A/N: A great thanks to my reviewers.
Disclaimer: 9 4151520 152314 205514 2092011419
Black Thorn sat on the couch in the modern looking loft that from the outside appeared to be nothing more than the many abandoned warehouses scattered about the city.
The warehouse itself was expansive but one small part had become living section, which had been converted quite skillfully into a modern apartment with every possible amenity as well as an extensively equipped base of operation for a pair of extremely talented "Possession Transfer Specialists."
She sat on the couch with a look of concentration spread across her face. She picked up a white pawn and took a black knight. Her opponent reacted to this move by putting her king in
"Check."
"I've got you this time. I'm finally going to beat you." She said moving her king out of check. Putting her king in check was a desperation move and she knew it.
"We will see…" He said moving his rook to a seemingly useless spot.
Black Thorn picked up a bishop and moved it four squares diagonally to the right.
"Check." She said crossing her arms and then sitting back with a contented and almost victorious smirk. She lifted her glass off the table, brought it to her lips and took a drink.
"Yeah, I've got you."
Ariel sat almost perfectly still in his seat, on arm propped up on his knee and his head resting on his palm—thinking, in much the same position as the famous statue—silently pondering his situation. After several long moments of this he gently slid his remaining knight to his left and took the bishop.
"Checkmate." He seemed to remark almost casually.
Black Thorn balked and nearly chocked as she coughed up what she had been drinking, and, setting down the glass hard, bent close over the board to study it.
"No way!" She cried, and, falling back onto the couch sighed "aww man…" with a defeated, disheartened, look on her face.
"I really thought I had you this time!" She whined.
"Don't be discouraged, I mean…86 is a long slump but the law of averages is really on your side now." Ariel offered in a deadpan manner that quickly broke down into an ill concealed smirk, which in turn deteriorated into full-fledged laughter.
Black Thorn became visibly displeased and let him know with a deadly glare that he could see despite her sunglasses. It only made him laugh harder.
After a few more moments his laugher dried up and he became very sober.
Ariel stood up; he seemed to tower over Black Thorn even though he was only 5'10" and therefore not a great deal taller than her.
"Come on, Thorn. We've got a tough job tomorrow. We should get some sleep." He put out a hand to help her up off the couch that she took.
Turning from her he walked away towards his bedroom "G'night." He called waving his had above his head.
"Night." She said and as soon as she had picked her sword up from its position lying next to the couch she did an about-face and headed for her own room.
'Damn his smug, smart-ass attitude!' She thought as she closed the door to his room.
Black Thorn detached her sword from her belt and set it next to her bed, leaning on a nightstand. She then unbuckled the belt around her waist and placed it around a mannequin. She undid the straps on her bracers and gauntlets, after removing her gloves, and did like wise. She repeated the process with her chest and leg armor before sitting down to remove her boots. The rap-around sunglasses remained on, she took them off only when absolutely necessary or completely unavoidable.
'Well, I guess he's always been like that. For at least as long as I've known him anyway.' She continued her train of thought as she turned the handle on the hot water control for the shower.
After a few moments steam began to flow, visibly, through the air, filling the large bathroom. She stepped under the hot spray of the showerhead, and then adjusted it slightly.
'God, I threw my lot in with him almost—'
Five years agoMetropolis, 11:06pm
"Now remember; you do exactly as I say, when I say, and Jessica will be delivered to our agreed upon meeting place safe, and sound." Came a voice over the radio-earpiece Black Thorn was wearing.
"I've got what you asked for, I'll get this too, but if you so much as touch a hair on her head…I will make sure you suffer, to you last breath." She responded icily from her perch across the street from a large museum.
Contained within the expansive complex, under heavy guard, sat the world's largest ruby, the Tear of the Sun stone, 47 carats. That was the target that she had to obtain, at any cost, for her sister.
"Your window is opening in 30 seconds, it will only be open for one minute, the radio signal will cut off, you figure out how to get by the security, I imagine you're quite good at that by now."
She cringed at the thought of what he had had to do to keep this man from killing her sister, she had been made to break almost every law, he had even forced her to kill someone.
"How do I get out?" She asked through gritted teeth.
"You're on your own there." He chuckled but the was no humor in his voice.
Black Thorn quickly went over to the rope she had off the side of the building and repelled down. She made he way, in darkness, over the gate and to the wall where the offices were. She checked the window and found it unlocked.
"At least there are some lazy security guards out there…"she whispered.
She climbed through the window and then closed it behind her. Then crept quickly through the darkened offices toward the museum floor and her target.
She didn't have a hard time finding which way she should go to get to the Ruby; it was the museum's largest, most famous exhibit, containing hundreds upon hundreds of famous, and valuable jewels of all kinds. All with the Tear of the Sun at its center, quite literately the crowning jewel of the display.
It was not an easy thing to miss.
She stopped at the huge doorframe leading into the main gallery. 'This is where the hard security starts' She thought. Black Thorn produced a small aerosol bottle filled with water and began to spray the light mist into the air in front of her.
Red beams of light appeared, crisscrossing the way before her, blocking her path almost entirely.
"Ok, harder than I thought."
She pulled a pair of sunglasses out a pocket, which she had on her combat vest. She was wearing a black long-sleeved T-shirt under the vest, tight black pants, and pair of black leather boots. Her hair was longer and mostly pulled back in a ponytail.
She put them on and saw every laser in the room. They were specially made to pick up infrared light and make it visible, not your everyday sunglasses. He had supplied them to her, along with a few other things when he left the note telling her he had taken Jessica hostage and what instructions to follow.
She filled with anger as she thought of him 'I'm going to make him pay, he better pray to god that he didn't do anything to her.' She calmed herself down quickly; she had a deadline she couldn't miss.
Black Thorn observed the movements of the lasers for a few moments 'they just had to move, didn't they?' She copied the patter down in her mind, it had 37 different movements per cycle, but it was a gift.
The activation switch on the far side of the hall was her target, she needed to get over to it and shut the system down. She figured it would take her about three cycles, or one minuet. She took a few steps back to get a running start.
60 seconds and some extremely skillful moves later she punched the button controlling the laser grid and it powered down. She gave the room one last look and then took the glasses off, but to be safe the she checked with the aerosol one more time to make sure there was no backup system. She stealthily began to creep over to the glass case on the pedestal that held the ruby; there was a large beam of light coming in from the skylight, down and around the pedestal reaching some ten feet wide.
Once Black Thorn reached the moonlit heart of the room she stood up fully, and confidently walked to the pedestal. She knew there were no laser alarms around this, 'so what could it be?' She considered the case for a moment, then checked her watch
"Shit, only 22 minuets!" She said in and exclaimed whisper.
'The glass doesn't look held down in anyway, and it's on a reflective metal plate…' she scratched her head and then snapped her gloved fingers 'a pressure sensor!'
"Hmm, well, I have no way to weigh the glass or the ruby, how I going to trick this thing?" She pondered this for a few seconds but a shadow crossing her face broke her concentration, she ignored it but she had an idea.
Black Thorn took out of her pocket what appeared to be a laser pointer. But she pointed it at the base of the spindly pedestal and pressed the button. A thick beam of green light began to quickly slice its way through the base and after a no more than three seconds the base was almost completely gone. Black Thorn had anticipated this however, and put a small plastic block in place of the burned away pedestal, steadying it.
She stood up with a slight smile on her face only to have a kick land in her chest, sending her flying to the ground some feet away.
She got to her knees coughing. "Hey! What the hell?" She looked over to the case and saw a person in shadow, hanging from the skylight above, and coming down quickly.
In the light she could see it was a man, a little older than her, with dark blonde hair that wasn't very long but appeared completely unkempt; wearing a black ballistic vest over a white T-shirt—both close fitting thus making note of his obvious physical fitness —black pants, and heavy-duty boots. Around his waist was gun belt with a holster on each side—but each attached to his upper thigh, making his draw speed much faster—each with a Colt .45 inside. And several extra magazines were attached to the belt as well.
"Thanks," he said back with out looking at her as he slowly picked up the ruby "I was going to have to do all that stuff but you took care of it…" Black Thorn was back on her feet and walking over to the man with a murderous look on her face.
"I need that."
"And the cutting the base of the pedestal out! Brilliant, truly remarkable." He continued, seemingly unable or unwilling to hear her.
"I'm not messing around with you buddy, I need that now." She was only a few feet away from him but had stopped. She took another step forward and without her even seeing the movement his left hand had drawn one of his .45s and had pushed the muzzle to her forehead.
She stopped walking forward.
"I would stop…" he said, still not looking at her, he was wearing gloves and was carefully picking up the glass with one hand.
"Please…I need that ruby." She pleaded 'this guy's too fast, I underestimated him, I have to talk it out of him…'
"Why should I give it to you? It's always about who gets their hands on it first, not who did the most work…not that I couldn't have done all that." He added after a second's hesitation.
She decided the best story was the truth "Because some crazy kidnapper has my older sister Jessica, if I don't steal this ruby for him, he will kill her!" She cried desperately.
"Why would some guy want a kid to steal something this well guarded?" He inquired setting aside the glass.
"I have…talents…as you can see, how else would I have gotten this far! Please, I only have 19 minuets to get it to him!"
"Alright, I believe you." He stated, and in flash his gun was away and he turned to face her.
"You, you do?"
"I know when people are lying…it's a gift." He said with a wink. Then with a smile he stepped aside with his arm sweeping, outstretched.
"Thank you." She said, and while eying him closely she picked up the rub off the pedestal, opened a small satchel she had with her and placed it inside.
She turned from him, his arms crossed, looking at her, and ran down the halls; back the way she came and out onto the grounds. She took a look at her watch.
"15 minuets, shit."
"Such language…" Mockingly chided the icy voice of her 'employer' as he liked to refer to himself as.
"I've got it." She said with barely disguised hatred.
"The roof of the Gavin building…" He commanded.
"But that's damn near two miles away!" She screamed.
"You have," there was a pause, like he was looking at his watch "14 minuets, I'd get moving." His voice dripped with malice.
Black Thorn began to run as fast as she could, she scaled the ten-foot tall fence in record time and was running full tilt down West Avenue towards the Gavin building.
She ran as fast as she could she thought about the time limit she had to beat, when she got too tired she thought about her sister, and she increased her speed; her eyes watered, her throat and mouth were dry as sand, her lungs burned, her heart felt on the verge of bursting, and she ran faster still. She ran so fast her legs were numb, her feet bloody, her mussels shredding.
The glass of the front door shattered under her impact and she collapsed into the waiting express elevator only a few feet from the door in the empty lobby. She weakly raised her arm from her position sprawled across the floor of the elevator, and checked her watch '1 minuet 38 seconds. I made it, oh god, I made it. Hold on Jessie, I'm comin' …'
She caught her breath and righted herself moments before the elevator came to a halt on the 50th floor, the roof. She stepped out into the cool air, with the wind now blowing furiously, her hair being tossed about violently, the ponytail having come undone in her race to the building.
There, across the rooftop stood two people, one in shadow, the other, in front of him, shorter, smaller; bound and gagged.
"Jessica!" Black Thorn cried and ran forward several yards before he told her to stop.
"I've got it…"she began to reach into her bag and then pulled the stone out "here."
"Good girl, I knew you could do it."
"Give me Jessica, then you'll get you stone!" She said through a glare, the hatred and anger in her voice no longer disguised.
"No, the ruby, then the girl."
"Fine," she conceded, and tossed him the ruby, which he caught as it hurtled towards the edge of the building, with extreme skill. "Now give me Jessica."
"Foolish girl." Said the figure in shadow as he stepped away from Jessica and pushed her off the edge of the building.
"JESSIE!"
Simultaneously he threw a knife at Black Thorn's heart but she managed to move a few inches to the right and it impeded itself in her shoulder. He did a graceful back flip off the building as she came running to the edge.
"NO!" She cried as she saw her sister falling, looking up at her, falling into the darkness, down, she could see the fear in her eyes as she fell and was swallowed by the darkness of the river below.
"No, no…" she cried, she couldn't see any longer, tears clouded her eyes. She was suddenly gripped by exhaustion and pain, intense pain. She could feel herself losing coconsciousness, slipping into her own darkness, slipping over the edge to meet the water below.
'Here I come Jessie, I'll see you in a minuet.' She fully blacked out, but felt a strong pull just as she did, being pulled, somewhere.
She awoke in a darkened room, her head pounded, her left shoulder hurt like hell, and she could move a muscle.
She moaned in pain and confusion.
"Oh, you're awake…"
The PresentShe toweled off quickly, got dressed and went to sleep. Her eyes never really dried.
Black Thorn got up early the next morning for the mission and met Ariel in the kitchen.
"Morning" he said, looking up from something he was reading
"Morning" she thought for a moment "hey, remember when we first meet? How did you know I wasn't lying?"
"I didn't." He responded without skipping a beat.
"What? Why'd you help me then?" She demanded, shocked.
"Whether or not you were lying to me didn't matter; you told a good story on the fly if you were, and you were in deep shit otherwise, so I figured 'Why not?'. Besides, I was following you; if you had been lying I would have taken it back. Remember who caught you?"
"Thanks…" She offered him, she had never thought about it before.
"Don't mention it, now, are we going to get moving on this job or what?"
"Oh, but it's Saturday!"
"Come on."
"Fine."
A/N: Next Chapter will be more back story with current story, most likely about half and half.
