-Disclaimer-
Nothing belongs to me besides the characters of Rachel and Kari, and sometimes I wonder about them. The rest belongs to the brilliant genius that was JRR Tolkien...or reality.
-Further Disclaimer-
I have nothing against the FBI, nor am I implying anything about the type of people they hire by what I write about them in this FanFiction. If anything, I'm making fun of them cuz of just how darn awesome I think they are. -eyeshift- OK, maybe that last part isn't exactly correct...but only because the RCMP already occupy the Darn Awesome Government Policing/Investigative/Whatever Organization spot. (Horsies! Whacky uniforms! Whee!)
-6: Plans-
We stayed up remarkably late, considering we were basically talking in the dark, since we had no light bulbs. Everyone was still up rather early the next morning, though. Elrohir, Elladan and Ecthelion, being the three that were sleeping in the main room, were, not surprisingly, the first ones up, closely followed by Gil-galad and Glorfindel. Calenda and I followed at a later time, with me being the last to get up, just as the sun cleared the horizon - or would have cleared the horizon, had we been able to see it in the middle of LA. I made a face as I found everyone breakfasting on cold pizza.
"Oh Valar, how could you, Elrohir?" I said. "Cold pizza, yuck...that's disgusting." The rest of the group looked at each other in puzzlement, obviously having just followed Elrohir's lead and not seeing what was wrong with eating cold pizza.
"It's a matter of taste, Rachel, as you well know, and besides - I tried the stove. It's currently in one of it's 'off' stages." Elrohir replied sternly. I shuddered.
"Whatever. I'm going to go find a smoothie or bagel shop or something and buy some DECENT breakfast food." I said, heading for the door.
"Mm, better idea." Elrohir said, standing up. "Take Calenda, Elladan, and Ecthelion with you and make a morning of it. Buy a clock, some lightbulbs and lights, and other miscellany, and come back at lunch with more food."
"Excellent idea. Hmm, how do Elves handle Iced Caps?" I asked.
"Not as bad as pop, but it will still make you rather hyper." Elrohir admitted. I snapped my fingers.
"Damn." I said. "Ah well. Come on, you three. Let's go." Elladan and Ecthelion, having heard tales of shopping with me from Gil-galad, looked at each other warily. "Oh come on, I just want to get this stuff and get back here. No torture shopping this morning." I said with a roll of my eyes.
"Aww." Calenda said with a pout.
"Sorry Calenda, but I hate shopping as it is. I just figured you should learn Significant Other Torture Shopping." I said with a shrug. A few moments later, my group of four were out of the house and off to shop for electronics. We returned at lunch with a clock, cell phone for me, vacuum, lightbulbs, and a few floor lamps. That afternoon, Elrohir and I left everyone else at the apartment and went out computer shopping - because we knew we'd need one soon. Elrohir had tried contacting a few other people he knew that morning, but they seemed to either be out of the country, or avoiding him. He knew a computer hacker, however, and figured that, if all else failed, he could get him to hack into the government database.
Come evening, Elrohir and I returned with not only a computer, but a fridge, microwave, and supper in the form of KFC. We spent about an hour at the apartment after we had the fridge, microwave, and computer all set up, before Elrohir took Ecthelion and Gil-galad and went out on the town again, and I took Calenda and went out grocery shopping. Not surprisingly, Calenda and I returned before Elrohir and his group again, and I set about making some goodies out of the microwave cookbook I'd bought at the grocery store.
"We have a picture, and a location." Elrohir announced cheerfully when he, Ecthelion, and Gil-galad returned at around midnight. Ecthelion and Gil-galad immediately went over to the weapons racks and started removing all their weaponry.
"Ooo! Lemme see the picture, and where's the location?" I asked, holding out my hand as Elrohir walked over to the couch. Elrohir reached inside his coat and pulled out an 8 by 11 inch photo, obviously taken at a distance, that showed a non-descript FBI agent standing in front of a grocery store.
"Not much to go on." I said disappointedly. The picture wasn't even in colour.
"No, but we do now know that he, since his identity change, frequents a club about twenty minutes from here called the Steel Rainbow." Elrohir said.
"The Steel Rainbow? What the purple monkey kind of a name for a nightclub is that?" I asked, looking at Elrohir incredulously. He shrugged.
"LA's a big city - lots of nightclubs. They're probably running out of names." he said. "Anyways, I figured we could go buy some clubbing clothes tomorrow, then visit the club tomorrow night."
"I want to come on one of these trips." Glorfindel put in. I chuckled.
"Getting tired of watching the world through my eyes?" I asked with an affectionate smile.
"Just a bit." he said.
"He has cabin fever." Elrohir said dryly. I whipped my head around to look at Elrohir, my eyes wide. He grinned back at me.
"'And now though we're all here, we're not quite all there'?" I questioned, and Elrohir nodded. I laughed, and we both started singing the song 'Cabin Fever' from the Muppets version of 'Treasure Island'. By the end, we were on the floor, laughing our heads off.
"Oh Valar, we need to show them some sort of Muppets film." I said when I could finally speak.
"They won't get it. You need to know the original before the Muppets version becomes funny." Elrohir said with a chuckle, hoisting himself off the floor and onto one of the couches. I followed him.
"True. Alright, WE just need to see some sort of Muppets film, then." I said. We then returned our attention to everyone else, to find them looking at us funny.
"What!" Elrohir and I demanded at the same time, then burst out laughing again.
"Well, at least they're not depressed." Elladan said dryly, obviously referring more to his brother than to me.
"We're one step closer to finding Kari than we were before! Why would we be depressed?" I asked, then went over to the computer and started playing with it, seeing if the wireless internet we'd signed up for was working yet - the computer people had said it might take up to 24 hours (though they found it quite amusing that instead of asking them to come install it, we brought our computer to them). After we'd brought the computer back, we'd actually banned anyone but Elrohir or I from touching it, since we didn't even want to guess how badly they could screw it up without even knowing what they were doing.
"Aha!" I declared happily as I discovered the internet was working, then started searching to find a specific site.
"What are you doing?" Elrohir asked curiously after a moment.
"We need music." I declared. Everyone else in the room, remembering the brief foray into modern music in the truck, winced. No one made a move to stop me, however, and I soon pulled up an internet radio station. Great Big Sea's 'When I Am King' started blasting over the speakers.
"Aragorn's theme song!" Elrohir exclaimed with a grin. I giggled.
"Exactly what I called it." I said, then peered at Elrohir. "Did Kari tell you about that?"
"Maaaybe." Elrohir said, doing his best to look extremely suspicious. Thus followed an hour or so of goofing around with the radio. Elrohir and I did our level best to play a sample of every type of music we could find, including trance and karaoke, but eventually we all needed to turn in for the night. We could have managed with no sleep, but Elrohir and I knew clubs, and knew that we should all be in top form and alert tomorrow night.
The next morning was much a repeat of the last in terms of the order of who got up first - though thankfully, not in breakfast, which we actually had cereal and toast for now (the toast being made in the oven, which was now in it's 'on' stage) - and then it was strategy time. We needed to decide what to do with Mister Agent when we found him, besides get the information we needed. Elrohir was all for killing the man, of course, but the rest of us quickly vetoed that idea, since if our agent went missing, the government would probably realize we were onto them and take steps to ensure our capture, Kari's continued imprisonment, or both.
"But we can't really trust him not to tell anyone if we let him live." I said with a frown. "Between patriotism being what it is, and humankind's newest bad habit of selling their deepest secrets for the right price, our Agent is likely to tell SOMEONE that we grabbed him for one of those two reasons."
"How about if we leave him with somebody Elrohir knows and send a note to the government saying he's indisposed?" Glorfindel suggested. Elrohir frowned, and I grimaced.
"Doesn't really work that way anymore, Glorfindel." I said. "Unfortunately."
"I thought as much, but there should be a way to do a similar thing nowadays, yes?" Glorfindel asked, arching an eyebrow, and I glanced over at Elrohir. He gave me a thoughtful look.
"Emergency vacation." he finally said, and my eyes lit up.
"Where to and for what reason?" I said with a grin.
"Tibet, because he's had a spiritual crisis of faith." Elrohir smirked.
"What if he's not religious?" I inquired.
"Informant says that's how they found him - he refused to change churches." Elrohir said with a grin. "Though they wouldn't give me the name of the church - apparently they have something against us accosting the agent on holy ground - or rather, having the mob accost the agent on holy ground."
"Churches? As in Christian ones? Why would he go to Tibet to solve a crisis of faith if he's Christian?" I asked, arching an eyebrow.
"Well, they didn't specify Christian or non." Elrohir said with a shrug. "Maybe he's having a crisis of faith as in thinking of switching over to Buddhism?"
"I like. I assume you have a friend in Tibet you can hand him over to?" I asked.
"Oh, I know these monks, way out in the middle of nowhere -"
"Tibet is almost entirely composed of the middle of nowhere." I interrupted.
"The middle of the middle of nowhere, then." Elrohir said, making a face at me. "Anyways, they're really very curious about the outside world, wanting to understand how and why we don't think the same way they do. I think it's a requirement to join the monastery, wanting to know how the Western mind works, since every time I've gone there in the past 200 years they've tried to pick my brain apart. They kept me there for over ten years last time I dropped by, and gave me an open invitation to return any time."
"But will they hold someone against his will?" Glorfindel with a frown.
"Well, if we do things right, it won't necessarily be against his will." Elrohir said with a small smile. "And besides, he's out in the middle of nowhere - unless he's been traveling to a lot of odd places, he won't know the countryside around him. I find it hard to believe that any FBI agent would be dumb enough to try and find his way back to civilization without knowing the way. I hear they like to hire SMART people."
"Smart people who kidnap random elves." I pointed out.
"Yes, well, I only said I HEAR they like to hire smart people. The people I heard that from might not be as reliable as I thought." Elrohir said with a chuckle. "The question is, how are we going to get the agent over to Tibet?"
"I don't supposed you ever learned how to fly a plane?" I asked. Elrohir made a face.
"Sadly...yes, yes I did." he said. "Though every time I do it I wish I never had. The problem will be getting our hands on a plane. I think it would just be easier to book a commercial flight, to be honest, though I suppose I'll have to go with him to ensure he gets to the monastery."
"We should probably all go." I murmured. "In everyone else's cases, if only for the experience if nothing else."
"But that will mean more delays in Kari's rescue." Gil-galad felt obliged to point out.
"Yes, but I'd rather take the time and have the rescue go off without any nasty surprises than to get into Area 51 and find the entire US military waiting for us." Elrohir snapped, then immediately apologized.
"No need to apologize." Gil-galad said with a half-smile. "You're under a strain, we all know that."
"It's more the fact that I've spent too long among humans." Elrohir grumbled.
"Y'know, we've turned into quite the human-bashing group." I pondered.
"Well, they're so SHORT SIGHTED. It's aggravating." Elrohir complained, then he paused, and he and I looked at each other.
"I feel old." we said at the same time, then chuckled.
"OK, so we find this agent, get him to tell us his secrets, then willingly go to Tibet, and plan a rescue for Kari while going to and from Tibet with afore mentioned agent. Then, of course, we carry out said rescue plan and go home." I summarized.
"It sounds so ridiculously simple that way." Elladan said with a wry smile.
"Doesn't it?" Elrohir mused. "Ah well. Who's going to come with us to the club tomorrow in an attempt to track down our dear agent?" That conversation soon excluded everyone but Elrohir and I, as we began speaking in half-sentences, giving people funny glances, and collapsing into fits of giggles (yes, Elrohir giggled, too) as we imagined various members of our group in different 'clubbing' situations.
In the end, Elrohir and I decided on Glorfindel and Gil-galad, while Elladan, Calenda and Ecthelion would stay at the apartment. We wanted to be able to call them for back-up if necessary, but a look at a map showed that the Steel Rainbow was farther away than we'd thought - meaning that not only would the three of them not be able to get to us fast enough to count as 'back-up' but they'd probably get lost trying to find us, even with Calenda and Elladan's connections to Gil-galad and Elrohir.
At any rate, in the end, Elrohir decided that it was safe enough to leave the apartment alone for one morning, and we took everyone out shopping for clubbing clothes for those that were going out that night. This was partially to just get everyone out of the apartment, and partially as torture for Glorfindel and Gil-galad. Torture, because none of them really had a clue what 'clubbing' was, or what clothes were required for it - though they found out soon enough as Elrohir and I went straight for the clothes that everyone else had walked by, assuming it was either underwear or for streetwalkers.
And I didn't even make the trip pleasant for Glorfindel by letting him see what I picked out - I took only Calenda with me to find the clothes, then got Elrohir to come and give a guys opinion of them - his response being some dramatic speech in old English that basically amounted to, if he and I both hadn't been married, he'd have jumped me. My shopping for my outfit took less time than it took Elrohir to get clothes for Gil-galad and Glorfindel, of course, but after finding my clothes I also needed to go buy make-up, and so Calenda and I only met up with the guys again right before we were heading back to the apartment. Due to the seating arrangements in the truck, this meant that the only way Glorfindel could bug me about my outfit was mentally, but he gave up when I started reciting various geometric formulae in my head.
After that, we basically lazed around the apartment all afternoon - not hard once I rediscovered internet games, and the others curiosity kicked in and they started asking questions about the modern world. Eventually, around supper time, Elrohir and I gathered everyone together and explained to them what going 'clubbing' meant - something we'd purposefully neglected to mention until now. Glorfindel and Gil-galad seemed a little upset about it all for awhile, until I assured them that if they just told people they were taken and were only there accompanying a friend, they should mostly be left alone. I added the 'mostly' very quietly. Then, we had some supper, messed around for a bit more, and those going got ready.
Which resulted in a few minutes distraction for the couples, since Glorfindel was looking particularly yummy in some very tight black leather pants and a half-open green button-up shirt - and I'll readily admit to being the reason said shirt was half-open. And Gil-galad was equally good-looking in some silver pants and a sparkling blue t-shirt. Calenda, of course, gave me a good thwap when I oogled her husband, but it was only fair, since all the guys were now staring at me in utter shock. A little jean miniskirt and a purple lace shirt over a black bra will do wonders, especially when accompanied with a careful make-up job. By the time we left for the club, it was well after nine.
As soon as we came within sight of the club, Elrohir and I realized that there was one slightly useful piece of information about it that Elrohir's informant had left out. Between the literal steel rainbow over the door, the dress of the bouncer at the door, and the couple we saw walk in holding hands, we didn't really need the small add-on to the clubs sign to tell us that the Steel Rainbow was a gay bar and dance club. Elrohir and I glanced at each other as this fact registered with both of us, and I quirked an eyebrow, tilting my head slightly towards the back of the truck, silently asking if he wanted to tell Gil-galad and Glorfindel. Elrohir considered, then grinned evilly and shook his head.
"We can tell them after they get hit on a few times." he said under his breath as he parked the truck. I chuckled quietly, amused. Glorfindel and Gil-galad, meanwhile, continued sitting in the back of the truck, oblivious to the modern meaning of the word 'gay', simply assuming that the club was a particularly happy and carefree place. Well, they were oblivious right up until we stopped ten feet from the door, and I, feeling somewhat guilty, warned them to be ready for anything.
"Like your description of 'nightclubs' didn't already prepare us for that?" Gil-galad asked dryly.
"Yeah, well, our descriptions were only for the most 'normal' of nightclubs. This could be one of the...not so 'normal' ones." I said carefully, and when I glanced over at Elrohir, he gave me a slight pout before grinning to show he didn't mind me sort-of warning Gil-galad and Glorfindel. At any rate, having now thoroughly worried Gil-galad and Glorfindel, I continued on into the club, nodding cheerfully to the bouncer as I went in. Never hurts to be nice to bouncers.
Glorfindel and Gil-galad, of course, figured out that this was one of the 'not so normal' nightclubs right away - I could tell from the looks on their faces the moment they entered the club behind me that they knew something was up. Elrohir and I, of course, noticed their looks and cheerfully told them to go have fun, then disappeared into the crowds before they could demand an explanation. Elrohir and I ended up by the bar, where we both ordered drinks and sat chatting as we scanned the faces of everyone in the club - and, alright, watched with amusement as Gil-galad and Glorfindel tried to make their way through the club to us.
:Rachel, what in the Valar's name is going on: Glorfindel finally asked in annoyance after the third guy attempted to drag him off to the dance floor.
:It's a gay club, for people who prefer having relationships with their own gender.: I replied promptly. I saw Glorfindel start in surprise that I'd actually told him. :And since you're a nummy Elf Lord, every guy in this club is going to want to get his paws on you.:
:Wonderful.: Glorfindel growled.
:See if you can find Mr. FBI Agent down there.: I requested innocently, giving Glorfindel my most angelic smile when he shot a glare my way. Elrohir glanced sideways at me.
"Glorfindel finally asked what was going on?" he asked, and I nodded, grinning.
"I told him, then told to look at his admirers very closely." I replied.
"Hm. I suppose I should probably go tell Gil-galad now, too." Elrohir said with a sigh.
"Not necessarily." I said, looking over at Elrohir in surprise - only to find him already gone.
"So you come here often?" I heard from my other side, and I turned to find a sexily, and scantily, clad woman smiling at me.
:To do after we get out of here: kill Elrohir.: I sent to Glorfindel as I smiled back at the woman and started talking to her.
:Serves you right.: Glorfindel muttered back.
:Hey, I warned you...sort of.: I said defensively.
:VERY 'sort of'.: Glorfindel replied with a mental sticking out of his tongue, and then I had to pay attention to the lady hitting on me.
----To Be Continued...with a cheap flea and roach ranch!----
-Authors Note-
Eeek, I'm sorry! I missed my Tuesday update, and then I had to work, and after work, I'm not too good at anything more than 'sit back and veg out'...which, sadly, updating this FanFiction doesn't count as. Yes, it does, amazingly, require thought to write and update this story. Gasp, shock, horror. -grin- Luckily, however, today I gave in and got myself a mocha on my way out of work, so now I'm superhyperactiveawakeandraringtogo! Um...yeah. Me and coffee mix interestingly.
Anyways. This was a fun chapter. It's one of the group of scenes that I thought up way before I even started writing the story - before I'd even decided to do a sequel to TGotG - that eventually made me decide to write a sequel.
And! It's minus freaking 50 degrees celsius out here with the wind chill! In Febuary! I hate my weather.
Now...hm. Thank you once again to all my reviewers - each and every one of your reviews is very much appreciated. And to my readers in general, remember, if you review and want a reply, be sure to sign in. Or leave your email and specifically ask for a reply - sorry, but I won't reply to non-signed reviews unless explicitly asked to.
And I'm off! See y'all in the next udate - which may be this Tuesday, or next Friday or Tuesday, depending on how inspired I get. And...various other factors.
Namarie!
-Crimson Starlight