Chapter XI: Anymore, Anyless

AN: Heya fan-fic-folks.

So, I'd like to begin this AN with an apology, specifically to any of you from Azerbaijan or who might speak Shoni. I don't really know either language and googletranslate is a piece of shit I will forever hate for it's utter inaccuracy. For those of you who also don't speak the language, the english version is at the bottom. I'm quite happy with the rest of this chapter though, by the by. Chloe's gotten to know Laura and Tish a little better and they've met another member of Max's little Syndicate.

Also, some new news. Terrible phrasing there, but c'est la vie. Geek and Sundry recently started a little fantasy writing competition over on Inkshares. For those of you who don't know, Geek and Sundry is the company Felicia Day spends her time producing internet videos for. They also make Critical Role, which is frankly the greatest boardgame RPG thing I've ever seen online, and I'm including Old Man Henderson in that. Matt Mercer, The DM, is a fucking God. Anyways, I'm planning on entering a couple of stories into their competition, so there won't be an update next saturday because I'll be devoting my week to writing a couple of sample chapters for them.

If you want to submit a story of your own, the link is in my profile because they don't seem to appear here properly, much to my irritation.

And on a final note, I'm still trying to work back up to writing larger chapters. This one is a little longer than the stuff in last weeks update, so hopefully I'll be writing 25K+ words a week like I'm aiming for. (That's average 5K per chapter for each individual story, not a 25K+ words long chapter for each one, if anyone was wondering.) I'm actually enjoying writing all 5 of the stories I've got going now, so I'm thinking I'm going to finish each one, then pick some more from the list when I'm done.

I know it seems like I'm taking a lot of stuff on, and honestly I am. I'm up for 20 hours a day and my A-Level results day is in like, 2 weeks, so I'm basically just desperately trying to keep my mind off that for 140 hours a week, hence the workload. Also, it's just fun. :D

Todays song is watch?v=kS9SUmAyKWM

(Since the links don't appear properly, the song is Hungry Ghosts - I Don't Think About You Anymore But, I Don't Think About You Anyless)

Thanks fan-fic-folks and, as always, please review.

MaxNeverMaxine: I do seem to be getting a lot of excited sounds from you this last update. :D I'm so grateful for, and entirely baffled by, your reaction. Thanks for sticking with me so far. And you'll be getting a big expose for Max soon in the story actually. Should be about 3 or 4 chapters away, I'm thinking. I hope you like it when it finally hits.

Guest: That's good to hear. I'm always worried about those chapters. They're so hard to do right. And thank you, I hope you like this one.

Jim89: Always glad to provide a strongly- applied boot to certain areas of the anatomy if you need one Jim. :) I used to do the exact same thing, but having a strict deadline that I work to keep to helps avoid those tendencies. As long as I have a complete chapter, I will always post on my deadline, regardless of how I might feel about it. Really stops a lot of the agonising procrastination and perfectionism for me.

Hah. I really like that targeting laser idea. I might have to steal it for Empire, should I ever get around to actually updating the darned thing.

You got that exactly right. David cares, he's just really fucking awful at showing it. Keeps reverting to the 'ole Drill Sergeant approach, forgetting that really doesn't work with Chloe. Honestly, I think if those two ever just sat down and talked like rational human beings, they'd actually get along really well.

Wow. That's really quite strict. I'd definitely agree with them though. It's absolutely vital to be trained in using and caring for whatever weapon you're trying to use. Respect the weapon and all that. I think if we had that mentality towards more of life, we'd have a vastly improved society. Appreciate and learn to use what you have properly, right?

Thank you. I'm glad my little fic can brighten up someone's day. Baffled that it does, but glad all the same. Ouch. I know that feeling. Murphy's Law though, right? What can go wrong, always does.

Yeah, I'm trying to go for a somewhat morally varied approach to all the Max Syndicate characters really. For the record, Travis is early twenties. Maybe 22 at the oldest. But, he's a womanising asshole who has his way with women and leaves the next morning, basically. It seemed to fit the flirty cowboyish persona I'd given him. Don't get me wrong, if casual polygamy makes you happy, go for it, but I'd never advocate leading anybody on, using them for your own pleasure and then just leaving. That's pretty shitty.

No comment on the relationship between Max and Victoria. Stay tuned though, that will be expanded upon in the next few chapters.

But you're absolutely right. Chloe is definitely not the most secure of individuals, despite the front she puts up. I love the girl, but she doesn't half have some abandonment issues. She really needs to learn to listen before she blows up. It'd probably help if Max actually said more than 8 words at a time though. The fault isn't entirely hers.

I'm definitely trying to write Victoria as a more rational/practical individual. I read Thirty Two Rejection Letters and found Jar-of-bees' Victoria to be the best one I've read. I'm trying to model mine closer to Jar's version. She's definitely willing to give as good as she gets in the moment, but she's also willing to rebuild bridges if she needs to. I'm vastly oversimplifying her character here, but if you're curious, I thoroughly recommend you check out Jar's fic.

Right again. Tish is a surveillance specialist grumping about someone violating privacy. It struck me as delightfully ironic and perfectly judgemental and in-character for her. She's… not the most introspective and self-aware of characters.

And yes, the David situation is somewhat complicated. As a child of divorce myself, with one parent having 'moved on' to another partner and after checking the date on the receipt in the garage (She brought David in only a few months after William died) I can understand why Chloe would have a problem with him. Chloe probably felt Joyce was trying to replace him with this new asshole that tried to force her into things. That was never going to end well. Like I said before though, I think if they both sat down and actually talked, they'd really get along.

Yes, the game did handle the HackerMax somewhat badly, I think. It always seemed simple to me though, learn what matters to a person and you'll learn what their passwords are likely to be.

Oh, ok. It seems that wasn't as clear as I was hoping. The bit in the middle of the Frank scene with Max shooting the 'I'm proud of you, girl' guy isn't related to Frank beyond both scenes having guns, it's a completely different thing happening before the events of this story. Hence the '*flashback*' and all. :) It's just something Max is remembering due to the similarity of standing over someone with a gun.

Exactly. Tori's used to people only wanting to be friends with her to use her for something, so a genuine friendship and trust with Max is going to take time to develop. Same with Chloe. She's willing to try, but old habits die hard. And that's a good way of putting it, actually, that she's a 'lobotomised' version of her old friend. We just gotta hope this personality is marginally less permanent than a lobotomy is. :)

I grumbled as I cleaned out the gun. "Fucking Max giving me fucking work to do… Damn it."

I grumpily packed the brushes and shit back into the little box Max gave me and slid the gun into my jeans.

I'm so bored. I'm not doing this shit anymore. I'm… I'm gonna go find Katie. Maybe she can keep me entertained for a while.

Then, it clicked. Crap, Katie's working with Max and Bitchtoria and Bitchtoria's little minion. Fuckity Fuck. Gonna have to amuse yourself for a while, Price.

I hop up from the hood of the car I was sitting on and wandered over to Casa del Price, flopping down onto the ugly couch pushed up against one wall. Fucking place. Full of good memories and shitty memories alike.

I looked over at our little doodles scattered over the walls and grinned. Heh. Rachel and I put so much fucking word into these shitty things.

My grin fell when I saw the one by the window. Well, the hole that we used as a window, anyway.

'Rachel was here'

I sighed. What the fuck happened, Rach? Where are you?

I can feel myself getting more pissed off. My little internal monologue gets hella external and I pretty much start shouting at the walls. "Where did you go, Rachel? What fucking happened?"

I punched the wall again. Shit, I really have to learn not to fucking do that. My hand is all bruised and purple. I snort. "Punching stone walls, Price. Not your smartest move ever."

I really don't wanna go see Doc Holme again. Cranky old bastard. I think for a minute. Hospital, also a no-go. Not stepped foot in there since…

Since...

Not an option.

Then, I get my eureka moment. Oooh. Max's little group must have something, right? They're all hella hardcore criminals and shit, they can't go to a hospital with a bullet wound or whatever, the cops would get them!

Decision made, I get into my truck and gun it to Max's Church.

When Laura sees my hand, she laughs. "Get into a scuffle, did we?"

I growl at her and she raises her hands, grinning. "My apologies. May I take a look?"

We head into the big computer room and over to a metal cabinet. She opens it and pulls out a medkit. "So, I'm afraid it's time for the usual banal chitchat that so often accompanies these things. What happened?"

I shrugged, which got me a glare from her when my hands moved. "I might have punched a wall."

She snorts. It's hella me for someone so… ladylike. "Well, that sounds like an intelligent thing to do. Did it insult your family? Impugn your honour? Steal your girl?"

I'm pretty sure she's making fun of me and ask her exactly that. Her face is the very picture of innocence…

"Making fun of you? Perish the thought."

I snort at that. "Forget it." She leans back and starts packing things back into the medkit. "That should do nicely. Make sure to keep it clean and try not to pick any more fights with walls. They are apparently worthy foes."

I flex my fingers. She did a pretty awesome job. Guess I was right coming here.

As Laura puts the medkit back in the cabinet, I chime up. "So… Max was bullied in Seattle?"

She smirks. "Nice try, Chloe, but that information is Max's and Max's alone to share. I shan't be breaking her trust."

Fucking fuck. "What is it with you people and secrets?"

She laughs. "We're con artists and criminals, darling. Secrets are our bread and butter."

I grumble to myself. Eh, maybe she'll be willing to talk about her. People like talking about themselves, right? "Con artists, huh? So, what's your job in all this?"

She turns, striking a pose and raising a hand like she's got a wine glass in it or something. She looks like that guy with the skull from that Shakespeare play. It's fucking ridiculous. "I… am the Grifter. I play whatever role the job requires and I ensure the others are equally disguised whenever necessary."

She ends with a theatrical bow.

Huh. "You do disguises?"

She shrugs. "Indeed. Costumes, make-up, hair, it all plays into our contracts in some way."

She starts telling me stories about how her whole acting and disguising thing helped with jobs and I kinda get fascinated.

And that's what Travis and the little girl with the weird coloured hair walk in on about 3 hours later. Damned if I can remember her name. Began with a C, I think.

"So, if you find it necessary to lie, endeavour to be slightly out of breath before you start to speak, it makes deceit far more difficult to detect."

I'm just sitting in a desk chair, head balanced on my hands watching her with fascination. "Wow. That's hella cool. It seriously works?"

She smirks. "It worked on every mark I've tried it on thus far."

When she sees the other two come in, she turns to them. "Hello, you two. Were you successful in your task?"

Travis nods. "Sure were. This town is tiny, it weren't exactly hard. Prescott was at the school and Bowers was down on the beach."

"So, how do these tracker things work?" I ask.

I meant to ask Travis or Laura, but instead, I get Tish's voice from speakers scattered around the room. For once, she actually seems kinda friendly. I guess asking her about tech shit is a hella good way to make friends. I hear her tapping keys and a map of Arcadia Bay appears on the big screen. There are 2 big red dots flashing. "It's pretty simple. I retasked a satellite to monitor our signals years back, so we got real-time tracking wherever we want it.

I grin. "Huh. That is seriously cool."

"It really is. Nobody ever understands how valuable and cool the shit I do is, y'know? You gotta have tech support as well as the punching and the climbing up buildings, or nothing gets done. Without me, there's no cool gadgets or anything!"

Cassie wanders over to the corner and starts fiddling with some wiring. Literally, less than a minute later, Tish's seriously pissed off sounding voice echoes through the room, completely forgetting what we were in the middle of talking about. "Cassie! Leave my fucking systems alone, you mabono!"

Travis sighs. "Tish… What's the problem now?"

"This, this… zirema won't stop fiddling with my damn systems! I'm working out of my damn van tryin' to get all this set-up and every time I get somewhere, she comes in and messes it all up again!"

Laura rubs her forehead. "Cassie" That's it! I knew it was a fucking C! "Could you please avoid tinkering with Tish's wiring? It seems to be making her rather cranky."

The little girl with the multi-coloured hair shrugs and wanders away from the wiring. "She's stopped playing about with your stuff, Tish. Can you get on with it? Boss wants connection to the Network up ASAP."

The answer is just technobabble I hella don't understand. Travis nods though, so I'm pretty sure it was good technobabble.

That's when we hear a clatter from the other room. Someone's opened the big door. Laura and Travis seem totally relaxed, so I guess it's someone they know?

They all wander over to the door, Cassie included. Laura turns back to look at me. "Are you coming, Chloe? Or would you rather stay there and miss out on all the fun?"

I hop up and hurry over. We walk into the main church hall to see Max with a big, burly guy walking in the door. Laura grins and walks over to him, arms wide. "Giovanni! Always a pleasure. How's your nephew?"

The man smiles widely back and hugs her, picking her up off the ground and twirling her around like a fucking ragdoll. "Laura, my dear, it's been too long. You need to tell your boss here to hire us more often. And he's good, really turned it all around after you helped him out of that little misunderstanding in Budapest, thanks for askin'."

Huh. He sounds like he's straight from the set of Goodfellas or The Sopranos. Looks it too. Slightly balding, well dressed, jovial grin. Looks like the sort of guy who'd beat your head in with a tire iron and claim it was 'for the family'. It's hella awesome. After shaking hands with Travis and saying hi to Cassie, he turns to me. "Well, who have we here? Is there finally a new member to your little gang?"

Max smiles. "This is Chloe. She's a client."

He turns to her and frowns. "You don't usually let clients loose in your base. What's different about this one?"

Max looks over at me. "This one is… personal."

He nods. "Fair enough. To business, then. My boy, Tony, he's workin' for his old man now, Tony, he's got the plans you asked for."

He turns and shouts outside. "Tony! Get your ass in here!"

Another guy comes in, this one is short and kinda dorky looking. Looks fucking nothing like his dad. He's got a fucking pocket protector, for fucks sake. "Uh, yeah dad. I got them right here."

He taps the tube he's holding. He nearly drops the thing. Giovanni rolls his eyes. "My apologies for my boy, he's just a little nervous. You're quite the legend, Max."

Max shrugs. "Consider it forgiven. Shall…"

She's stops suddenly, cocking her head. "Really? Damn. Patch them through."

She looks back at Giovanni. "Sorry, Giovanni. Something's come up. Laura, you take it from here."

Laura nods and takes Giovanni and his hella dweeby son off into the back room with Travis and Cassie. Max heads outside, leaving me just stood there.

I stand there for a couple minutes, hands in my pockets, clicking my tongue. So… Whadda I do now?

Well, Laura and that lot are just talking about buildings, so that's gonna be dull as fuck. Max seemed kinda anxious though…

I'm gonna go see her.

I head outside. "Max?"

She's leaning against the church, out of the way of all the builders and all their shit that seems to be taking up the entire front of the church. She's talking on her mobile. "Zuahur, siz var? Ibri komanda ilə bir çatışmazlıq olub. ASAP geri hesabat."

She sounds pissed off. No idea what the hell she's saying, but something must've fucked up somewhere.

"Zuahur! Lanet olsun. Hesabat vermak!"

There's a pause and her face pales. "Mən sizə zərər sonra mənim komanda tapmaq əgər Kim, mən sizə sona çatacaq."

She puts the phone back in her pocket and rubs her face with her hand. I wander over. "Hey Max. Everything ok?"

"No. There's been a set-back. One of my teams has been compromised."

One of her teams? So, it's not just these guys? There's like, a whole organisation? Awesome.

"Are they ok, I mean..?"

She interrupts. "No, Chloe. They're not. They could be dead for all I fucking know!"

She slams a fist into the church wall and swears. Well, I think what she said was swearing. I didn't recognise the language, but I hella recognised the pissed off tone.

She sighs and leans her head onto the church wall. I put my hand on her shoulder. Fuck, I am shitty at all this emotional crap. "Well, could you go find out? Tish could…"

"No. Tish can't track these operatives."

She sighs and knocks her head against the wall again. She takes a deep breath and straightens up, pushing all that anger back again. It's hella impressive to watch and I seem to be saying that a lot around Max. Kinda hard not to, really.

"I need to work on this, Chloe. Go home."

I roll my eyes. Max's 'direct' approach was really fucking annoying sometimes. "Sure." As an afterthought, I add. "I hope your people make it."

"I hope so too, Chloe."

I park outside my house, way after Step-douche's idiotic curfew. Just before I get out, I remember what Max said about Step-Douche. Maybe there is a way I can get in without another go at the same fucking argument.

I walk in. Step-Dou… David immediately bursts out of the kitchen the minute the door clicks closed. "Where the hell have you been?"

I take a deep breath. Don't get pissed off, Chloe. Treat him with respect. Ok…

"I'm sorry, sir." His eyebrows immediately go up. I'd laugh if I wasn't trying to be all mature and shit.

"I was out with Max, I lost track of the time. I'll do better next time."

He blinks at me and his eyebrows go back down. Aww. He looked hilarious like that. He seems confused. Probably kinda scared, too. I know I am. "That's… ok, Chloe. Just, call next time, ok?"

I blink in surprise and quickly hide the reaction. Fucking hell, that actually worked! I nod, then turn and get the hell out before I say something to start the argument up again.

Translations:

Mabono - White Trash

Zirema - Good for nothing Idiot

"Zuahur, siz var? Ibri komanda ilə bir çatışmazlıq olub. ASAP geri hesabat." - "Zuahur, are you there? There's been a setback with the Ibri team. Report back, ASAP."

"Zuahur! Lanet olsun. Hesabat vermak!" - "Damn it, Zuahur. Report!"

"Mən sizə zərər sonra mənim komanda tapmaq əgər Kim, mən sizə sona çatacaq." - "Whoever you are, if I find out you've hurt my team, I will end you."