJ almost distracted the woman who was doing her pedicure. "Does your mom happen to be Secretary Magali?"
"You met her?" Gilliard grimaced.
"She's the one who directed me to HenchCo," RJ said. "So, she's your mom? But...you don't look anything alike!"
"I heard office and paperwork would warp your mind." He shrugged while his feet were being rubbed, causing the white towel the employee was using to turn brown and mucky. "Any who, I'm never crazy about hanging out with my folks. When I'm with my mom at the Minalshari, she's too busy dealing with her work at HenchCo so I just troll around the local arcade, and when I'm with my dad, it's always trying to haunt Camp Wannaweep."
RJ was interested in hearing his story. For a moment, she was wondering if she was lucky that she never met or dealt with her parents. Just imagining the idea of visiting two parents in two different areas and each practically seemed to neglect you, it actually made her grateful that hers downright abandoned her. "So, with your parents not really in your base, you spend most of your time with the British snob and his parents?"
"No, I actually live there. Got a nice room with a window that leads me straight to the moat if I want a morning swim." Gilliard straightened up on his chair. "A quick thing I should point out though, feisty. The next time you want to badmouth Martin, don't use any of his parents as a source of insult."
"Why?" She snorted. "Is he going to sue me or have a gorilla strangle me?"
"No, but last September, after Melgo's cousin Edina badmouthed his father in front of him during a villain's convention downtown, he nearly succeeded in getting her crushed by her dad's monster truck when the dude came driving him."
"Oy, I remember that day." Buffy had just come back from her sauna treatment, looking fresher than ever. "It took hours to convince Motor Ed that Edina needed a body cast..."
"A body cast?" RJ gulped. "He...Fiske really managed to harm her that badly?"
"Well first he choked her in a headlock, twisted her elbows, and handcuffed her wrists and ankles before throwing her in the monster truck's path." Gilliard got up from his seat and put the magazine back on the table. "Edina was lucky that her dad's vehicle ended up having a flat tire. So for future reference, never insult his folks, their family's interests, or even make fun of Amelia Hall trolling him. I learned to avoid these things and I'm still alive."
RJ's gut seemed to shiver from the inside all the way to her spine. At this moment, she had gone through the details in her head and realized that she might have unintentionally gotten herself a ticket for death. After hearing Gilliard's warnings and recalling what Melgo had told her about the Fiskes being overprotective of their status as sole bearers of Mystical Monkey Power, she deduced that maybe provoking the British just for his superior status was anything but smart. She could still remember when she first met him at the dressing room cabinet. If he had wanted to, he could have easily used his hand to crush her windpipes.
She thought he wasn't worth being intimidated, but right now the mere notion that she'd end up strangled by him scared her to the bone. The soothing effects must have worn off.
"I...I think I'm gonna head back," RJ said. She gave the staff the robe she had worn over her clothes and made sure she grabbed her backpack.
"You're not just leaving because I told you about the Edina accident, are you?" Gilliard and Buffy quickly caught up to her as she headed out of the spa.
"I...maybe?" RJ shook her head. "I don't feel comfortable talking about it."
"Fine, then let's quit talking about Monkey Boy..." Buffy stopped in her tracks and quickly pressed her nose at one of the store windows in the area. "Holy clubs! My dream has finally come true! X-TREME GOLF MAYHEM!" She dropped on her knees in front of the purple painted video game store.
"You're into video games too?" RJ said eagerly. "I'm such a huge fan of the MICHIE GHAN MYSTIC HUNTER PlayStation." She pretended to be on a lookout position as she imitated the deep voice of the video games' narration. "In a city haunted by the ancient powers of ZODAHO, one girl bearing the powers of the Zodiac amulet must race against the mystic obstacles and reach the temple of INFINITY to purge all evil and save her town!" She sighed happily. "I know this is bad guys' town, but this video game is awesome! Before I ran from home, I actually made it to the level of the SNAKE PITTED mayor's office..."
"You made it all the way to number 12 in the video game franchise? I'm still stuck on number eight!" Gilliard dropped on his knees and bowed before RJ. "I shall now be your slave until you have taught me to master all the levels that I've missed!"
RJ stared at Buffy and the two girls grinned mischievously. The former stood up in a fake snobbish manner. "Very well, slave. You shall go get me all the MICHIE GHAN MYSTIC HUNTER video games and a PlayStation. That way, I shall teach you everything your little mind needs to know."
Buffy snorted in amusement. RJ was definitely getting the hang of being evil.
Close to the end of day
RJ was lucky that Buffy and Gilliard left ten minutes before she started throwing up in her toilet.
The rest of the afternoon had gone insane. After Gilliard had voluntarily purchased the video games and PlayStation, the three of them had gone back to RJ's apartment in Y.E.A.R.N and spent the entire afternoon. Around 6pm, they had ordered sushi and a pack of root beer cans since Gilliard insisted on continuing to play until he could steal RJ's crown as champion of the MICHIE GHAN MYSTIC HUNTER video games (she still found it ironic that a fish boy wouldn't have a problem eating raw fish wrapped with seaweed and served with soy sauce). By the time it was 10pm, the consumed food had gone to his head and knocked him out once he got his dream accomplished. Buffy had to proceed into dragging him out and doom the janitor into mopping off all the mutated drool he was leaving behind. RJ didn't have much to clean up aside from plastic wraps, empty cans, and her new video games. Quite a way to celebrate my third day out of my nest, she mentally thought. Playing video games and then throwing up.
She took a warm shower, cleaned her teeth, and lied on her bed. Unlike Gilliard, the sugar wasn't wearing her out but keeping her from falling asleep. She tried closing her eyes, but they kept reopening every five seconds. Note to self, I'm going to bed early before my Hope Diamond heist, she thought.
Feeling like she didn't have any other solution, she thought that her best option was to read and fall asleep from boring lecture. That usually worked. She quickly fetched the book Melgo gave her and went on to read it. Much to her surprise, the book was actually very interesting. Aside from describing the steps of basic to complex techniques, it also talked about legends linked the techniques and the artifacts connected to them. It even talked about Mystical Monkey Power, how Toshimu the founder of Tai Shing Pek Kwar was the one who first created and harnessed the power. According to the book, since Mystical Monkey Power was an ancient power so veiled from the real world, the only two possible ways to wield it was to either gain it by possessing the four jade monkeys or if you were born to someone who had the power. She remembered what Melgo told her about Martin's mother having inherited the power from her family's ancestor and his father used the jade monkeys to get it himself. Conclusion made, Martin Fiske had Mystical Monkey Power transferred in his DNA from both sides of the family.
But what did that make of RJ? She had the power and Melgo confirmed it, but how did she get it in the first place? Since she had been nowhere near a monkey idol made of jade, it can only justify that RJ had received it genetically, which meant that perhaps...
RJ couldn't believe what she was thinking: at least one of her parents must have carried the power and passed it on to her when she was born. Maybe he was an extremely distant descendant of Toshimu from a line of heirs that moved further west. Perhaps that was why she grew up sheltered most of her life. Her parents must have thought that, if there was also another bearer other than the 'hero's sidekick buffoon' Melgo mentioned, the Fiskes would have hunted her down to eliminate the competition.
For the first time, RJ was actually grateful that her parents were overprotective enough to not even talk to her.
She continued reading on. She landed in a peculiar paragraph discussing Mystical Monkey Power practiced by the two genders. It has been noticed by our predecessors that the power reacts differently between men and women, the paragraph said. Men possessing the power will believe that only they deserve such a gift while women will believe that it will guide them to what they really want in life.
"Men think they deserve the power," RJ muttered to herself as she closed the book and put it back on the shelf before turning the lights off for good and returning to bed, "and women think it guides them to what they want. So, what do I want?" RJ closed her eyes and fell asleep. When she reopened them, she was standing on some sort of rooftop with an illuminating city below wherever they were standing on the roof of. Up ahead, she saw two silhouettes, a male and a female, standing dangerously near the edge of the roof. RJ watched as the dark male silhouette handed a knife to the female silhouette and said something inaudible. Judging by his stiff position and where they were located, it seemed to RJ like the male wanted to die, whether it was from the female's hands or suicide.
The female threw the knife over the roof and jumped at the male, kissing him and causing him to fall...
"STOP!" RJ ran towards the insane couple as they dangerously made out near the edge. The closer she got to them, the more the streetlights lighted what was really happening. RJ stopped in her tracks when she had a better look at the two, who ignored her and continued to kiss and make out despite their dangerous location.
The male was Martin Fiske, much to her surprise. His dark hair messier than usual and his upper body clothing were removed to be used as a cushion for him and his female companion. RJ scolded herself for blushing at the sight of his slightly tanned, but quite muscular physique with a black monkey symbol tattoo that went above his torso and chest. It didn't help that the sweat coming out of his skin made him look like he was shining.
But the sight that shocked her the most? The female silhouette Martin Fiske was making out with was herself! Her hair was as messy as Martin's and the zipper of her Y.E.A.R.N uniform had been brought down along with her sleeves, he had a very good visual of her bare upper body except for the bra that weakly covered her breasts.
RJ was too speechless. Martin Fiske kept kissing her apparition deeply and the latter looked like she was encouraging him to keep seducing her. She seemed particularly excited when his hands began to playfully tease the fabric of her bra and any region of her hips that her uniform concealed...
"GAH!" RJ jolted up on her bed. She was still in her bedroom, barely twenty minutes after falling asleep, and dressed in her sleeping clothes. She made a run for the bathroom and splashed her face with water from the sink. The cold water sunk its way through her skin but not her confusion.
There was no way, under any senile suggestion, that the power was guiding RJ to what she wanted. All her life, she wanted to be free of her overprotective nest and live in the outside world. She was only living the first three days of her new experience. So much had to be discovered. And in a short amount of days, she'd be stealing the most valuable diamond in the world.
So why did she see this image? Why was the power saying that RJ wanted to have a sexual relationship with the British aristocratic that she only encountered twice? She didn't even think they were easily matched! From her perspective, if she did get stuck in a relationship with him, he'd probably treat her like a slave. Force her to clean every inch of his home, have her cook his meals without even letting him sit with him at the table, restrain her in bed while he forced his way through her helpless, nude flower, and maybe even clean or massage with her bare hands his monkey feet while she'd whimper at the idea of being beaten by him.
Yes, she had watched a lot of cartoons with stereotypical chauvinist men in them, but it was enough to tell her that her insane nightmare should be locked away deep in her mind. "I'm never going to be his property," she told herself sternly before finally having the courage to go back to sleep.
