The Guinea Pig Incident

They joined the crowds gathering around the various small clubs and bars still open. Walking through them like they owned the place, making it obvious that they should not be messed with, and, whenever the opportunity presented itself, picked a pocket. By the time they arrived at the bar, a run down looking place called nothing more than Head - a picture of a foamy beer beneath the name - they had managed to gain almost two hundred in cash from various wallets and purses.

Opening the door, Alyx went in first and paused in the doorway, her eyes adjusting to the darkened interior. Hard rock music wafted out of the speakers, loud enough to hear, but not so loud one was required to shout to have a conversation. The bar lined the left-hand wall, with tables scattered about throughout the center of the room. To the right were several pool tables, all currently in use and in the back were booths hidden in the darkness. Darien set a hand on her back and directed her to the rear of the room where, with the appearance of a 20 dollar bill, the weasely little guy sitting alone nursing his beer vanished, vacating their chosen spot. They sat down, sliding back until deep in the shadows.

A waitress, looking much the worse for wear, appeared and took their orders. Alyx slipped out of the duster and tossed it to one side. She sank back into the cracked cushions of the booth, her legs coming up so that she sat cross-legged, a sudden wave of exhaustion overtaking her. She leaned her head against Darien’s shoulder, the scent of leather pleasant compared to the cigarette smoke thickly oozing through the interior of this place. She debated wasting the energy it would require to remove it and chose not to; it wasn’t quite worth the effort. She allowed her eyes to drift shut and sighed when one of his hands settled on her thigh.

“Fawkesy? Darien Fawkes?” A strange voice intruded on her relaxation. “Long time no see, my man.”

“Frankie, that it has been. Good to see you,” Darien rumbled out, torn between the pleasure of running into the man and irritation of having his plans interrupted.

“Who’s the friend?” Frankie asked and Alyx opened her eyes to look up at the man. He sucked in a breath, and she realized she’d forgotten to put on her sunglasses, unlike Darien.

“You can call me Silver, hon. It’s kinda my trademark and specialty,” she answered with a soft drawl to her voice.

Darien grinned and tried not to laugh. Leave it to her to cover in a way that both surprised and worked to their benefit. Frankie was one of the better fences around town and was part of the reason he’d come here, though he hadn’t planned on actually running into him. He’d just been hoping to find out if he hanging about and still in business. It was certainly looking like he was. “Frankie, you still handling transactions?”

“That depends - have you really gone narc like the rumors say, or do you have some legit business?” The question was valid, as both Darien and Alyx knew, and neither took offense at it.

*Give him a sample,* Alyx suggested, and Darien agreed.

He opened the bag without removing it from his interior pocket, making it look as casual as possible, and scattered a half dozen assorted stones on the table. Frankie had a jeweler’s loupe out in a heartbeat and was carefully examining the stones in the poor lighting of the bar. He let out a low whistle of appreciation. “How much we looking at?”

Darien shrugged. “Enough for me to retire if I wanted to.” He made it seem like it was no big deal, like he did this kind of thing all the time.

Replacing the loupe in his pocket, Frankie slid all the stones back across the table, where Alyx began to idly play with them. “I’m impressed, Fawkes. I can put out some feelers, but if you’re looking to move the whole lot at once, it won’t be easy.”

Darien shook his head. “No hurry. Rather get the best price than rush to sell it all.”

Frankie nodded. “I must say, Fawkes, you’ve come up in the world.” He got to his feet and stepped away from the table. “I’ll see what I can do. Stop back in a couple days.” He turned and walked away, allowing the waitress, who’d been waiting in the shadows, to approach. She’d learned a long time ago to wait until such business was concluded or until she was told to come over. Alyx tosher her some cash and sipped at her drink once the waitress had wandered away. Picking up the gemstones, she poured them from one hand to another for a couple minutes then handed them back to Darien, who returned them to the silk pouch and retied the bag. Shifting, he returned his hand to her thigh and began to draw random shapes on the muscle, slowly making his way higher up until he was brushing his finger across her crotch, earning a soft moan.

Taking a long drink of his beer, he turned his head to look at her, leaning back comfortably with her eyes half closed, watching him.

“Old ‘friend’ of yours?” she asked quietly, trying like hell to ignore this new round of teasing.

“You could say that.” Moving his hand, he began to undo the lacing of her pants, which was thankfully on the same side he was. He kept his look bland - no need to broadcast his intentions to the entire room. “I don’t trust him, but it was the easiest way to get him to leave. Stuff of this quality is, or at least was, out of his range. He’s a decent fence, but we’ll need someone special for this stuff.”

Alyx’s reply was far more a groan than anything intelligible. He’d succeeded in getting the lacing loose enough to slip his hand inside the pants and was currently teasing her clit with light strokes.

“Damn it, you trying to drive me nuts?” she hissed at him. Shakily, she raised her drink and gulped a large portion down.

Darien chuckled and leaned in closer to her, his lips brushing along her ear. “Just a minor distraction,” he whispered and felt her jump in reaction.

“Christ, Dare. This is cruel.” She tipped over against him again, trying to fight him, but not really wanting to. Considering she’d done her best to get him to wreck the car, this was a more than appropriate way to get even.

“Just sit back and enjoy it.” His voice was soft, but he knew she heard him; her soft moan told him that. He slid his hand further down, under the thin piece of silk she was wearing causing her to shift to grant him better access. She obviously wasn’t the least bit worried about modesty, but then again neither was he. Hell, in this bar he’d seen whores giving head right next to the pool table - to the guy he was playing against. This, what they were currently doing, was nothing.

When she leaned closer to him, her arm snaking under his jacket to lift up his shirt and curl about his back, he knew she was his and that there was no way she was going to stop him. “Ah, hell,” she muttered as his hand moved lower still, one finger sliding effortlessly inside of her.

Darien chuckled and kissed her temple. This was not going to take very long at all. She was so wet and so ready that it was little wonder she’d all but attacked him on the street earlier. “What are you waiting for?” he asked her as he began to slowly, very slowly slide in and out of her. All she did was bite her lip and dig her nails into his back. He changed tactics then, by applying pressure internally and shifting so that his thumb now worked on her clit at the same time. That’s when she shocked the hell out of him, literally. That hand on his back was suddenly doing an imitation of a lightning strike, and everything that was running through her head was in his. If he could have pulled away he would have, but he was as frozen in place by the happenstance as she was.

Alyx wasn’t sure what the hell was happening, but didn’t like it a whole hell of a lot. Or wouldn’t have except for the fact that he was doing all the right things to finally make her come. Shocking him had been completely unplanned, and hurt her nearly as much as it had him, but by then she was so caught up in her orgasm that there was little she could do about it. Somehow, he managed not to scream when she burned his back. He got his lips over hers to swallow the scream of release that wanted, tried to escape past her lips, but that she turned into a long deep groan. With his free hand, he caressed her face, still kissing her slowly as she relaxed in his hold.

*Sorry,* she mumbled, just barely able to articulate anything.

“Mmmm, just don’t make a habit of it.” He removed his hand after a few more strokes in her and put it to his lips, licking off the moisture there, enjoying the familiar taste that was her, though the Quicksilver was oddly more noticeable than usual. Her hand was gently running over the burn, distracting him from the pain. She moved his hand away from his lips, kissing the palm softly, and then curled up against him much to his surprise.

Her head resting against his chest, she listened to the steady beating of his heart and tried to get her shields back up. She wasn’t sure what was going on, but, while on the plus side she wasn’t horny as hell anymore, on the down side she seemed to have lost momentary control and was having major difficulty getting it back. She closed her eyes and steadied her breathing by using his, which she could feel like a metronome, as a template. She slowed her heart rate, doing all the right things, but only achieving partial success.

“Alyx, you okay?” Darien ran a hand across her back, resisting the urge to untie the laces. He was beginning to suspect something was wrong, very wrong.

Alyx lifted her head then, her eyes still closed, and tried to focus in on a particular group of minds in the room that had caught her attention. “Ah, shit. We have trouble. Quicksilver the stones and give them to me, but act natural.” Darien opened his mouth to complain, but she silenced him. “Your ‘friend’ Frankie has decided he wants the jewels for himself and has talked some muscle in to helping him.”

Darien snarled softly, but did as she asked. Reaching into the pocket, he withdrew the sack and let the Quicksilver flow across it. Once coated, he felt it removed from his grasp and forced himself not to turn and look for it. He lifted his bottle of beer and drank, staring ot tht the room, trying to find Frankie and his friends through the dim, smoke-filled lighting. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Alyx lean over to grab her duster and wiggle into it. Then she laced the pants and retied them. All the while he was wondering what she’d done with the gemstones.

*We’ll come back for them later. I hope you’re ready f fig fight.*

He grunted. A fight sounded like fun about now. That’s when Frankie appeared, with three hulking brutes behind him.

“This’ll go much easier if you cooperate, Fawkes. Just hand them over and we’ll let you walk out of here.”

Alyx and Darien looked at each other for a second. The exigency of the situation had helped her regain momentary control, but she had kept a light connection between them so they could coordinate their attack. When he turned back to Frankie and said, “No,” Alyx was more than ready to make her move. The table, which had been bolted to the floor, flew up and connected solidly with Frankie, knocking all four to the floor with the table settling atop them.

With a snarl of rage and several rather inventive curses, they shoved the table off and looked up to see both Darien and Alyx standing over them. Darien had removed his glasses so that Frankie could see that Alyx was not the only one with uniquely colored eyes. “My, my, how did that happen?” Darien wondered, without a hint of amusement in hiice.ice.

The foursome got to their feet and, after a second to decide that one scrawny ex-thief and his jail-bait girlfriend were no match for ex-wrestlers turned paid muscle, they went for them with little style and less finesse.

Alyx wasted no time and took the first one down with a quick punch to his kidney that would probably require a trip to the hospital. Darien was a bit more subtle, kicking his first one in the balls hard enough to make him lose the gallon of beer he had drunk that night as he doubled over in pain, asingsing a straight-out punch to the nose to get the attention of the second one. The guy was tough, and didn’t do more than smile as the blood began to pour down his face. Alyx gave Darien an assist with a neat side kick that collapsed the goon’s knee, knocking him off balance. Darien followed up with a gorgeous spin kick that Alyx had been trying to teach him forever; it caught the muscle in the side of head, knocking him to the floor at Alyx’s feet where he lay unmoving.

Frankie stood there, stunned. Darien took two steps forward and said, “Boo!” right in his face. Frankie paled and ran.

A shout of, “Fawkes!” from across the room got their attention. Their heads snapped up as one, and they focused on Bobby with four other agents right behind him. “Don’t move and don’t go see-through.”

“Fool,” Alyx snarled, and suddenly Bobby and his buddies were sliding backwards, back out the door that they had just come in, to land in the street. The door slammed shut with a loud crash, the glass shattering. “Time to go.”

“The jewels…” Darien was very reluctant to leave the prize behind, his reward for the night’s adventure.

“Safe. I promise you. We’ll come back for them.” Alyx grabbed his wrist and began dragging him towards the back, where the restrooms and phones were shoved in a dank corner of the building. There was also a filthy window back here that looked out over the tiny alleyway between the two buildings. The thing was covered in bars, so Alyx simply shoved it out, taking a good portion of the wall with it unintentionally, her control deteriorating by the moment.

“Fuck girl, kinda overkill don’t you think?” His unhappiness with her method did not stop him from following her out the newly created exit and down the alley towards freedom.

“Sorry, love. Bit of a headache.” She turned the first corner, heading away from the bar and hoping to lose themselves in the crowds until they found a car to steal and get the hell out of dodge.

“Headache?” He set a hand on her shoulder and stopped her, when she turned about to face him he just about freaked, Stage Five or not. She was no longer just leaking Quicksilver into her eyes from the tear ducts. It was now running down her face and combg wig with blood, making her face a strange red and silver streaked mask. He knew this was not something that happened to him; it had to be unique to her and, from the looks of things, there was even more wrong. He brushed away the blood-laden tears and pulled her closer. “Tell me.”

“My control is a little… off right now, and I’m not feeling so good,” Alyx admitted. Her head was killing her and, no matter what she tried, she could not get her shields to come back up with any reliability. It was just enough to keep her from being submerged by it all, but not enough to keep it from hurting. She had to wonder what had happened to the euphoria of earlier, the lovely feeling of riding the waves of the minds about her. The joy of just letting herself fall and be carried along without a care in the world.

“Alyx!” he shouted at her as she zoned out completely. He had a choice: leave her and make his own way out of here and to freedom, or do something to help her before Bocaugcaught up to them. With a sigh, he knew he wouldn’t leave her behind, so he started checking out the area for a car to hot-wire. He made his choice and began to lead Alyx toward the vehicle when Bobby’s van and several other Agency cars came tearing down the street headed straight for them. “Shit.” He let the Quicksilver flow over both of them, not knowif shf she was even capable of controlling hers right now. *Come on, girl. Some help would be nice.*

Alyx snapped back to herself, the Quicksilver coming fast now that she was paying attention again. “Crap,” she muttered. One of the cars suddenly flung itself sideways to crash into a light pole, which fell over atop it, crushing the roof of the car. Another suddenolleolled, making its way down the street in a tumble that only seemed to speed up and ended only when it impacted a several cars parked on one of those corner lots. By some miracle, there was no explosion.

Darien grabbed her hand and got them running down the street, even as the third Agency vehicle seemed to decide it wanted to drive backwards trying to follow them. Alyx waved a hand at it and the rear end spun out and collided with a fire hydrant, knocking it loose and fountaining water easily 20 feet into the air. Unfortunately, the spray, carried on the light breeze, landed atop them and coated the Quicksilver with a layer of frost and ice, making them annoyingly visible for the moment. “Shit, Alyx. Crappy move there.”

“Like to see you do better, smartass,” she snapped, stepping away and rounding on him. “Bloody fool, if it weren’t for me…” She stopped and spun about, red feathered dart sticking out of her back, to see Bobby standing there with a tranquilizer gun in his hands. He wasn’t even wearing thermals. “No fair,” she whined. “I wasn’t done playing yet.” Alyx went to her knees, the world spinning about her and the Quicksilver flaking away to fall about her almost in slow motion.

Bobby stepped closer to her, ignoring the water falling about them and dampening their clothes. He kept the gun trained on Darien, but was more concerned about Alyx. She could feel it, could hear the quiet murmur of his thoughts in her mind. “Easy kid. Don’t fight it.” He set a gentle hand on her back in comfort, then kept her from hitting her headn hen her strength gave out and she collapsed with a whimper.

“Hobbsey, what’s shaking, my man?” Darien took a step backwards, allowing the frost coated Quicksilver to fall away. He could get Alyx later and they could take off. With those stones, money would never be an issue again.

“Don’t even think about it, Fawkes. You are going in to see the Keep.” Bobby checked Alyx’s pulse and then got to his feet, pulling out the cuffs as he did so. “You gonna behave, or do I hafta send you to sleepy land as well?”

“Well, since I know you haven’t reloaded, I guess I’m going to have to take curtain number three.” He spun about, intending to take off, only to feel a sharp pain dead center in his chest. Looking down, he saw the red-feathered end of tranq dart sitting there. Raising his head, he saw Claire standing ten feet in front of him, lowering the gun.

“I’m guessing you got the booby prize, then,” Claire said to him, even as the world began to fade around him.

At least she was nice enough to catch him as his legs gave out.