I know this took a while. I'm moving at the end of the month and besides work, I had a lot of things on my plate regarding it. Making lists on what to take and what not, whom to give my new address to, buying new furniture etc. And when I move, I will be without internet for two or three weeks -.-
Richard73610: VR headsets are easy to use, but doing more intricate things take a bit longer. It depends on the software you use. Games are really just using the sticks correctly
But now, enjoy :)
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters that appeared in the show.
"Robert, you here?" Aaron called out as he opened the door, only to come face to face with the a gun pointing at him. "Jesus Christ!"
"Took you long enough to return." Robert said, putting the gun on the table, keeping it in easy reach.
"Did I miss something?" Aaron pointed at the firearm.
"I got a visit shortly after you left." Robert explained. "Kenta came here."
"Kenta?" Aaron wondered. "I thought he had left the organization, what is he doing here?"
"Apparently, he's looking for John Smith too." Robert chuckled. "Seems that John killed someone he shouldn't have."
"Speaking of John." Aaron said and handed Robert the piece of paper.
"What is there?" Robert asked, seeing an address written on it.
"John Smith will be there the day after tomorrow." Aaron told him.
"That building is empty." Robert said after checking the address on his phone. "What would he be doing there."
"Some experiment." Aaron shrugged. "For some students."
"Didn't you say he wasn't a teacher?"
"He's not." Aaron replied, cursing himself for his slip up and thinking on his feet. "But one of the professors got sick or something, and John is apparently one of the other faculty staff who substitutes a class or two. And since he's not a teacher, he's doing an experiment with them."
"How am I supposed to kill him there if there are an unknown number of students around?" Robert complained. "If it's just a handful, that might be fine but I can't kill a dozen or two of them while having to fend of Smith."
"By going there early." Aaron tried to keep his calm, appalled that Robert would even think about killing innocent students just to get to his goal. "He has to set up whatever experiment he's doing before the students show up."
"Fine." Robert acquiesced.
"Well, I'm off again."Aaron said and turned around to leave.
"Why?" Robert stopped him. "You did what you needed to do, why go back?"
"Because I have to wait for the guy who I paid off so I can give him his key back." Aaron lied. "Not to mention that I met a girl there, she's a lot more fun than you are."
"Seriously?" Robert glared at him. "Fucking a girl is more important to you than revenge?"
"It's not my revenge." Aaron shrugged. "I still think that you should stop this."
"Get the fuck out!" Robert shouted and Aaron quickly obliged before Robert thought of possibly grabbing his gun.
Sighing in relief to have gotten out alive and without injury, he quickly got downstairs and drove away. A short while later, he arrived at Carmen's block and headed inside, going up the two floors to reach her apartment again. He opened the door and stepped inside, Carmen greeting him with a smile and kiss.
"So, did you relay the message?" she asked.
"Yes." Aaron allowed himself a sigh of relief. "Where's Ricardo?"
"He went back to his place shortly after you left." Carmen told him. "Care to tell me who this guy was and why his presence got you guys so tense?"
"Um, where's your roommate?" Aaron looked around. "She shouldn't hear this."
"She said that she needed to unwind, so I guess she went to the gym." Carmen shrugged. "So, who was the guy?"
"Well, he's the guy Robert wants to kill."
"What?" Carmen gasped. "What the fuck was he doing here then?"
"He gave me the coordinates where he will meet Robert." Aaron said. "And hopefully kill him."
"Given that you guys helped this Robert at first, I'm surprised that you want him to die now." Carmen mused. "Don't get me wrong, I want him to be punished for almost killing my brother, but you come over as quite indiferente over this."
"I've had a change of heart, even before he tried to kill your brother." Aaron explained.
"When exactly?" Carmen wanted to know.
"Remember the news about that accident where a family of four died?" Aaron asked.
"Si." Carmen nodded.
"Robert caused that." Aaron told her. "The husband was the target and he killed the entire family to get him."
"That's horrible!" Carmen gasped.
"It is." Aaron nodded. "I'm heading up to Ricardo and tell him. With any luck, in three days he should be able to un-dead himself."
"I'll come with you, in case he's already asleep." Carmen said and grabbed the keys to Ricardo's place.
"I think I could wake him with knocking." Aaron chuckled.
"Don't be so sure, he can sleep through a firefight." Carmen laughed and pushed him out into the hallway.
"No, that can't be true." Aaron was doubtful as they walked up the stairs.
"He did it when we were still kids." Carmen confirmed. "There were plenty of gang fights happening at night in our neighborhood and he never woke up."
"Jeez." Aaron was surprised and then did a double-take when they reached Ricardo's apartment, hearing a rhythmic hammering coming from inside. "What the hell?"
"He must have gotten himself a hooker." Carmen laughed, knowing full well what the sounds represented. "He should be careful or his wound might tear open again.
"We should come back later." Aaron said and made to turn around.
"Nah, where would be the fun in that." Carmen grinned and used her key to open the door, seeing her brother sitting on the couch and the woman bouncing on his hips, her back to him.
"Oh my god!" Aaron gasped.
"Hijo de puta!" Carmen cursed.
"What the hell?!" Sidney shrieked and scrambled to put one of the couch cushions in front of her naked body, Ricardo's body blocked by hers.
"This better be good." Ricardo grumbled. "What do you want?"
"I just wanted to tell you that the message has been delivered." Aaron said.
"Sidney, what are you doing here?" Carmen asked her roommate.
"What does it look like?" Sidney shot back. "Get out!"
"I thought you wanted to unwind."
"What do you think I'm doing here?!" Sidney yelled. "Now get the fuck out!"
"We're going, we're going." Aaron placated her and grabbed Carmen's arm to pull her out of the apartment.
"Jesus!" Sidney cursed, leaning her head back against Ricardo. "Where were we?"
"Fuck." Ricardo cursed as well.
"Right." Sidney nodded and began bouncing again.
"I'm gonna kill him." Carmen threatened as they walked down the stairs.
"Why?" Aaron asked. "Sidney is a grown woman, she can make her own choices on how to unwind."
"Because he's my brother!" Carmen said. "My brother who is a killer for hire."
"Like me?" Aaron looked at her. "But try to keep your voice down about this."
"Sorry." Carmen realized that they were still in the stairwell. "Still, I don't want her to be involved in any way in that business."
"You aren't involved either." Aaron pointed out as they entered her apartment again. "You just know about it."
"Shut up!" Carmen grumbled.
"Hey, calm down." Aaron chuckled and stepped against her back, gently kissing her neck and rubbing her sides.
"If you think sex will help here, you're wrong." Carmen said but tilted her head anyway.
"Yet I'm going for it anyway." Aaron hummed and continued kissing her neck until she turned around to kiss him. "Come on, carry me to the bed and have your way with me."
"Walk!" Carmen ordered with a laugh and pushed him towards the bedroom. "But make no mistake, I will have my way with you!"
"I will meet him in this room." Leonard said, showing it on the floor plan he had drawn. "Plenty of room and you can hide behind those boxes to avoid being seen."
"Except if he's already there and sees us all coming." Albert pointed out.
"Quite." Leonard nodded. "It's a risk we need to take."
"One question here." Penny spoke up. "What if he doesn't face you but uses a sniper rifle?"
"That's always the risk but I doubt it." Leonard shrugged.
"Why?" she asked.
"Think about it." Leonard replied. "What if someone killed your sister and you find out who did it and wanted revenge? Would you be fine with shooting the person from afar or would you want them to know who killed them and why?"
"True." Penny conceded. "But your plan is based on the idea that he wants to fight you in hand to hand combat. What if he brings a gun to shoot you?"
"That's what the steel plate is for." Leonard pointed to the sheet of metal on the table. "It will be cumbersome but I'll put it under my shirt."
"Not wearing a bodyglove?"
"No, this is not a job." he shook his head. "And I couldn't wear the plate under the bodyglove."
"Does he know how you killed his brother?" Penny wondered. "If you bested him, why would this Robert think he can best you?"
"Maybe he's a better fighter than Caspar." Leonard shrugged. "I never met him and I don't know how good he is."
"Not to mention that he doesn't seem to be in the best state of mind." Albert interjected. "Robert has made it clear to the organization that he wants to kill Leonard by asking around about him which means that he will most likely be sanctioned if Leonard gets killed outside of a job."
"Wouldn't an easier method be to wait for him to be in a job?" Penny asked.
"Of course it would be, but as dad said, Robert doesn't seem to be in the best state of mind." Leonard nodded.
"So, how do you see this ending?"
"In a perfect world?" Leonard sighed. "I can convince him to end this peacefully and we both walk away."
"And the worst case?"
"I die." he shrugged. "But if Robert is anything like Caspar, talking to him won't help."
"If you get yourself killed because you want to appeal to his better nature, I will be seriously pissed off." Penny threatened, trying not to sound as scared about losing him as she was.
"I don't intend to die, don't worry." Leonard tried levity. "But as with everything, there's always the risk of something bad happening."
They spent the rest of the day developing contingencies for anything they could think of, like Robert bringing more men, police intervening or a third party entering the fray. At some point, Leonard ended the session, realizing that either their plan was perfect or that it had so many flaws that they couldn't find any of them.
Penny and Leonard went back to the university where Leonard unlocked the faculty gym. They changed into workout clothes and did some sparring, nothing too hard to avoid any residual pain. After some more regular workout, they showered and left again, getting the dogs and going for a long walk, throwing some balls for them to let them blow off some energy.
After two more hours, they returned home, where they prepared the dinner for the dogs, Penny again doing it for Tyson to further increase her bond with the malinois. They joined Albert and watched TV, an old movie Penny didn't know while Leonard perused the jobs board, though not taking anything due to his upcoming issue.
"I'll head to bed." Albert said after the movie was over. "Don't stay up too long, we need to get up early tomorrow."
"I know." Leonard nodded. "Sleep well."
"We should turn in too then." Penny advised a few minutes after Albert had left.
"Yeah." he agreed. "You want to shower first or should I?"
"No, go ahead." Penny let him and ruffled her hand over Tyson's head. "Gives me more time to play with this fella."
"Try this one." Leonard chuckled and threw a thick, but smooth rope-looking thing at her.
"What am I going to do with that?" she asked, while Tyson, still sitting, inched closer and closer to her, his ears up in expectation.
"Tug of war." he smiled. "Hold the ends in your hand and let him bite the middle or let him take one end in his mouth and pull."
"Cool." she grinned.
"Just be careful, or he'll pull you from the couch." he winked and left for the bathroom.
"Are you that strong, boy?" he asked the dog, who tilted his head, and then she gave the whistle command for him to bite.
She realized that Leonard hadn't been kidding. Tyson bit into the end and almost pulled her from the couch, only her quick reaction saving her from tumbling. She gripped the other end hard and used her free hand to hold herself on the couch while Tyson growled and pulled at the rope, shaking his head hard as if he had a prey animal in his mouth.
Major looked up but laid back down, knowing that this particular toy was not his to use. When Tyson suddenly redoubled his efforts, Penny had to use both hands to keep hold of the toy and she heavily leaned back to equalize his surprising strength. Tyson's efforts got stronger and stronger until he was almost succeeding in pulling her from the couch. Penny quickly gave the whistle that told him to cease and he immediately stopped sitting down and looking at her.
Smiling, she grabbed a treat and threw it at him, the dog snapping it greedily out of the air. Major again looked up, as if saying that he wanted one too and Penny threw another at him, Major also not letting it touch the floor. She heard the shower stop and got up, going to the bathroom to take Leonard's place.
"I never knew a dog can be that strong." she said after entering the bathroom, seeing Leonard toweling off.
"Oh yeah." he chuckled. "Also, their bite strength is off the charts."
"How so?"
"You know those protective arm or leg sleeves that trainers use when they let dogs bite them?" he asked.
"Yes." she nodded while taking off her shirt and bra, his eyes roaming over her chest.
"I have some of them at home and they are the strongest sleeves that are being produced." Leonard told her. "Still, both of them manage to leave bite marks."
"Jesus." she gasped as she took off her underwear and stepped into the tub. "Well, come to think of it, I've seen them easily bite into thighs and throats through clothing when we escaped from that old scrapyard after my exam."
"That's why Malinois should never be owned by people who don't know much about dogs." Leonard said as he spread toothpaste on his brush. "When Malinois get bored, they can get destructive."
"How would that look?" she asked in a louder voice so he could hear her over the running water and through the shower curtain.
"He'd chew on things, destroy furniture and in the worst case, bite other animals or people." Leonard replied, equally loud. "And if the latter happened, the dog would most likely be put down by the government on the count of being too dangerous."
"I couldn't imagine them being put down." she said and finished her shower, stepping out of the tub to towel off, noticing him looking at her. "What? Did I miss something?"
"You're beautiful." he simply said and smiled. "I'm heading to bed."
"I'll join you shortly." she smiled back, feeling warm from his simple and honest compliment.
She took her toothbrush and cleaned her teeth, using mouthwash to finish up and putting on her long, loose tank top she used as a pajama top, eschewing the bottom part and just carrying it. She passed Albert's door, hearing his gentle snoring, and she wondered for a moment what would happen should he get killed during their meeting with Robert. She entered their bedroom, finding Leonard half sitting in his bed, his tablet leaning against his bent knees, perusing the jobs board and shaking his head at some of them.
"Anything interesting?" she asked and put the pajama bottom down, Leonard quickly noticing the fact that she wasn't wearing anything under her top.
"Not particularly." he shrugged.
"How does this work anyway?" she asked. "You said that this Archangel gives you access to better and better jobs."
"It's downward compatible, to use some computer language." he chuckled and turned the tablet while she joined him under his covers to see it. "Look."
"What am I seeing?"
"This is all the current, open jobs that I have access to." he explained. "You see these numbers here?"
"Yes." she nodded, seeing his finger going over several numbers above some contracts, while other numbers had no contracts under them.
"These are... access levels, for lack of a better term." he told her. "Someone new only gets access to level one, if you do a few of them, and based on how you do them, you get access to level two and then level three and so on. I set the display like this because I'm most comfortable with it."
"How long does it take to get up these levels?" she wanted to know.
"There's no set time or number of contracts." he shrugged. "It's based on how well you do your contracts, what method you use, were there witnesses or other forms of attention, how long did it take you and so on. There's a multitude of factors going into this."
"So, you're on level eight?" she saw his top contract level.
"Yes, but I have no idea if that's the highest of if there's more above them." he said. "I got my fifty million dollar contract on level eight, so it might be the highest. I doubt there's contracts that would ever pay more than that. If a contract stays unfulfilled for some time, it's often moved to lower levels."
"No contracts in the higher levels, I see." she chuckled, seeing the listing for level four and above empty. "Not that many level threes available as well."
"Yeah, but that's only in the US." he said and hit a button, the number of contracts suddenly massively increasing, even some in the higher levels becoming available, including a level seven.
"What happened?" she wondered.
"I set it to international." he chuckled. "These are all the contracts available worldwide."
"What's the level seven one?" she asked. "Can you click on it?"
"Sure." he agreed and clicked, the contract opening up.
"It's in the middle east." she realized. "Ten million dollars?"
"There are two things in abundance in the middle east." he sighed. "Money, and people wanting others dead."
"Would you take these?" she grinned.
"Only if I was in dire financial straits." he shook his head. "For one, I would stand out pretty severely in the middle east and also, killing one of those targets could possibly even start a war."
"How so?"
"In this contract, the target is a member of the royal family." he explained. "Even though this one doesn't seem to be in the public eye, killing them could cause some serious issues."
"Like?"
"Given that we don't know who placed the contract, it could lead to war if the suspicions are directed at another country." he said. "Or a civil war."
"So, if you took this contract, you really would have to make his death look like a natural one." she mused.
"Correct." he nodded. "When it comes to contracts like these, you would really have to make sure that all your is are dotted and your ts crossed. Deep dive into the background of the target to see if they have any medical condition that could be used."
"If they have any." she agreed.
"Or if they are even public." he added. "Families like those tend to keep medical issues of their members a secret for exactly that reason."
"By the way, when will I get an account like this?" she asked.
"Howard already created one for you." he replied and dug a piece of paper out of his nightstand. "Here's the login data."
"Jesus, is that my password?" she gasped, looking at the random string of numbers and letters.
"It's a randomly created one for first time use." he chuckled. "After your first login, you change it to something easier for you to remember."
"Anything to keep in mind?"
"Don't use something easy lik or one two three four five. Make it long, complicated but easy for you to remember. Use special characters like plus or minus or whatever, put in capital letters not just at the beginning and so on."
"How long is yours?"
"Thirty-two characters." he chuckled. "Seems completely random but something ingrained into my brain."
"Nice." she was impressed and took out her phone. "Do I need a special app?"
"There's a QR code on the paper." he pointed. "It will lead you to the app you need."
"It's a mobile game." she looked at him confused. "That looks similar to Candy Crush."
"Just install it." he grinned.
She did as he told and downloaded the app. For a game like this, the download size was rather large and she waited the two minutes it took to download and the further ten minutes her phone needed to install it. Once the phone was done, she opened the app but only the game started, the tutorial going on her nerves until she had finished it.
"So, what now?" she asked. "Do I play it until I get to the board?"
"No." he chuckled. "Register an account. Go to the options and register."
"Okay." she shrugged. "When choosing a password, should it be a simple one or the one for the board?"
"No, a simple one." he clarified.
"Okay." she repeated and finished the registration process. "What now?"
"Now, go to the options and press the Change Account button." he told her.
"Alright." she nodded and did as he asked, logging herself out of the game. "And now?"
"Now, choose your board login data."
"Huh." she wondered but did as he told, putting the name and password that was on the paper into the boxes and hitting login. "That's so cool!"
Instead of logging into the game, she was directed to the board that Leonard was perusing. As per his instructions, she first kept the username that was on the paper but changed the password into one that was easily more than twenty letters and contained a few names of family members along with their birthdays and with random capital letters strewn throughout.
"Everything going okay?" he asked.
"I haven't chosen a name yet." she said. "Yours is Lone Wolf, right?"
"Yes, you can choose one that might reflect your personality." he nodded. "Though I might have to change mine to Not-so-Lone Wolf anymore."
"Meh, don't, it's too cool." she waved him off. "What should I choose?"
"Something you're comfortable with." he advised. "Something you think fits you. Howard's is Lord of the Gear."
"Maybe I choose Queen Penelope." she grinned. "Would fit with my name."
"As I said, choose one that fits you because you'll keep it." he said. "Changing your name is a laborious process because you have to contact Archangel, otherwise you might lose all your progress on the board and have to start from the bottom again."
"Jeez." she was surprised. "Why is that?"
"To avoid confusion." he shrugged. "Imagine other members perusing the board and seeing Lone Wolf at level eight. Next day, I change my name to Johnny No Good or something else stupid and suddenly the other see a Johnny No Good at level eight and wonder who that person is."
"Okay, that sounds reasonable." she conceded. "So, when will the account get unlocked?"
"What do you mean, it already should be." he leaned over, looking at her screen. "Huh, maybe you need to first choose a name."
"Okay, I'll think about one after we've dealt with this Robert guy." she said and logged out, putting her phone down. "We should get some sleep, since we rise early tomorrow."
"Right." he agreed and put his tablet away before rolling over and lifting her legs up.
"What are you doing?" she smirked.
"I have a job to do tomorrow." he shrugged, and without further ado entered her, causing her to moan. "And you know about about my pre-job ritual."
"In that case, ritualize me." she grinned and invited him in.
Again, sorry about the delay. I hope that I get another chapter out before my move officially begins and I'm without internet for a while but I can't make any promises.
Review please :)
PS. Some crowd sourcing. Give suggestions for Penny's assassin ID. Maybe I'll use one of yours :D
