Author's Notes 1: Ok, truth be known, I have no idea how Abigail ended up in this story. I hadn't planned on her ever being in it any more than a footnote. She just sort of walked in and screwed everything up. Hell, she didn't even have a name until she started talking, pulled that puppy right out of thin air. At any rate, let's see how V and Audrey deal with this new development. A big thank you to BlaqueCat13 and dog youkai jane, my only reviewers for the last two chapters.
"No."
The word is growled out so low that at first V doesn't realize where it's coming from. It even startles Abigail's men enough to cause them to pause in their advancement and look uncertainly up at their boss. V looks over at the woman next to him to see her standing with her back ramrod straight and a look of defiance on her face, glaring at the woman up on the platform.
"I beg your pardon, slave?" Abigail huffs with a haughty look plastered on her face. "I did not give you leave to talk."
"Ah ain't a slave no more, ya old hag," Audrey snarls and V tries not to cringe as she mangles the English language. "An' Ah sure as hell ain't gonna be goin' with ya so ya can use meh fo' Gawd only knows what."
"I have your papers right here, so just come along nice and quiet and I promise no harm will come to your...ah...Grandfather," Abigail says with a smirk as she pulls several sheets of folded paper out of her pocket.
"Those are just a copy," Audrey scoffs before nodding her head towards V. "As fo' him, he can take care o' himself."
"I will have the originals soon," Abigail states very confidently.
"Considerin' Ah burned tha damn things some time ago, Ah very much doubt it," Audrey sneers.
"You will be punished for your impertinence, slave," Abigail warns, looking a bit shaken from Audrey's news.
"Fuck ya an' tha horse ya rode in on, ya bitch!" Audrey yells, trembling with rage.
"Bring her here, boys," Abigail orders, anger very much evident in her voice, though her face barely changes. "And don't worry about being a bit rough with her."
The men move towards V and Audrey at her command and V shifts himself between Audrey and the ones closest to them. He quickly starts to calculate where the men are and what it will take to kill them and how long before the next couple of men reach them. A flash of movement in his peripheral vision has him turning his head around in time to see her guitar case smashing against the temple of one of the men who managed to get behind them.
"Keep ya hands ta yaself, ya filthy bastard," Audrey snarls as the man goes down.
"Really, Audrey, such language," he gently reprimands, though his amusement is quite evident in his voice.
"Ah'm pissed off, deal with it," she snaps back, not bothering to look at him.
Her attention is on the next lackey who's foolish enough to come at her and she swings her guitar case at him. He's ready for it and grabs it, ripping it out of her hands, but he's not ready for the snap kick that catches him right in the groin. As he doubles over in pain, she steps up to him and drives her elbow into his back between his shoulder blades sending him down face first into the ground.
V smiles to himself, a bit proud of his reluctant pupil and he turns his attention back on the other men as he slides the first knife out of its sheath. In a move that's too fast for the eye to follow, he slashes the neck of the man closest to him. Before the body even starts to sink to the floor, V starts his dance of death that leaves the only one who can watch breathless.
Abigail watches in stunned amazement as the supposedly old man moves more gracefully than any human she's ever seen and with a speed that boggles the mind. She knew he wasn't normal the instant she had seen him running full out as if he was completely unencumbered even though her property was in his arms, but to watch him move freely now leaves her with only one resolve now. She must have him.
She quickly starts making plans in her head to capture him and after watching him kill with such proficiency, she has to concede that her men must back off before they're all dead. An angry scream rips through the air and a satisfied smirk stretches across Abigail's lips as she sees her men have finally gotten hold of the insolent little bitch who dared to talk back to her. However, her pleasure is short lived as the man who has the firmest grip on Audrey suddenly keels over backwards with a knife sticking out of the middle of his forehead.
She quickly looks over to the old man and sees that all of the men he had been fighting are now lying in pools of blood. Her brain temporarily freezes at the thought that in a matter of seconds this man was able to kill three of her best men, all of whom who had guns and a man that was about twenty feet away from him. Another shriek brings her back to reality and she sees her last two men have hold of her property and are using her as a shield as best they can considering the bitch is still fighting them.
"Bring her here, boys," Abigail purrs. "If you want to see that no harm comes to your...granddaughter, old man, then I suggest you drop your weapons and come along quietly."
"The multiplying villainies of nature do swarm upon him..." he starts to purr.
"Oh, fo' tha love o' little green apples!" Audrey snaps as she continues to squirm in the grip of Abigail's men. "Just kill 'em an' be done with it."
"A little respect for the classics, Audrey," he admonishes.
"Ta hell with tha classics," Audrey yells. "Either kill 'em or meh, but don't let meh go back to that life...please."
He hasn't heard her plead like that since the night they first met when she begged him to kill her before the Finger found her and the anger that lives within him boils up even higher than normal. He swiftly draws his arm back and lets the knife fly, in less than a heartbeat, it lands in its intended target before the man can shift his 'shield' into place. He goes down and Audrey wastes no time trying to break the other man's hold on her while he desperately tries to keep a grip on her, intent on keeping her between him and V.
"Hurry up, you fool!" Abigail commands. "Get her up here before he kills you!"
The man wildly looks around for a place to get back up onto the platform, preferably an easy way, but he sees none. His gaze turns back to the slowly approaching man who despite appearances, has managed to move with such speed and strength that he's killed five men in less than five minutes and he hasn't even broken into a sweat. He glances back up to Abigail before quickly looking back at the man who's stalking him like a two legged predator and he makes up his mind when he sees V casually twirl a knife in his hand.
He grabs the struggling woman as best he can and shoves her at V before running down the nearby dark tunnel as fast as he can. V easily catches Audrey and after making sure she's securely on her own two feet, he starts to go after the man. He only goes a few steps before the sound of a man screaming reaches them making the vigilante pause.
"Watcha wanna bet that he found another stun net?" Audrey asks while she looks around her feet.
"You are probably correct," he sighs as he slides the blade in his hand back into its hiding place. "We will have to proceed with caution."
"Or we could take a guide," she suggests while she picks up one of the dropped guns.
Before he can question her comment, she swings around, levels the weapon and squeezes off a round with a loud 'CRACK'. A small piece of mason and tile comes off of the wall near Abigail's head and the other woman stops her retreat, nearly jumping out of her fashionable high heels. She spins around and glares at Audrey in self-righteous indignation.
"Ok, madam, haul ya'lls surgically sculpted ass down here an' start marchin'," Audrey orders.
"How dare you!?" Abigail demands, completely affronted.
"Ya'd be amazed at what Ah'd dare ta do, ya old hag," Audrey scoffs. "Now move it!"
"And if I refuse?" Abigail asks as she crosses her arms over her perfectly shaped breasts.
"Than Ah'll shoot ya where ya'll stands," Audrey answers, staring the other woman in the eye leaving no doubt in the other woman's mind of her sincerity. "But Ah have ta warn ya, it's been about ten years since Ah've held a gun, so my aim's probably a bit rusty. Ah might just mortally wound ya instead of makin' a clean kill, so that ya'll just slowly bleed ta death instead o' dyin' quick like."
"You wouldn't dare," Abigail challenges and Audrey pulls the trigger again causing another chunk of tile and masonry to come off of the wall next to the well dressed woman.
"Care ta test that?" Audrey counters with a raised eyebrow. "Now move it."
"Make me," Abigail retorts with her arms crossed over her chest.
"With pleasure," a deep voice purrs just behind her ear.
Before Abigail can even let out a squawk of surprise, a pair of strong leather clad hands grab her upper arms, pinning them to her side. She suddenly finds herself being lifted off of the ground, carried across the platform and then dropped down onto the tracks all while kicking and screaming, but to no avail. She's unceremoniously set down on her feet and she stumbles a couple of steps before the heel of her shoe catches on something and she goes down with an undignified squeal.
"Those shoes have gotta go," Audrey announces, standing over the prone woman, the gun still trained on her.
"Have you got a spare pair for her to use?" he asks as he comes to stand next to Audrey.
"Ah have a spare pair o' shoes, but there's no way Ah'm lettin' her use 'em," Audrey states. "Think ya could modify tha ones she's wearin'?"
"How so?" he inquires, moving closer to the woman who's trying to crawl away from them.
"Break tha heels off," Audrey answers.
"Don't you dare!" Abigail shrieks as she staggers to her feet. "These shoes cost me nearly a hundred pounds!"
"Money ya got sellin' human bein's like they were cattle," Audrey snarls. "If ya wanna break ya'lls ankle, Ah don't care, but Ah've got a transport ta catch an' Ah have every intention on gettin' there on time, so ya better get a move on."
"No," Abigail huffs, her arms crossing over her chest again. "I refuse and if you shoot me, you will be right back where you started."
"It would be a shame if all the work your plastic surgeon did on your face was ruined," V softly growls as the flat of the blade of one of his knives slides down Abigail's perfect cheek, hard enough for her to feel the sharp edge, but not enough to break the skin.
"You would dare harm a lady!?" Abigail demands.
"You, madam, are no lady," he snarls as he towers over her.
Before she can voice any more objections, Abigail finds herself suddenly spun around and pushed forward. She immediately stumbles and falls thanks to the poor footwear and uneven ground, letting out an undignified shriek as she goes down. Before she can move an inch, her shoes are ripped off of her feet and the heels snapped off of them and she sits there with her jaw hanging open gaping up at the man in disbelief.
"How DARE you!" Abigail shrieks as her shoes are dropped back in her lap.
"Short o' streakin' through Trafalgar Square, Ah don't thank there's much he wouldn't dare," Audrey drawls as she returns to them after retrieving her bag and guitar case. "Ah suggest ya get a move on, Ah don't have all day."
"More guns?" he muses, idly gazing at the gun in her waistband while Abigail crosses her arms over her chest and refuses to move.
"Just one more," Audrey responds as she none to gently nudges Abigail with her foot. "Get a move on, ya old hag."
"I'm not moving," Abigail states in a huff.
"Since there's a snowball's chance in Hell that Ah'm about ta let ya go so ya'll can go an' get more men to try an' catch me, ya'll are comin' with us," Audrey tells her and then levels her weapon at the woman's head. "That's o' course if ya'll wanna live. At this range, there's no way Ah can miss and Ah can tell ya, ya'll's funeral won't be havin' an open casket. Just like ya'll's precious husband."
"How dare you," Abigail snarls.
"Come, there is no more time for this dilly dallying," V states as he reaches down and drags Abigail to her feet. "Now, you can put your shoes on or go without, but you will be coming with us."
Abigail goes to yank her arm free but discovers that she can't so much as budge him no matter how hard she tries. She tries to take a swing at him with her free hand and quickly finds it trapped in his iron like grasp. She really starts to struggle and attempts to kick him while she begins to scream at the top of her lungs, never really noticing that they're starting to move despite her temper tantrum.
By the time she runs out of steam and sags against the strong hands holding onto her, she realizes they're moving away from the train station. She attempts to break free again, but she doesn't have the strength to continue fighting for long. While her figure is slim, she has spent the past few decades running the stables and seeking her own pleasures, not training to fight off a crazed superman and an escaped slave.
"What should we do about him?" she hears the man ask and she finally takes a look around them.
"Leave 'im," Audrey replies and Abigail can see the man who had run away trapped under one of the stun nets. "There are alarms set on these thangs ta let tha handlers know that they've caught somethin'. Someone'll be along eventually ta see what they've got."
"And when they do, they'll come after you," Abigail growls as she attempts to pull away in hopes the man will have tired a bit. "I have the best trained men at my beck and call and you two don't stand a chance."
"Put a sock in it, ya old hag," Audrey snaps impatiently as she throws the modified shoes at Abigail and then eyes the net in front of her. "If we move tha net, they'll know we've been in here."
"Then what do you suggest?" he inquires with a tilt of his head as he loosens his hold on Abigail so that she can put her shoes on.
"We either go another way that could also be booby trapped or we try an' jump that thang," Audrey answers. "Either way, this is gonna be a major pain in tha ass."
"This is the most direct way of getting there," he tells her as he quickly calculates their chances of getting there on time.
"What about going street side?" Audrey suggests, adjusting her hold on her things. "Curfew isn't in effect for a couple more hours."
"I doubt our 'guest' would go quietly," he points out with a shake of his head. "It's best not to risk it."
"Ah guess ya're right," she sighs as she stares at the dilemma before them. "So what do ya suggest we do?"
He doesn't answer, but instead moves closer to the net, carefully examining it. He paces it's length only once before returning to the women and finds Audrey pinning Abigail to the ground so she can force the shoes onto the older woman's feet. He doesn't question it, but instead points towards an end of the net farthest from them.
"We'll jump over the net there," he instructs, pointing as Audrey gets up and then he pulls Abigail to her feet. "I want you to go first, then our 'guest' and then I will go last."
"I'm not jumping over anything," Abigail huffs, crossing her arms over her chest and raising her chin in defiance.
"That will not be a problem," he purrs dangerously and Audrey smirks as she chuckles to herself. "I'm beginning to think you're enjoying this a tad too much, Audrey."
"This from tha man who talked meh inta helpin' him make poison quiches for one o' a Percy's partays?" Audrey snorts.
"Touche´," he replies with a nod as he reaches for Abigail.
"You two were responsible for that food poisoning disaster?" Abigail hisses as she jerks out of his reach. "Do you have any idea the mess you made? How many contacts we lost because of those damn quiches?"
"As a matter of fact, I do," he replies, his delight very evident in his voice.
"Why you...," Abigail snarls as she launches herself at him, her fingers curled like talons.
He catches her before she can even blink and then easily drags the kicking and screaming woman over to where Audrey is waiting. Audrey just rolls her eyes and shakes her head before taking a running leap over the net, easily clearing it. She turns and watches as he lifts Abigail up and heaves her over the net as if she weighs no more than a rag doll.
No sooner does Abigail have her feet under her then she makes a break for it. Unfortunately for her, Audrey's waiting for her to try something stupid and reaches out and grabs the other woman by her carefully coiffed hair. Abigail shrieks in pain and outrage as she's dragged back several steps and the only reason she doesn't go down on her arse is because of Audrey's hold on her tresses.
"You'll pay for that, slave," Abigail growls after Audrey finally releases her.
"That reminds meh," Audrey muses as she starts to frisk Abigail's pockets.
"Get your hands off of me, you little hussy!" Abigail yells as she tries to swat Audrey's hands away, only to be stopped by V.
"That's pretty rich comin' from a woman who usually wears a leather bustier, spiked heel thigh high boots an' carries around a ridin' crop," Audrey chuckles as she sticks her hand into one of Abigail's pockets. "Ah, there it is."
"How did you know...?" Abigail sputters until she sees what Audrey has in her hands. "Give that back!"
"Just as soon as Ah'm done with it," Audrey assures her as she walks away and opens the copy of her ownership papers up. "Well what do ya know, these actually are for meh. Oops!"
Audrey 'accidentally' allows the papers to slip through her fingers and casually watches them as they land right on the still sparking stun net. Within moments, an arc of electricity hits the papers causing them to go up in flames and with a smirk firmly planted on her face, Audrey turns to look at Abigail. The look on Abigail's face is priceless as shock and anger wage war on her face for several seconds before anger wins.
With a shriek of outrage, Abigail launches herself at Audrey only to be brought up short by V's hand grabbing the back of her jacket. Abigail fights for all she's worth until she feels a knife pressed against her throat and sees the gun aimed right between her eyes. She stands perfectly still, breathing heavily and glaring at Audrey for several long moments until the other woman slowly lowers her weapon and then walks past, not bothering to spare her another glance.
Author's Notes 2: A bit of a strange place to leave it, but this was getting a bit long. As always, please leave a review.