A/N: Next chapter comin' at you! I love this one, mainly because of all of the action. Yeah, lots of action. And now, Blaire and Tawny are in this fanfic, but in minor roles. Chase is going to become extremely important in this fanfic now, and more flashbacks are going to occur. More fun for you and me! So review, disclaimer is in the first chapter, GO!
Three years ago, Cody acted on orders from Heather, who was acting on orders from The Sir, to try and imprint one of their Mankins with the necessary skills to defend itself if the FBI ever found their hiding place. The Mankin's name: Tyler Shaw. However, things went horribly wrong. Tyler's imprints suddenly resurfaced all at once, and the latest imprint that Cody was using, that of a killer with the knowledge of a precise surgeon, went on a killing spree in the complex. Courtney was taking a shower at the time, and her Clerk, Monty Rowan, had been killed with many precise cuts using a 10 centimeter knife, not serrated. Cody was nearby Monty and Cody had been splashed with his blood. Cody quickly sounded the alarm soon after.
While Tyler went on his killing spree, any living Mankins were quickly shown to their beds.
"What's that sound?" One of them asked. It was the alarm, and in the Mankin's mind-wiped state, he didn't know it.
"It's nothing; please get into your beds." A woman by the name of Blaire Yamoto quickly answered.
"But we haven't had our shower. We always shower before—" Another female red-haired Mankin started, but was cut off by Blaire.
"Everything's all right, please get into your beds." All of the Mankins got into their beds, and the shields for the beds started closing. Blaire breathed in and out sharply, hoping that whatever the problem was, it'd soon pass.
Harold Diamante had gathered a team of trained SWAT officers, all of them had volunteered for the job.
"Secure the exits. Anyone tries to breach, shoot 'em in the head—twice." Harold saw Monty's scarred body on the floor. "Cody! CODY!"
"Guns! Can I have one?" Cody quickly asked.
"What happened?!"
"That's—that's the thing, it just happened. He went commando and got a knife and…and what he did to Monty…"
"WHO?!" Harold yelled again.
"Tyler. We've had a Fritz." Heather, wearing a black wrap dress and hair in a ponytail answered. She had just walked up to the two.
"He gets wiped after every Outing like all the rest. How could he Fritz?"
"He can't—shouldn't—did." Cody looked down, dejected. He was still somewhat bereft after the loss of Monty. They were really good friends, and in a flash, he was dead. Heather sharply sighed.
"Target acquired." One of the SWAT officers responded over Harold's walkie-talkie.
"Where?"
"Corridor 37. Target—AAAHHH!!" There was static on the other end.
"Move out." Harold responded over the walkie-talkie and left.
"Gun? Seriously?" Cody asked.
"Shut up Cody." Heather briskly walked away, leaving him with Monty's dead body.
"AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!" A scream filled the air. Cody recognized it immediately and ran to Dr. Levin's office space.
"BETH!" Tyler was in the room, and he turned around to face Cody, fire in Tyler's eyes. Tyler ran to Cody, knife in hand, but Cody swiftly dodged him and ran to a whimpering Beth. "We have to get out of here. Let's go." The two quickly ran away and out of Tyler's grasp. Tyler growled and skulked elsewhere, in fact, to the exits, where he killed the SWAT officers and left.
Meanwhile, Harold and his team were now at the shower stalls, and what they found wasn't a pretty sight. Every single Mankin, a total of four, had been killed, save one. Courtney. She was trembling.
"They w-w-won't w-w-wake up."
"Negative contact. Continuing sweep." Harold commanded through his walkie-talkie and left Courtney in the shower.
As Harold read the case file, he found out that it was believed that Tyler's MO had resurfaced at a suburban home in Los Angeles. The investigation had gone cold, and it was said that there was someone living there. However, no one living in the area dared to find out.
"Harold! We have a client coming! Take a break—outside." Heather walked in and darkly added, and Harold gave back the case file and left the office. Today, Heather was wearing a blue V-neck sleeveless blouse and a blue pencil skirt, along with towering high heels. Another man with blonde hair and wearing a pink button down shirt, grey work pants, and black dress shoes walked in just as Harold left. "Mr. Dowel..."
"Please, call me Richard." Heather sighed. She didn't like being bossed around, a trait that she had from birth.
"Richard, please, have a seat." Richard sat down on the black leather sofa, tea on the coffee table already brewed and warm for him. Heather took a seat opposite Richard on a single black leather sofa. "What services would you require?"
"I want a girl who can keep up with me on my mountain trip in the Sierra Nevadas, who lives for the rush. This includes rock climbing, river rapid rafting, crossbow hunting, and…" Richard chuckled at this. "Being very good in bed. I was referred here by a very good friend of mine, and he says that I can get the perfect girl here. He recommends Courtney."
"Yes, you can get the perfect girl here. And Courtney is available. Mankins, we like to call them. In their resting stage, they are as innocent and vulnerable as children. We call it the Tabula Rasa, the blank slate. Now imagine the imprint process fulfilling it, creating a new personality. A friend, lover, or confidante in a sea of enemies. Your heart's desire made flesh. And, when the Outing has been completed, all memory of you and your time together will be wiped clean."
"Neat trick."
"Tricks are illusions Richard. Constructed to deceive. What we offer is truth."
"A rare commodity."
"Hence the exuberant price tag."
"I've been with a lot of women Ms. Greer, not bragging, just what you would call truth, and not one of them turned out to be who they said they were. Your services may be expensive, but at least this time, I'll be the one telling the girl what to lie about."
"Oh, she won't lie to you Richard. Everything you want, everything you need, she will be, honestly and completely."
"That'll be something new."
"There is, however, one small problem."
"I thought everything was good with the background check." He took a sip from his shallow cup.
"That's not our concern." Heather got up and walked to a desk with a notepad on it for her use. "Your Outing has been flagged as a…moderate risk to our Mankin, nothing serious. Our company policy requires a small additional fee against any…unforeseen complications." She quickly dashed away a high amount of money on the slip of paper and handed it to Richard, who was now standing. When he looked at it, he gave a small burst of laughter. $100,000?!
"Small, huh?"
"To my employer, it's miniscule." Heather smugly smiled on the inside. Richard had enervated her ever since he told her to call him by his first name. He didn't see this coming. I've won this battle.
"Well, if this girl is everything you promise, money's no object."
"Just make sure you return her safe and sound. Otherwise, there will be additional costs, and they're much higher than what I've written for you."
"I'll be sure to keep her happy." And with that, he left the office. Harold walked in.
"Everything just fine?" He asked her.
"Yes. Make sure to get Chase ready, same with Courtney. They're going on a mountain trip." Heather smiled, and Harold bowed and walked out of the office. Heather then left to her desk and called Cody. "Cody, when Courtney comes, have Imprint #3290 ready for her." She hung up, and Harold had just walked in with Chase.
"What did you want?" Chase asked.
"You have a chance to prove yourself once more." Heather smiled once more.
"You'll be able to keep watch over Courtney's internals, such as heart rate, but no eyes and ears. As we speak, Cody is initializing the imprint and someone is escorting her to our client, who is waiting on the ground floor. You and another one of our staff, David Wells, are to follow her into the Sierra Nevadas, which is where she's going. We're giving you fake ID; if the need arises, you are to pose as two cameramen for the local news trying to get B-roll for a piece on the brush fires that have ravaged the area." Harold handed Chase a laminated studio pass.
"Harold Crehan. Nice."
"There's no time for your smart remarks Chase. Now go down to the ground floor; Courtney is already gone by now." Heather ordered him out. Chase left the office.
Courtney and Richard were river rapid rafting, and the two had just finished and were pulling the raft up to the pebble littered shore.
"I think I pulled my weight on that rapid. What was the level of difficulty?" Courtney asked Richard. She was wearing a teal spaghetti strap top over a pink bikini top, and she was also wearing black short shorts and grey cross-training shoes.
"That? That was a five."
"A five? Three, three and a half, maybe. If it was a five, I'd be fishing you out of the water."
"You think so, huh?" They leaned in for a kiss, and she deepened it. "Now get your ass moving before I leave you for the wolves, or whatever they have here that eats guys that can't keep up." She grabbed her backpack and threw Richard's his.
"Yes ma'am." He wryly chuckled. After another long hike, they were rock climbing a cliff. She decided to fake him out a bit, for a good laugh. So she pretended to act scared, and started free falling from the ledge when she couldn't climb up a certain point. Richard caught her belay just in time, and he was honestly worried about her. Not directly about her, but the exorbitant money he'd have to pay if she fell to her death.
"Look at your face! Oh God, that was brilliant!" She threw her head back and laughed.
"That's not funny. Do you know how much trouble I'd be in if you went splat?"
"Yeah, my brothers would kill you!" She started climbing up again.
"Quit screwin' around."
"C'mon, I'll race you to the top."
In a clearing of the woods, in a black van, Chase and David were staked out. Chase was watching over Courtney's vitals—but they were extremely fuzzy due to the bad signal. And Cody was on the line with Chase.
"Everything looks beautiful from here. Vitals are right online." Cody talked through his Bluetooth earpiece. He was at his computer munching on some barbeque flavored potato chips and a bottle of water was situated nearby if he ever got thirsty.
"What about her adrenaline?" Chase asked.
"Within Outing parameters."
"Are you sure? She's nearing red line."
"Relax dude, I've been reading the squigglies long enough to discern time of my life, whoo hoo, from sweet mother of God I'm going to die. In other words, she's fine." He had finished his barbeque potato chips and was on his way to get more. "Wait, why don't you go soak up some nature? You know, smell the honey, wrestle a grizzly. Leave the science to the Codemeister." Cody chuckled.
"How about clearing up my signal Codemeister? Displays are as crappy as can be."
"You're in the middle of the Sierras! You shouldn't be expecting HD or something."
"At least get me more coverage. Re-task an auxiliary satellite."
"What's the magic word?" Cody asked chidingly.
"Uh…please?"
"I was looking for abra-cadabra, but please works too." Cody started walking back to his computer. "Okay, re-tasking auxiliary satellite nombre un quatre cinq neuf quinze. It'll take a few to move into alignment."
"Next time, drop the French." Chase sighed as he sipped from his coffee cup. "But thanks."
"Anything for you. Because I love you, deep, deep man love." Chase hung up after Cody went into his talk about man love. "Crap. He's going to hear no end of me when he calls back for hanging up on me." Cody went to work re-tasking auxiliary satellite #145915.
"The woods." David sneered while reading his newspaper.
"Yep." Chase simply responded.
"I hate the woods."
"Yep."
After the rock climbing excursion, the couple was now in the woods, hunting using a very complex bow. Richard was showing off his arrows.
"Carbon shaft, three blade broad head."
"Damn!" Courtney examined it and touched the tip of the arrow.
"Hey, you'll scare away lunch." They weren't just hunting; they were hunting for their own food.
"You couldn't have packed a couple sandwiches?"
"Sandwiches don't give you a rush when you try to eat them; they just lay there waiting for mustard."
"I like mustard." Richard chuckled.
"All right, now, don't grip the bow too tightly, relax your arm, make sure you don't put too much torque into it…"
"You're pretty good at this, aren't you?" Courtney smartly remarked.
"My dad taught me. He was a big believer in…" He then slapped his right shoulder with his left hand.
"Was that a salute? Am I supposed to salute?"
"No, no, it's shoulder to the wheel. Do the work, earn your way. If you can bring down something bigger than you with just that bow, you deserve to eat it. If it gets away, you prove it deserves to live, and you go hungry. Dad thought we all take too much for granted."
"And you? Do you agree with your father?"
"I enjoy every moment, particularly this one."
"Huh. I'm not the first girl you've brought into the woods…"
"Nope. But you're the one I've had the most fun with." They were about to kiss, and then…
"Richard. Wh-what do I do?" She had sighted a deer through the trees.
"Okay, extend your bow arm. Draw back, keep your elbow high, and never take a shot unless you're completely sure it'll put your target down. Aim for the flank or below the shoulders, and…release." The deer was felled. "Oh my God, I did it!" She ran to it and looked at the deer. There was no blood, just an arrow in the deer's side.
"Looks like you deserve to eat it."
"You too. You helped me, so you get some too."
"You were thinking about not giving me any?"
"Maybe…"
"Come on, let's cook this baby." They both took the carcass to a clearing in the woods and set up camp there. After having one very satisfying lunch, things started taking a turn for the worse.
"This was a lot of fun. We need to do this more often." Courtney gave Richard a quick kiss on the lips.
"We need to get going."
"Going? Where?"
"There's just enough daylight to make it back to the main road. And you'll want all the daylight you can get."
"What? Am I missing something? Richard—"
"You need to stop talking now and start running. I'll give you a five minute head start. And then I'm coming after you." Courtney immediately got up and started running for her life. She didn't know where she was going, but anywhere away from Richard was okay. That look in his eyes…he really wants to kill me. I better get to the main road, and fast.
A worker at the complex named Tawny Morrison referred her boyfriend Chase Orson to the complex. Chase had extensive training in the SWAT, FBI, and a lot of other organizations that specialized in self-defense. It had only been a few days since Tyler's Fritz and workers were still cleaning the blood stains off the décor. Harold was already waiting with Chase as Heather came down to meet him.
"Welcome to the complex Mr. Orson. You come highly recommended." Heather was wearing black, this time, it was a black A-line dress. But it was true; Tawny often had a knack for recommending people; after all, she had recommended Beth, Cody, Harold, and Monty when Heather wouldn't have given them a second thought. Thusly, Tawny was extremely valuable to Heather.
"So the stories are true, huh? Programmable people made to order."
"It's a little more complicated than that." Heather creased her eyebrows.
"Right. Figured everything's not what it seems, especially something like this, under a perfectly legal cover and all."
"Science isn't always what it seems Mr. Orson. Being on the cutting edge invites an element of risk into the equation."
"Which is why you're here." Harold added.
"In the light of recent events, we've decided to engage individuals with a…shall we say, intensive background. If you read your contract, you'll have seen that you've been assigned to Courtney, one of our most requested Mankins."
"So uh…what happened to her last Clerk?"
"You're standing in him." Beth shyly explained. She was still wearing her lab coat, except she had on a black knee length skirt and green blouse. She had just walked up to the three. Chase looked down and immediately stepped off a blood stained area of the wood floor.
"This is our resident physician, Dr. Levin. This is Mr. Orson, who will be replacing Mr. Rowan."
"So does this mean I can get his body out of my office?" Beth asked Heather as she shook Chase's hand.
"We'll take care of it." Harold coldly commanded.
"Right. Everything's…under control." Beth bit her lip. "It's nice to have you on the team. Watch where you step." Beth left the group, a few tears falling from her eyes. It still pained her to think about losing Monty and almost losing her own life. Even Cody could've been killed by Tyler, but he wasn't. The tears wouldn't stop falling for a long time.
"She seems to have some emotional damage."
"Dr. Levin is still…recovering from the loss of Mr. Rowan. They were good friends, and she herself almost lost her life."
"To the same guy who killed Rowan?"
"Yes, but she was more fortunate."
"I want to see Rowan's body."
"You really don't." Heather's eyebrows creased in disgust. She was being bossed around, something she hated.
"Show me." She sighed.
"Harold, take Mr. Orson to Dr. Levin's office." They parted ways.
"Rowan. He was a good man." Harold explained as he and Chase looked down at Monty's scratched face.
"Not good enough, apparently." Chase mumbled. Then he started examining the body. "Single blade, 10 centimeters, not serrated…tendons and extremities were severed first to disable him, and then the real work began. Yeah, knew exactly where to cut to cause a lot of blood loss—and pain. Whoever did this must've taken their time; he's a real piece of work."
"Eight seconds."
"Excuse me?"
"There's a timeline we've been able to piece together."
"But the cuts are meticulous, almost surgical. It's practically impossible to cut up a man like this in such a short amount of time."
"It isn't…unless you've been imprinted with the right skills."
"You're telling me one of your Mankins did this? You programmed them to become Jack the Ripper?"
"Hey, it's not my department. All I know is that Tyler accessed multiple imprints that should've been erased and one of them did this. He slaughtered almost everyone around Courtney before he pulled the smoke and mirrors."
"So why didn't he kill Courtney?"
"Five minutes up dollface. Let's see how far you got." Richard chuckled to himself before gathering his bow and leaving the campsite. Meanwhile, Courtney was at the cliff again, and since she didn't have any climbing gear, she slid down as best she could, albeit getting a few cuts and scrapes along the way.
DJ was now back in his little cubicle in the FBI building. After Geoff told him Bridgette had been kidnapped, DJ feared the worst for her. Not death…but the Twilight Mall. After finding out that Courtney didn't exist according to the FBI, he immediately started searching for all of his TD friends. He wrote his results on a sheet of paper that went as so:
Ezekiel: Yes, RCMP agent
Eva: No
Noah: Yes, CSI of LAPD
Justin: No
Katie: No
Tyler: No
Izzy: Yes, PI with Owen
Cody: Yes, computer technician of Mann Corporation, Las Vegas branch
Beth: Yes, private doctor to Mann Corporation, Las Vegas branch
Sadie: Yes, coroner of LA
Courtney: No
Harold: Yes, head security official of Mann Corporation, Las Vegas branch
Trent: Yes, music star
Bridgette: No
Lindsay: No
Geoff: Yes, lieutenant of LAPD
Leshawna: Yes, head of hip-hop dance troupe
Duncan: Yes, juvenile counselor at Hollywood High School
Heather: Yes, head of Mann Corporation, Las Vegas branch
Gwen: Yes, PR of Trent
Owen: Yes, PI with Izzy
Eva, Justin, Katie, Tyler, Courtney, Bridgette, and Lindsay all didn't exist. DJ's fears had been confirmed: they were all in the Twilight Mall. And the fact that Cody, Beth, Harold, and Heather worked for Mann Corporation, a big suspect in his eyes, only made it worse. And anyone who wasn't working with him was in grave danger. It meant that Trent, Gwen, and Leshawna could be kidnapped at this point. Someone wants us all gone.
Courtney wasn't doing too good in terms of running. She didn't get far away from the cliff until Richard spotted her using his hiking spyglass. He then loaded up his arrow, and at the greatest time too; she had stopped to catch her breath and find Richard. He released it, skimming Courtney's thigh and landing in the felled trunk she was standing in front of. If she had been wearing pants, the blow would've been much less severe; however, she was still wearing her short shorts, and the gash the arrow left behind was somewhat deep. There was another arrow aimed for her head, but she dodged just in time, and started running once more.
Meanwhile, Cody was back online with Chase; just to alert him about the satellite re-task coming online. Cody decided to hold back his scolding remarks this time.
"Satellite re-tasking coming online…"
"When?"
"Uh…anytime now." Then Chase heard David knocking on the grate between the two guys.
"We've got company."
"Cody, I'm going to have to call you back." Chase hung up immediately and grabbed a map. Making sure his ID was in his jacket, he stepped out of the car and started acting, as did David.
"All right, looks like we're there!" David grinned.
"Uh…no. We're somewhere over there." Chase pointed to a random spot on the map. "There is where we want to be, here is where we are."
"Excuse me! This area is restricted. There are no vehicles off the main road." The ranger who had come to the two men informed them.
"Sorry, uh…we're completely turned around, could you point us in the right direction?" Chase asked the ranger.
"What're you fellas doing way out here?"
"Local news. We're shooting some B-roll for a piece about the brush fires that have ravaged the area, you know, like a compare-contrast sort of thing."
"You have ID to go along with that story?"
"Yeah, here." Chase fished his ID out of his jacket. The ranger looked at it, almost scrutinizing it. Then he smiled and handed it back to Chase.
"Can't be too careful Mr. Crehan. Being so far off the beaten path does invite an unsafe element."
"No worries officer. We couldn't be more—" Chase was cut off by two silenced bullets into David's chest. David slumped down to the floor.
"Now, let's get in your van, and we'll have a little chat." Chase was held at gunpoint as he went into the back of the van with the ranger.
Chase was watching the Mankins practice yoga from the second floor. Cody decided to make this time his opportunity to introduce himself to the new Clerk.
"The new Rowan." Cody grinned. "You're smaller than the last one, but hey, at least I won't be as intimidated. Uh, Cody Linken, the man behind the gray matter curtain." Cody held out his hand, and Chase shook it.
"So Tyler was one of your creations." Chase turned back to watching the Mankins practice yoga. Cody's grin fell at Chase's blunt remark.
"Yeah…yeah. That was an uh…anomaly. There's unpredictable remainders; we're still working out the kinkies."
"Like the blood, the screaming, the dying? Look at them. They're a bunch of helpless children. Did the ones Tyler slaughtered even put up a fight?"
"Frankly, they wouldn't know how. Not without an imprint at least."
"Why not default them with, I don't know, ninja skills or something?"
"We tried that, actually." Cody sheepishly chuckled.
"And?"
"Blood, screaming, dying, need I say more?"
"Tyler." Chase sighed. He saw Courtney leave the group.
"So what do you think of your new girl?"
"She's not a girl. She's not even a person, just an empty hat…until you stuff a rabbit in it." Chase walked off, leaving Cody to ponder the personality of this new Clerk.
"Abra-cadabra." Cody whispered.
Courtney was starting to lose her speed and balance. When she ran down a hill, she tripped and tumbled over herself into a bunch of branches.
"CRAP!!!!!" She pulled herself up and kept running.
Cody was watching this, eating his chips, and the squigglies were reading to him sweet mother of God I'm going to fucking die. He called up Chase immediately.
"Dude! Are you reading the squigglies?!"
"Yeah, I'm reading 'em."
"Okay, these are the not-so-good ones. These are the sweet mother of God I'm going to fucking die ones. What the hell is going on up there?"
"Everything's fine." Chase tersely responded.
"Are you sure about that dude?"
"Yeah, except for the gun pointed at my head." Chase hung up at that point and got into an all-out brawl with the ranger who had him hostage in his own van.
"Chase? Dude? Dude! What the hell?!" He ended his call and immediately started running to Heather's office.
"Now for a little briefing." Harold quickly pulled up a few things on Heather's computer, which was hooked up to the plasma screen TV in the office. A profile showed up of a certain FBI agent they knew all too well. Douglas Jones. DJ. "He's a threat."
"Agent Jones—"
"Skip the formalities Heather, its DJ! From TD!"
"Don't tell me what to do. Agent Jones," Harold glared at her. She sighed. "DJ has been blindly groping for over two years. He knows nothing."
"We know him! And I've been on his team all three seasons! You were on his team in TDA! When something gets under his skin, at least, after TDA, he won't stop until it's been scratched down."
"And how would you suggest we handle this?"
"Neutralize the risk before it becomes untamable." Heather immediately knew what this meant, and she made a point of it by standing up and walking to him.
"Authorize a kill order on a federal agent, and someone we know too? I think you overestimate his abilities!"
"Even a blind dog can find a bone if he digs enough holes."
"Don't pull that proverb crap on me. Have the appropriate measures been taken?"
"Heather, I don't think you fully—" Cody burst into the door, panting from his long run.
"Guys! Guys! I think we've got a situation, the kind that needs guns."
"What is it Cody?" Heather glared at him.
"I think Chase is in a hostage situation, and there might be trouble with Courtney. Her heartbeat is escalating through the roof, and her adrenaline is also way up. I think she's in trouble." Heather and Harold glanced at each other.
"You know what to do Harold." Heather simply responded. Harold immediately started running out of the office.
Courtney was running, and she reached the river. The boat was still there, but it was deflated. A frantic look over revealed that there was a tear in it, so no hope of paddling out. Meanwhile, Richard rappelled down the side of the cliff. He was taking his sweet time with the hunt. Courtney just kept running and running, and then she found a small cabin home. It must be safe, but what is it doing way out here? She quickly ran in, safe for now. She realized she was absolutely thirsty, and she found a canteen, which she immediately drank out of. But she was stopped when she heard a noise, like a walkie-talkie. She set the canteen down on a desk and walked over to the closet. When she opened it, she was in for a nasty shock. A ranger's dead body fell on top of her, and she was immediately down on the ground. With trembling hands, she removed the walkie-talkie off the dead man's body, and she tried to contact anyone for help.
"Hello? Is there anybody out there? I need help, please, somebody!" She put the walkie-talkie up to her ear, praying for a response.
"Hey baby." She almost dropped the walkie-talkie out of fright, but a feeling of anger and rage set in. "Guess you found Ranger Bob, huh?" Richard was near the river, where she had been only a short while ago.
"Why are you doing this?"
"'Cause I wanna know."
"What do you want to know, you sick son of a bitch?!"
"If you deserve to live. You've earned the right."
"You know what gives someone the right to live?! Not hunting them!"
"That's it! Shoulder to the wheel! Prove you're not just an echo."
"You want proof, you fucking psycho?! How about this: I'm gonna kill you! Will that prove it? I'm gonna stab you—" She suddenly burst into a fit of coughing and held her hand to her throat as though she were choking.
"Whoa babe, you don't sound too good. Hey, you didn't drink out of a canteen in there, did you? 'Cause, um, that would be bad."
"Is it time for my Treatment yet?" Courtney asked Cody. She was back on the seat in his lab, and he was applying a few patches to her chest.
"Yes, but this is a very special one Courtney. This one won't pinch like the others you don't remember." Cody finished applying the patches and left to the machine to boot it up. She then laid her eyes on Chase, who had been called into the room.
"Hello. You're kinda short, aren't you?" Courtney smiled. Chase rolled his eyes at the somewhat offensive remark.
"Do I have to be here for this?"
"Clerk-Mankin imprint requires a direct line of sight, so she needs to be staring into those dreamy brown eyes when I wave my magic wand."
"Then what? Me and Special Needs become buddy-buddy?"
"Hey! This isn't about friendship dude, it's about trust. From this point on, Courtney will always trust you without question or hesitation, no matter what the circumstance might be. You're about to become the most important person in her life." Chase glanced at her once more.
"Let's just get this over with."
"Hey! This is art; it's not an oil change! Rush the brush strokes and you get a clown on black velvet." Cody handed Chase a sheet of paper.
"What's this?"
"It's your script. Call and response, neural lock and key…all right dude, let's get the show on the road."
"Everything's going to be—"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! First, take her hand."
"Excuse me?"
"Hold her hand. Dude, tactile proximity enhances bonding protocol. Okay, take two staring…now."
"Everything's going to be all right."
"Now that you're here." Courtney responded in a monotone voice.
"Do you trust me?"
"With my life."
Courtney ran out of the cabin with what little awareness she had left. The water was starting to take its toll on her; she was walking wobbly on a downhill slope. Richard barged into the cabin and used his walkie-talkie to contact her.
"How you feeling sweetness? A little funky right about now? Don't worry, the stuff's not going to kill ya. The guy I got it from said it would just put a spin on things. So what do you see? You spinnin' yet?" Courtney looked around, and her vision was certainly blurred. She was seeing double of everything. But what was perfectly solid was a figure she saw walking through the woods. She had tan skin, shoulder length brown hair, was wearing grey wedges, an elbow length grey shirt over a white polo shirt, and some olive green capris. Courtney immediately started to run to this figure.
"Hey. Hey, wait!" She reached out to the figure's hand, and the figure turned around.
"Get away from me you Ogre!" The figure looked just like her and wasn't too happy.
"Wh-wh-what?" She kept backing away from the figure, but then she tripped over a thick branch. She ended up tumbling backwards, and fell into the river. Crap, crap, I'm going to die.
Chase had finished fixing the computers in the van, and he had visuals again. In his hand, he had the ranger's gun with the silencer on it. If he even is a ranger. Chase had long taken off his jacket, and he was wearing a white crew neck shirt and grey pants. The ranger was starting to fall back into consciousness, and Chase noticed.
"How many?"
"What?" Chase shot a bullet into the ranger's right thigh. The ranger emitted a loud scream.
"How many men between me and the girl?"
"I don't know. I don't know, I swear to God!" Chase shot another bullet, this time into the ranger's left thigh. Again, the ranger screamed.
"I don't think you're listening."
"The guy hired me over the phone! I never met him! I was just supposed to get you to stall the response team."
"And then put a bullet in my head."
"Hey, it's business. Don't take it personally." Chase wryly smiled, and then he used the butt of the gun to slap the ranger in the side of his head. The ranger passed out at this point.
"I don't." Chase left the van to find Courtney.
Courtney was washed up on the river bank, and she was coughing up water. But what she saw wasn't the woods; it was a shower stall, and there were dead bodies around her. There were cuts on the bodies, and she saw a figure, a shadowy figure holding a small bloody knife. Wake up. A voice called to her, and in a flash, she opened her eyes, and she was back on the pebble littered river bank, and Richard was contacting her over the walkie-talkie.
"Wake up. Ah, you're doing great baby. Don't quit on me now. Do you need a minute? 'Cause I don't wanna rush you." He was viewing her through his hiking spyglass, and Courtney's rage and anger was back. She started running once more. "All right, we'll rush." She kept running and hid behind a wide tree. To make matters worse, Richard wasn't too far behind. She heard rustling, and thinking it was Richard, she picked up a thick branch and swung it. However, it wasn't Richard who she almost hit; it was Chase.
"Hey, hey, I'm not going to hurt you."
"Do I know you?"
"Everything's going to be all right."
"Now that…you're here."
"Stay close. I'm going to get you out—" Richard spotted the two and shot Chase with one of his arrows. The arrow hit his side. "FUCK!!! START WALKING, NOW!" Courtney helped the now limping Chase in walking away from that spot. "AGH!!"
"We need to stop walking."
"No."
"You got shot with a fucking arrow. If we keep moving, we're going to die."
"If Robin Hood catches up with us, we're both going to die." Courtney then looked at Chase one more time questioningly.
"How do I know you?"
"We met a while back."
"I feel like I can trust you, I just—I don't remember…"
"You okay?"
"There was something in the water. Richard put something in my water…"
"Poison?"
"He said it wouldn't kill me, but I've been seeing things."
"Go on."
"A girl that looks just like me, but isn't, dead bodies in a shower and—and a man standing over me with a bloody knife, but I can't see his face—I don't think he has one! You're here, right? This is real?"
"Yeah, I'm here, and yeah, this is real." Chase groaned in pain from the arrow in his side.
"He's going to kill us. He's going to find us and kill us. And he's—"
"Hey, hey. Everything's going to be all right." Courtney looked around the woods and started shaking her head.
"No it isn't."
"Did you hear what I said? Everything's going to be—"
"Everything's NOT going to be all right. You don't live just because you deserve to; you have to prove it. You have to put your shoulder to the wheel!" Courtney did what Richard did when he taught her about it: left hand to the right shoulder.
"Speak English. I'm kinda bleeding to death here."
"He's not going to stop—unless he's dead."
"You can't go after this guy. You don't have the right imprint. You don't have the right training."
"I'm a fast learner."
"Jenny—" Chase used her other name she had been given for the Outing.
"Do you trust me?"
"What?"
"Do you trust me?"
"With my life." He handed her the ranger's gun, silencer still on it. "You know how to use this?" Courtney cocked the gun.
"Four brothers, none of them Democrats. You should keep this. If Richard finds you, he'll—" Chase pulled out his own silver revolver.
"You didn't think I'd give you my only gun, did you?"
"Oh my God, there he is. Get out of here. I'll handle him myself." Chase ran away, blood dripping from his side. Courtney spotted Richard getting ready his bow to shoot behind a tree, only to find that no one was there. "Didn't think it'd be that easy, did you?" She contacted Richard through the walkie-talkie.
"I'd be disappointed if it was. How's your buddy holding up? He's losing an awful lot of blood."
"Not as much as you're about to."
"What are you going to do, throw rocks at me or something?"
"No. I'm going to shoot you with the gun my buddy gave me. You're playing my game now. Toss the bow and get down on your knees before I blow your fucking brains out."
"My dad would've really liked you. I'm still going to kill you, and—" Courtney took the opportunity to fire two warning shots, one of them hitting his arm. He then spotted her running, but couldn't get a solid shot. He looked down at his bleeding arm. "Want to play it that way? Let's rumble." He started running in her direction. Meanwhile, she was still running, but then she started seeing herself again. This self looked as though she had just finished crying.
"I-I'm okay…just okay…"
"Hey baby, little piece of advice: if you don't want the big bad wolf to find you, you should really turn off your walkie." Richard responded over the walkie-talkie. She turned it off, but when she looked, her former self was gone. But Richard was drawing his arrow, and she heard him. She turned around, gun cocked and pointed at him. "Is this the best date ever or what?"
"Put it down, or I put you down."
"Look at you! You can barely stand up. Probably wouldn't be able to hit me even if you did pull the trigger." She put her second hand over the gun to steady her aim.
"You really want to find out?"
"I admit, I'm curious. Concerned, but curious. Then again, you shoot me, and you get an arrow in that pretty little chest."
"How's that pretty little arm holding up? Maybe I'm not the one that's gonna miss."
"Tell you what: why don't we ease up and call it a draw?"
"You'll let me go?"
"Sure. No harm no foul."
"You poisoned me and shot at me with arrows!"
"Okay, maybe a little bit of harm. Look, how about this: on the count of three, we both back off."
"One…"
"Two…"
"Three…" The weapons were almost down, and suspecting the worst in each other, they shot at each other. Courtney's bullet shot Richard's bow out of his hands, and Richard's arrow shot Courtney's gun out of her hands. It was now hand-to-hand contact, and at first, the fight was in Courtney's favor. She had Richard pinned to the ground and was punching his head like there was no tomorrow. Then he became the favored one because he managed to get a punch to her face. She flipped over onto the ground, and as she tried crawling away, he grabbed her leg and flung her face up and started choking her on the ground. As hard as she tried, she couldn't get out of Richard's stranglehold, and he started laughing maniacally. Then she looked off to the side, and saw three copies of herself.
"I'm going to win! Just wait and see!" A third self yelled, but then looked down to the ground. Courtney then saw one of Richard's arrows, picked it up, and gave him a hard jab to his neck. He fell to the ground and started crawling to a fallen tree trunk to sit on. She breathed a sigh of relief. Meanwhile, Richard was choking, blood pouring out of his wound.
"That actually hurt!"
"Good!" She was now standing over him, watching him die.
"You said you were going to kill me. Nice follow-through." He coughed. "He was right about you. You really are special." There was a profuse amount of blood now pouring out of his mouth and neck wound.
"What are you talking about?"
"Shoulder to the wheel baby. Shoulder to the wheel…" He did the shoulder to the wheel symbol one more time before he breathed his last breath. He was now just like a rag doll propped against a wall, except there was still blood trickling out of his mouth and neck wound. She left the body to join Chase, who was now propped against a tree, still alive. She sat next to him, near tears. She had killed Richard, a deed she wasn't too proud of in retrospect. But there were helicopters in the air, and out of the trees, a SWAT team with Harold as their leader came running in.
"To my right, go! To my left, go!" He issued commands. "Let's get you two out of here." One of the helicopters landed in the clearing, and it took Chase and Courtney back to the complex. Chase was taken to the infirmary within the complex to have his wound examined, and Courtney was taken to Cody to have her imprint deleted. However, by the time Courtney's Treatment was complete, Chase was already there waiting for her, dressed in a regular suit once more.
"Did I fall asleep?" She asked Chase. He walked to her and held her hand, which was still a little bloody and beat-up from her Outing.
"Only for a short while."
"Shall I go?"
"By all means…" And with that, she left the lab.
"The background check was supposed to prevent this sort of thing from happening Harold!" Heather slammed her hand on her desk. "How is it that you missed the fact that Dowel was a complete psychopath?! TELL ME!!!"
"Because Richard Dowel doesn't exist. NOTHING in his background was real. His entire background, from birth, to college, even his referral here was all fabricated. I've never seen anything this intricate." Heather's mouth was wide open, but it was quickly closed.
"What about the man that Chase subdued in the van? Have you interrogated him yet?"
"He was dead when we got there, BUT not from his run-in with Chase."
Chase and Beth were examining the ranger's body, scarred with many, many cuts.
"That's not the way I left him!" Chase exclaimed.
"Your punches were painful, but non-fatal. You avoided the major arteries." Beth explained.
"That was the point. What about these other wounds?"
"Caused by a single non-serrated blade, approximately 10 centimeters in length. The lacerations are precise, almost surgical." When Chase looked at the body again, he saw Monty Rowan's body.
"I've seen this before. Tyler." Beth's eyes widened.
"That's impossible."
"Isn't that what we do here? The impossible?"
"Tyler is dead. After he—after what he did, they tracked him down and put a bullet in his brain."
"And they'd NEVER lie to us about something like that, WOULD THEY? Tyler could've killed Courtney when he escaped, but he didn't. A wake of bodies, but he left her alive. Now, someone hires some nut job to hunt her down in the woods…maybe it was Tyler, maybe not. Either way, it all leads back to Courtney." She lied to me. Heather lied to me. Beth thought over and over in her head.
Courtney was walking down the stairs. The scars from her Outing were still visible, and she was on her way to swim in the pool when she almost ran into Harold.
"Sorry." She was about to bypass him when he stopped her.
"Are you?"
"Am I?"
"Sorry. Are you REALLY sorry? A lot of people seem to end up dead around you. How does it make you feel? Oh, that's right. You don't, unless we tell you how and what and when—"
"I'm going to swim in the pool." She bypassed him and started walking away.
"If it were up to me, I'd put you in the attic…or the ground." He had always hated the Mankins, being so idyllic all the time, especially Courtney, but that was partly fueled by the fact that she never forgave him for getting her unfairly kicked off back in TDI. And he gave up trying to search for her forgiveness, and it turned into all-out anger against her. She turned around, eyebrows somewhat furrowed in anger. He didn't notice. "Yeah, like talking to you is going to make a difference. Yeah, there's nobody in there." He started walking back up the stairs. While his back was turned, she suddenly did something: the shoulder to the wheel symbol. She somehow kept that memory from her Outing, somehow. We'll see about that…Harold.
A/N: Holy hell! She remembers him now! And by the way, this is implying that she now remembers EVERYTHING she did in the Twilight Mall before she became Jenny. Trivia time!
Originally, there was supposed to be a sex scene (according to the show), but I'm not about to boost this up to M.
Courtney is OOC due to her different personality. That's what an imprint is--a different personality.
Couples so far: DuncanxCourtney, GeoffxBridgette, GwenxTrent, KatiexNoah, SadiexDJ, CodyxBeth, more to come
Songs that should be in your mind (because they were in mine!): "The Kill"-Thirty Seconds to Mars, "Vertigo"-U2
So what's Courtney's next Outing? What about the other Mankins? What about Geoff and Co.? And Chris? And Gwen, Trent, and Leshawna? Will Heather learn to love? Is Harold falling in love (I just wanted to throw that out there)? Will DJ and Sadie realize their love? Will couples reunite, be made, stay the same, or crash and burn? Hey, I don't know the answer to everything! So review, and these questions might be answered!