Post by Russet Bruin on Dec 27, 2021 1:55:23 GMT -5
"Yeah, yeah, fuck off Bee. Mine jammed, had to improvise!" She rolled her eyes, despite appreciating the assistance. She had appearances to maintain after all.
In any case, Bianca's distraction worked well enough in her favor. She made a mad dash for the bullpup, and once her hands were firmly on it, opened fire on the jackass who thought fucking with Garrick's best fixers was a smart idea. Nothing short of suicidal.
By the time she got close enough to shoot past his cover again, the fight was over. Irritating as she was, she couldn't deny Bianca's brutal efficiency and skill. His arm was fucked, he wasn't going anywhere.
"Fuckin' idiot. Should've paid up. How stupid do you have to be to cross us?" She grinned, cackling to herself in spite of her own injuries. Bianca was pretending to be fine to preserve the image of an untouchable warrior; Russet didn't bother- bloodied and battered, she wore a psychotic veil of confidence that didn't give a shit how badly she was hurt. Aura or not, she was going to fight like hell.
"Just hurry up," she called after her partner, as she was left alone with their quarry. She wandered off, to the other side of the foyer, and Russet leaned over the man in triumph, a wide grin on her face. "Not so big now, eh, buddy? You look like dogshit. Smell worse. And you fight even worse than that. The boss is going to have a fun time breaking you over this one, stupid." Taunting him was fun. She reached into her pocket for her prized burner Scroll, flicking over to Garrick's number, and waving it in his face.
Obviously, she wasn't actually going to call him. No sense wasting his time with some small fry shit like this.
But he made a grave error, right then.
Fearing for his life, he swatted the Scroll out of her hand.
The Scroll that Garrick had given her. Trusted her with. It didn't matter that it was just a cheap, shitty, burner that everyone in the band had in case of emergencies. Didn't matter that it was pretty easily replaceable. Didn't matter that there was nothing inherently special about it.
It was hers. From him.
And she could only stare, slack-jawed, as it sailed out of her hand, hitting the hardwood with a clatter. She knew what shattered glass sounded like.
"P-please! Don't call him, I-I'll get your mon-"
"Fuck your money." She grit her teeth, a nasty snarl forming on her face, as she roughly grabbed the man's wounded arm. Remorseless, she slammed it hard onto the ground, evoking a loud cry of pain, but before he could crawl away, her foot came down, right on the stab wound. It snapped, after a few stomps- not too dissimilar from her broken Scroll, which only prompted her towards more violence.
With a heavy steel-toed boot, she clubbed him in the head like she was kicking a football, before turning the bullpup on him, pressing the barrel against his forehead. "Give me one damn reason not to end your worthless fuckin' life, you useless, pathetic, stupid-ass piece of shit! Pick it up!"
"W-wha-"
"My Scroll, fuckface, my Scroll! Pick it up, or I'm painting your goddamn floor!" Terrified, and ashamedly defenseless, he crawled towards the Scroll with his good arm, bleeding from the lump on his head, quickly swelling his eye shut. She didn't let him get far, though, before stomping down on his good hand too, until she was satisfied his fingers were broken. "I said pick it up!"
Fighting through the pain, he gathered the bulk of the Scroll, along with the few chips of shattered glass lying beside it on the ground, and held them up like a strange peace offering. Russet took the Scroll from him, giving it a pained look, as tears welled up in her eyes. She glanced back down at his hands, still holding the bits of glass from the screen. "Eat it."
"What the fu-"
"Eat the fucking glass! Eat the fucking glass, you dumb bitch! Eat it!" At that point, she wasn't so much talking to him, as screaming, spit flying out with every word.
Unfortunately (or, perhaps not, from the man's perspective), Bianca's footsteps were approaching, and Russet stiffened up, though the fruits of her labor were clear to see, if Bianca took even a moment to look- his head was all kinds of fucked up from being used like a soccer ball, and both of his arms were newly broken. Not to mention the fact that the potato girl wasn't even bothering to hide the fury in her eyes, and the tears streaming down her cheeks.
With a final swing of the bullpup, she decided to cut her losses, and just knock his teeth in instead, before grabbing his more-broken arm, and dragging him towards the car. As much as she'd have rather stayed and paid him back for his grave offense, this was still a job.
She could at least be satisfied, knowing that Garrick wasn't going to let this fucker get away. And he was much more creative than she was...
She was dead silent as they reached the car, and upon hoisting him up into the trunk, skipped any banter, and just sat in the driver's seat, cradling her Scroll in her hands for a moment.
Bianca's voice reached her, and she glanced over, a rude glare on her face. "Yeah. Whatever."
She watched as Bianca pulled out her own Scroll to message the boss, and couldn't help but feel a twinge of envy. It was a bit childish, maybe, but she couldn't help but feel angry that something so precious to her had been torn away just like that. She didn't have much, to start with- a shitty revolver made of broken parts, a couple sets of clothes, and a bedroll. Whatever accommodations the band offered her when she was working, or whatever van she could lift for the night.
And her cheap, standard-issue, burner Scroll.
Her direct line to the most important man in the world.
Gone.
She sniffed, and started the engine, ripping out of the drive with a squeal of hot rubber.
Unusually quiet, she was just focusing on driving for once, not even bothering to crack a joke about Bianca's spear being awfully close to her face or anything. Finish the mission, go home.
And unload a few magazines into a wall or something.
The rest of the job was easy, if nothing else went sideways- with some alterations, of course, since taking a hostage wasn't initially going to be part of the plan. Pull up behind a diner a few blocks away from the drop zone. Switch out the hot wheels for a clean ride, move him over, and then make the delivery.
Then walk back to the original car, and dump it.
Simple enough.
WC: 1172 // TWC: 6638