((Pardon the language-- which is censored, but still-- but these are both characters who probably do curse a lot when in such a situation.
Dramatis Personae (Infinity server):
Jessica Knox, aka Miss Nox, Dark/Dark Scrapper
Frank Roslin, aka the Abhorrent, SS/Inv Brute
Both previously featured in Can't Stay Away, another short story.))
It's dangerous enough when a hero and a villain become lovers in secret-- but what happens when they meet each other unexpectedly, in a place like Siren's Call?
----------
Jessica Knox, more commonly known as Miss Nox among heroes, ducked as the lamp shattered on the wall right where her head had been.
She turned briefly, looking at the scratches left on the already battered and peeling wallpaper, then at the remnants of the cheap polyresin decoration, and then at the one who had thrown it at her. His face had taken on a ruddy color-- she knew that was never good. But damnit, she was not going to back down, she was going to stand her ground in this. She had her reasons, and she'd defend them come Hell or high water.
"Do you have any idea how much you humiliated me?!" roared the man before her. Frank Roslin, also called Abhorrent. A villain, a Brute by classification.
She felt her face burn, and knew that her cheeks had turned an unflattering dull pink in her own state of heightened emotion. Lips tightening, eyes narrowing to glittering slits behind her glasses. Her hands curled into fists at her sides, tendrils of negative energy starting to coil around them as she glared back at her oversized lover in the midst of their latest argument. One concerning an unexpected encounter in Siren's Call, that had put her between a rock and a hard place.
"How the f*** was I supposed to know you were in Siren's, much less that you'd be the damned bounty transmitted to us?!" she yelled back. Luckily there was no one else in this abandoned building in Bloody Bay to overhear them...to the best of her knowledge. "Or that my team would decide that they wanted to hunt you down?!"
"You didn't have to f***ing help them!"
Her tone turned scathingly sarcastic. Another form of self-defense... "Oh, right. What should I have told them? 'Gee, sorry guys, I can't go with you after all. You're wanting to hunt down Abhorrent, and he's kind of my boyfriend. Hee hee, oops!'" She snorted in derision.
"So naturally, that meant you had to go after me yourself." He was no stranger to that same sarcasm.
"Yes, as a matter of fact, it did. Because if I had to team with them to keep them from turning on me for being a traitor, I'd be damned if I was going to let anyone else be the one to land that last blow." Her face still burned, and her whole petite frame shook with her anger, the dark energy still curling around her forearms in their own ominous fashion.
"Why, so you'd have f***ing bragging rights? You were the one to beat down the infamous Abhorrent?" He sneered at her, face still flushed. She knew he was nanoseconds away from unleashing his full anger on her.
"Because I couldn't f***ing bear the thought of someone else bragging about doing that! Because I couldn't stand the idea of someone else standing over you, because I didn't want anyone else considering you just another notch on their defeat list! Because ever since we met, I haven't f***ing stopped worrying that someday, it'll be your last, because of some a**hole who thinks his Hero Corps badge entitles him to do anything the hell he wants is long as he brings in a villain, or that someone here in the Isles will decide taking you out will make him look better to f***ing Arachnos, or-- or-- just-- anything that would mean I'd never see you again!" She spat back, finally detaching herself from the wall to move toward him, entire body tensed. Even if it meant she had to crane her neck back further to meet his gaze, she was not going to cower against the wall in defense of her actions.
"Is that it? You don't think I can take care of myself? You think you have to protect me? Is that right? What is this, some kind of grand plan to make me a hero? You knew what you were getting into and now you're trying to justify what you did in Siren's Call? Why the f*** do you think you can justify being the one in your whole team to defeat me?! Why do you think you have the right to be the only one to do that, and f***ing humiliate me like that?! What gives you the right to assume I can't protect myself?!"
Jessica lost it, then. Angry tears welled up in her eyes-- which made her rage only increase. She hated the way she cried when she got this angry. "Because I f***ing love you!" she shrieked back at him, the tears slipping down her cheeks.
He went silent. She couldn't read his face-- he'd slipped behind that 'invulnerable' mask, as she called it. Right then, she couldn't bear it. She turned away from him, and moved quickly for the door, snatching up her boots and cape as she went.
"Jess--" she heard him say behind her, but it was too late; she'd already pulled that familiar, concealing cloud of negative energy about herself, that obscured her from his sight as she flew down the stairs and out the door. Heading for the Hero base in the Bay, to take that ride back to Skyway City.
The Longbow pilot looked askance at her when she appeared, nose and cheeks a blotchy pink, eyes reddened as she wiped at her nose with one glove, but she didn't speak to him, nor to anyone. She boarded the copter in silence, staring stonily out the window as it took off from the base.
((Pardon the language-- which is censored, but still-- but these are both characters who probably do curse a lot when in such a situation.
Dramatis Personae (Infinity server):
Jessica Knox, aka Miss Nox, Dark/Dark Scrapper
Frank Roslin, aka the Abhorrent, SS/Inv Brute
Both previously featured in Can't Stay Away, another short story.))
It's dangerous enough when a hero and a villain become lovers in secret-- but what happens when they meet each other unexpectedly, in a place like Siren's Call?
----------
Jessica Knox, more commonly known as Miss Nox among heroes, ducked as the lamp shattered on the wall right where her head had been.
She turned briefly, looking at the scratches left on the already battered and peeling wallpaper, then at the remnants of the cheap polyresin decoration, and then at the one who had thrown it at her. His face had taken on a ruddy color-- she knew that was never good. But damnit, she was not going to back down, she was going to stand her ground in this. She had her reasons, and she'd defend them come Hell or high water.
"Do you have any idea how much you humiliated me?!" roared the man before her. Frank Roslin, also called Abhorrent. A villain, a Brute by classification.
She felt her face burn, and knew that her cheeks had turned an unflattering dull pink in her own state of heightened emotion. Lips tightening, eyes narrowing to glittering slits behind her glasses. Her hands curled into fists at her sides, tendrils of negative energy starting to coil around them as she glared back at her oversized lover in the midst of their latest argument. One concerning an unexpected encounter in Siren's Call, that had put her between a rock and a hard place.
"How the f*** was I supposed to know you were in Siren's, much less that you'd be the damned bounty transmitted to us?!" she yelled back. Luckily there was no one else in this abandoned building in Bloody Bay to overhear them...to the best of her knowledge. "Or that my team would decide that they wanted to hunt you down?!"
"You didn't have to f***ing help them!"
Her tone turned scathingly sarcastic. Another form of self-defense... "Oh, right. What should I have told them? 'Gee, sorry guys, I can't go with you after all. You're wanting to hunt down Abhorrent, and he's kind of my boyfriend. Hee hee, oops!'" She snorted in derision.
"So naturally, that meant you had to go after me yourself." He was no stranger to that same sarcasm.
"Yes, as a matter of fact, it did. Because if I had to team with them to keep them from turning on me for being a traitor, I'd be damned if I was going to let anyone else be the one to land that last blow." Her face still burned, and her whole petite frame shook with her anger, the dark energy still curling around her forearms in their own ominous fashion.
"Why, so you'd have f***ing bragging rights? You were the one to beat down the infamous Abhorrent?" He sneered at her, face still flushed. She knew he was nanoseconds away from unleashing his full anger on her.
"Because I couldn't f***ing bear the thought of someone else bragging about doing that! Because I couldn't stand the idea of someone else standing over you, because I didn't want anyone else considering you just another notch on their defeat list! Because ever since we met, I haven't f***ing stopped worrying that someday, it'll be your last, because of some a**hole who thinks his Hero Corps badge entitles him to do anything the hell he wants is long as he brings in a villain, or that someone here in the Isles will decide taking you out will make him look better to f***ing Arachnos, or-- or-- just-- anything that would mean I'd never see you again!" She spat back, finally detaching herself from the wall to move toward him, entire body tensed. Even if it meant she had to crane her neck back further to meet his gaze, she was not going to cower against the wall in defense of her actions.
"Is that it? You don't think I can take care of myself? You think you have to protect me? Is that right? What is this, some kind of grand plan to make me a hero? You knew what you were getting into and now you're trying to justify what you did in Siren's Call? Why the f*** do you think you can justify being the one in your whole team to defeat me?! Why do you think you have the right to be the only one to do that, and f***ing humiliate me like that?! What gives you the right to assume I can't protect myself?!"
Jessica lost it, then. Angry tears welled up in her eyes-- which made her rage only increase. She hated the way she cried when she got this angry. "Because I f***ing love you!" she shrieked back at him, the tears slipping down her cheeks.
He went silent. She couldn't read his face-- he'd slipped behind that 'invulnerable' mask, as she called it. Right then, she couldn't bear it. She turned away from him, and moved quickly for the door, snatching up her boots and cape as she went.
"Jess--" she heard him say behind her, but it was too late; she'd already pulled that familiar, concealing cloud of negative energy about herself, that obscured her from his sight as she flew down the stairs and out the door. Heading for the Hero base in the Bay, to take that ride back to Skyway City.
The Longbow pilot looked askance at her when she appeared, nose and cheeks a blotchy pink, eyes reddened as she wiped at her nose with one glove, but she didn't speak to him, nor to anyone. She boarded the copter in silence, staring stonily out the window as it took off from the base.