...it's %$#@&*#$@ Monday...
Nov. 28th, 2005 06:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lavandarlizard2Things are getting very strange at my place of employment... Strange *and* weird. O.o
Here is the final part of Shopping. It may be a while before I post again; RL is making me tense. >.< And the next part is snickering rudely, daring me to finish it.
BB - Part 094 - Shopping
C
They made me lie down when I almost went face-first off the bench. The deputy stood near the door, pad and pen in hand, making notes as he asked for my version of what happened.
It’s only been about a month since I had to give them my formal statement on the Incident, so I remembered not to offer opinions, but to just give him the facts as I saw them. The paramedic insisted on unbuttoning my shirt to check where the guy had punched me. The area right over my heart was already bluish-purple with green edges. The deputy produced a pocket camera and took several pictures of that as well as some of my face, my knees and my hands. When I stopped to think about what hurt, I concluded that I was a mess. I was also exhausted.
Using the power apparently sucks my energy reserves right down, according to how much power I call up. I did something big; I could certainly feel it, but the little kid was fine, the kidnapper was somewhat damaged, thanks to me grabbing onto him, but he sure wasn’t dead, so I couldn’t figure out where it went. Nothing had blown up, melted down or vanished. That bothered me almost as much as the whole kidnapping thing. I’d sent the power out; where the hell did it go?
Then the paramedic was swabbing my arm and reaching for a syringe. I jerked away with a rather girly shriek; had quite enough of Human drugs, thank you. He started to say something when someone outside screamed and then there was a familiar roar.
Heero must have landed.
The deputy standing on the bumper of the ambulance flattened himself against the side and I could see his wide, shocked eyes. An instant later Heero was there, looking so murderous I had to yell “I’m okay!” before he took a notion that the paramedic was hurting me.
My Wyvern blinked and some of the hellfire went out of his eyes.
“Duo...” he breathed instead, and then I was in his arms and I finally felt secure.
“I’m sorry...” I mumbled against his shoulder. “Some date.”
“Stop that,” he growled. “Tell me what happened. The parking lot is filled with sheriff’s cars; there’s a helicopter overhead and two TV trucks are setting up.”
I pulled back to gape at him. “Oh, you have *got* to be kidding!”
“He’s not kidding,” said the deputy as he peered over the ambulance door. “Geez, what a mess.”
“I’m taking you home,” Heero declared.
“Heero...”
“I’m sorry,” said the deputy, once more back with us professionally. “I need to finish getting his statement.”
Heero growled.
I felt better just having him here. “Just let me finish. I just want to get it over with and go take care of...” I motioned to my ‘war wounds’.
He gave me a look and a snort and flipped his phone open. “Jezebel? Heero. I need you at my location immediately. Yes, it’s Duo.” He closed the phone and I stared at him.
“’Jezebel’? Who the hell is Jezebel?”
“Mistress Loquinn. What? Did you think she didn’t have a first name?”
Well, no; of course not. But ‘Jezebel’? Good grief. I blinked at him. She appeared a minute later, her traveling bag of potions in hand. Behind me the paramedic made a sort of strangled sound. I looked back briefly.
“Like I said; no needles. You could kill me with some of that stuff.”
He gulped, realizing I guess, just what he was dealing with here. “Sorry. Good thing you stopped me.”
Yeah; good thing I kept Heero from committing murder.
‘Jezebel’ made short work of my injuries with a couple of potions and a salve. Even my energy levels seemed to be recovering. Things didn’t look nearly so washed out or ripple-y.
I finished my statement, then went over it again, just to make sure I hadn’t forgotten anything. Heero and Mistress Loquinn (I cannot imagine calling her ‘Jezebel’ to her face) listened with rapt attention. The deputy checked everything over, made sure of my name and address – helped by Heero passing him one of my cards – and then left to pass his information along to whoever was in charge. He asked me to wait around for a little bit, in case the investigating officer had any immediate questions. The paramedic – whose name was Parnell – let us sit in his ambulance for as long as we needed to. His partner was at another unit assisting in the treatment of the kidnapper. I muttered under my breath that it was too damn bad they had to treat the bastard.
When Parnell moved to stand outside to watch the developing circus, I was able to share my one confusion with Heero and Mistress Loquinn.
“I felt it, Heero; I know I did. It’s not something you can mistake,” I said firmly when he looked like he might try to argue with me.
“Could it have dissipated into the ether when you realised what you’d done?” asked Mistress Loquinn.
“It doesn’t work that way. Once it’s loose, it can’t dissipate; it has to go somewhere. Has to land on something,” I insisted.
“Maybe it blew up a tree further away,” Heero suggested. “You may not have noticed; your attention was all on the vehicle.”
I didn’t bother to argue with him. I’ve been ‘playing’ with this for over a month now; I’ve got a pretty good idea of what it does, I just haven’t gotten it totally under my control. The power does not dissipate; it always, *always* goes *somewhere*. The levels of my directed attempts have been low; enough to break a window, boil water, shred paper, blow out a flame, little things like that, but it’s been consistent in that once called forth, it always does *something*. It *never* just vanishes.
And it was driving me crazy not knowing where the hell it had gone! I didn’t want to find out, days from now, that I’d taken the roof off a house or murdered someone’s dog by mistake.
“Well, wherever it landed, it wasn’t to the detriment of anyone here,” Heero said firmly. “We are going home. Where did you park the car?”
I took it as a good sign that he felt able to leave me for the few minutes it would take for him to collect the car. Heero’s protectiveness is very warming and something within me always goes “awwww!” whenever he does it, but realistically speaking, I’m a grown Banshee and I shouldn’t need a keeper.
The operative word there, of course, is “shouldn’t.”
“On the other side, by Robinson’s; on the perimeter.” Away from any chance dings or scrapes.
He nodded and looked at Mistress Loquinn. “Would you stay with him till I get back?”
I rolled my eyes; Mistress Loquinn snorted. “Of course, Heero.” He stepped out of the ambulance, changed to his flying form and launched, to an accompaniment of shouts and screams that we ignored. Heero doesn’t go around town in his Dragon form very often, but he doesn’t have a problem with people knowing what he is.
Mistress Loquinn had already taken care of my scrapes and bruises with the deputy and the paramedic as witnesses to the fact that she had done so. It would have looked weird otherwise; those photos of me looking like hamburger and then no visible wounds at all an hour later.
“Duo,” said Mistress Loquinn softly, “How did you know the guy was up to no good?”
I hadn’t mentioned seeing the kid earlier in the parking lot; didn’t think it was relevant to the crime, but I told her about it.
“So, I probably wouldn’t have thought twice; just an exasperated father removing a tantrum-y kid. But he looked... wrong... And then I heard the woman screaming the kid’s name, and it just... I don’t know. It was just all wrong. And he must have seen my expression change, because that’s when he punched me and took off.”
“And where was he when you... um...”
“Threw the power?” I don’t know what to call it any more than she does. I don’t really throw it; it just *goes*, but I guess throwing is as good a concept as any for now. “He was in the car. He’d gotten to it and was backing out when I got up from falling over the damn bench. That must have been when I got scared enough for it to... to... go off, I guess.” I rubbed my upper arms; my jacket was lying on the gurney behind me and it wasn’t all that warm out for early spring.
She regarded the parking lot thoughtfully. “Your power went off, but never landed anywhere. Why didn’t he just take off if he was already in the car? How were you able to catch him?”
I shrugged. Under the considerable volume of noise outside, I could hear the low, muscular purr of Heero’s disgustingly powerful car.
“I guess he killed the engine; he was trying to get the car started again when I punched in the window and tried to strangle him.” Still wish I had; goddamn pervert.
Mistress Loquinn looked at me, smirking, one eyebrow arched in amusement. “He killed the engine, or you did?” she said.
I stared at her. “No way...”
She suddenly grinned and grabbed my hand. “Come on, Banshee; let’s go see!”
Before I could protest, or even thoroughly process what she was saying, she was towing me across the lot toward where the sheriff’s deputies were examining the pervert’s car. A moment later Heero was beside me as well.
“What are you doing?” he demanded.
“Ask her! I’m just along for the ride.”
“Mistress?”
“Heero!” she laughed. “The engine died! Now, I ask you – what are the odds?”
He stared at the car. “You’re kidding.”
“Hah! Five sickles says that engine is really most sincerely dead!”
Heero frowned at me. I shrugged. “No bet; not where Banshee magic is concerned,” he muttered.
When we reached the vehicle, Heero flashed his ID and explained that all we wanted was to see the engine of the getaway vehicle. Since they couldn’t find a reason why we shouldn’t see it, someone dutifully popped the latch and raised the hood.
We all peered into the engine compartment where sat a large block of metal. Not, mind you, an expected internal combustion engine block, but a melted-solid block of steel, aluminum and cast iron. We stared at it for several seconds, and then Mistress Loquinn began to laugh.
“Duo! You wanted to stop him getting away and you did! The power knew exactly what you wanted and did it!”
I just stood there. “Wow...” I said finally. “Damn.” Heero wrapped his arms around my shoulders.
“My Banshee,” he whispered. “Wow indeed.”
And I started to laugh.
Here is the final part of Shopping. It may be a while before I post again; RL is making me tense. >.< And the next part is snickering rudely, daring me to finish it.
BB - Part 094 - Shopping
C
They made me lie down when I almost went face-first off the bench. The deputy stood near the door, pad and pen in hand, making notes as he asked for my version of what happened.
It’s only been about a month since I had to give them my formal statement on the Incident, so I remembered not to offer opinions, but to just give him the facts as I saw them. The paramedic insisted on unbuttoning my shirt to check where the guy had punched me. The area right over my heart was already bluish-purple with green edges. The deputy produced a pocket camera and took several pictures of that as well as some of my face, my knees and my hands. When I stopped to think about what hurt, I concluded that I was a mess. I was also exhausted.
Using the power apparently sucks my energy reserves right down, according to how much power I call up. I did something big; I could certainly feel it, but the little kid was fine, the kidnapper was somewhat damaged, thanks to me grabbing onto him, but he sure wasn’t dead, so I couldn’t figure out where it went. Nothing had blown up, melted down or vanished. That bothered me almost as much as the whole kidnapping thing. I’d sent the power out; where the hell did it go?
Then the paramedic was swabbing my arm and reaching for a syringe. I jerked away with a rather girly shriek; had quite enough of Human drugs, thank you. He started to say something when someone outside screamed and then there was a familiar roar.
Heero must have landed.
The deputy standing on the bumper of the ambulance flattened himself against the side and I could see his wide, shocked eyes. An instant later Heero was there, looking so murderous I had to yell “I’m okay!” before he took a notion that the paramedic was hurting me.
My Wyvern blinked and some of the hellfire went out of his eyes.
“Duo...” he breathed instead, and then I was in his arms and I finally felt secure.
“I’m sorry...” I mumbled against his shoulder. “Some date.”
“Stop that,” he growled. “Tell me what happened. The parking lot is filled with sheriff’s cars; there’s a helicopter overhead and two TV trucks are setting up.”
I pulled back to gape at him. “Oh, you have *got* to be kidding!”
“He’s not kidding,” said the deputy as he peered over the ambulance door. “Geez, what a mess.”
“I’m taking you home,” Heero declared.
“Heero...”
“I’m sorry,” said the deputy, once more back with us professionally. “I need to finish getting his statement.”
Heero growled.
I felt better just having him here. “Just let me finish. I just want to get it over with and go take care of...” I motioned to my ‘war wounds’.
He gave me a look and a snort and flipped his phone open. “Jezebel? Heero. I need you at my location immediately. Yes, it’s Duo.” He closed the phone and I stared at him.
“’Jezebel’? Who the hell is Jezebel?”
“Mistress Loquinn. What? Did you think she didn’t have a first name?”
Well, no; of course not. But ‘Jezebel’? Good grief. I blinked at him. She appeared a minute later, her traveling bag of potions in hand. Behind me the paramedic made a sort of strangled sound. I looked back briefly.
“Like I said; no needles. You could kill me with some of that stuff.”
He gulped, realizing I guess, just what he was dealing with here. “Sorry. Good thing you stopped me.”
Yeah; good thing I kept Heero from committing murder.
‘Jezebel’ made short work of my injuries with a couple of potions and a salve. Even my energy levels seemed to be recovering. Things didn’t look nearly so washed out or ripple-y.
I finished my statement, then went over it again, just to make sure I hadn’t forgotten anything. Heero and Mistress Loquinn (I cannot imagine calling her ‘Jezebel’ to her face) listened with rapt attention. The deputy checked everything over, made sure of my name and address – helped by Heero passing him one of my cards – and then left to pass his information along to whoever was in charge. He asked me to wait around for a little bit, in case the investigating officer had any immediate questions. The paramedic – whose name was Parnell – let us sit in his ambulance for as long as we needed to. His partner was at another unit assisting in the treatment of the kidnapper. I muttered under my breath that it was too damn bad they had to treat the bastard.
When Parnell moved to stand outside to watch the developing circus, I was able to share my one confusion with Heero and Mistress Loquinn.
“I felt it, Heero; I know I did. It’s not something you can mistake,” I said firmly when he looked like he might try to argue with me.
“Could it have dissipated into the ether when you realised what you’d done?” asked Mistress Loquinn.
“It doesn’t work that way. Once it’s loose, it can’t dissipate; it has to go somewhere. Has to land on something,” I insisted.
“Maybe it blew up a tree further away,” Heero suggested. “You may not have noticed; your attention was all on the vehicle.”
I didn’t bother to argue with him. I’ve been ‘playing’ with this for over a month now; I’ve got a pretty good idea of what it does, I just haven’t gotten it totally under my control. The power does not dissipate; it always, *always* goes *somewhere*. The levels of my directed attempts have been low; enough to break a window, boil water, shred paper, blow out a flame, little things like that, but it’s been consistent in that once called forth, it always does *something*. It *never* just vanishes.
And it was driving me crazy not knowing where the hell it had gone! I didn’t want to find out, days from now, that I’d taken the roof off a house or murdered someone’s dog by mistake.
“Well, wherever it landed, it wasn’t to the detriment of anyone here,” Heero said firmly. “We are going home. Where did you park the car?”
I took it as a good sign that he felt able to leave me for the few minutes it would take for him to collect the car. Heero’s protectiveness is very warming and something within me always goes “awwww!” whenever he does it, but realistically speaking, I’m a grown Banshee and I shouldn’t need a keeper.
The operative word there, of course, is “shouldn’t.”
“On the other side, by Robinson’s; on the perimeter.” Away from any chance dings or scrapes.
He nodded and looked at Mistress Loquinn. “Would you stay with him till I get back?”
I rolled my eyes; Mistress Loquinn snorted. “Of course, Heero.” He stepped out of the ambulance, changed to his flying form and launched, to an accompaniment of shouts and screams that we ignored. Heero doesn’t go around town in his Dragon form very often, but he doesn’t have a problem with people knowing what he is.
Mistress Loquinn had already taken care of my scrapes and bruises with the deputy and the paramedic as witnesses to the fact that she had done so. It would have looked weird otherwise; those photos of me looking like hamburger and then no visible wounds at all an hour later.
“Duo,” said Mistress Loquinn softly, “How did you know the guy was up to no good?”
I hadn’t mentioned seeing the kid earlier in the parking lot; didn’t think it was relevant to the crime, but I told her about it.
“So, I probably wouldn’t have thought twice; just an exasperated father removing a tantrum-y kid. But he looked... wrong... And then I heard the woman screaming the kid’s name, and it just... I don’t know. It was just all wrong. And he must have seen my expression change, because that’s when he punched me and took off.”
“And where was he when you... um...”
“Threw the power?” I don’t know what to call it any more than she does. I don’t really throw it; it just *goes*, but I guess throwing is as good a concept as any for now. “He was in the car. He’d gotten to it and was backing out when I got up from falling over the damn bench. That must have been when I got scared enough for it to... to... go off, I guess.” I rubbed my upper arms; my jacket was lying on the gurney behind me and it wasn’t all that warm out for early spring.
She regarded the parking lot thoughtfully. “Your power went off, but never landed anywhere. Why didn’t he just take off if he was already in the car? How were you able to catch him?”
I shrugged. Under the considerable volume of noise outside, I could hear the low, muscular purr of Heero’s disgustingly powerful car.
“I guess he killed the engine; he was trying to get the car started again when I punched in the window and tried to strangle him.” Still wish I had; goddamn pervert.
Mistress Loquinn looked at me, smirking, one eyebrow arched in amusement. “He killed the engine, or you did?” she said.
I stared at her. “No way...”
She suddenly grinned and grabbed my hand. “Come on, Banshee; let’s go see!”
Before I could protest, or even thoroughly process what she was saying, she was towing me across the lot toward where the sheriff’s deputies were examining the pervert’s car. A moment later Heero was beside me as well.
“What are you doing?” he demanded.
“Ask her! I’m just along for the ride.”
“Mistress?”
“Heero!” she laughed. “The engine died! Now, I ask you – what are the odds?”
He stared at the car. “You’re kidding.”
“Hah! Five sickles says that engine is really most sincerely dead!”
Heero frowned at me. I shrugged. “No bet; not where Banshee magic is concerned,” he muttered.
When we reached the vehicle, Heero flashed his ID and explained that all we wanted was to see the engine of the getaway vehicle. Since they couldn’t find a reason why we shouldn’t see it, someone dutifully popped the latch and raised the hood.
We all peered into the engine compartment where sat a large block of metal. Not, mind you, an expected internal combustion engine block, but a melted-solid block of steel, aluminum and cast iron. We stared at it for several seconds, and then Mistress Loquinn began to laugh.
“Duo! You wanted to stop him getting away and you did! The power knew exactly what you wanted and did it!”
I just stood there. “Wow...” I said finally. “Damn.” Heero wrapped his arms around my shoulders.
“My Banshee,” he whispered. “Wow indeed.”
And I started to laugh.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-11-29 03:37 am (UTC)The engine thing was absolutely perfect. Maybe Duo's got a little bit more control there than he realizes. Might be one of those things you just need to DO and not think about so much.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-30 01:46 am (UTC)Running *toward* the scary monster? Who else would do that? ~_^
no subject
Date: 2005-11-30 12:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-29 03:50 am (UTC)Wow is right. Good for Duo! And I always love it when Heero shows up all Wyvern and protective!
no subject
Date: 2005-11-30 01:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-29 04:18 am (UTC)I thought Heero was almost placid after his first initial growling. He's getting a lot more comfy with his little Banshee flitting around without him, eh? I'll bet the pervert pees his pants whenever he sees a big dangly braid from now on! :)
no subject
Date: 2005-11-29 08:40 pm (UTC)Wizard of Oz love!
^_^
no subject
Date: 2005-11-30 01:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-30 02:44 am (UTC)Of course, it's been an ear-worm all day, so thank you ever so very much.
Okay, actually it's been switching off with Barbara Manatee -- which is to say it's been an odd day for ear-worms.
^_^
no subject
Date: 2005-11-30 01:54 am (UTC)Duo does have a pretty good defense system, and of course, Heero doesn't want Q to rip him a new one for embarrassing the Magical Community in front of Mundanes again. Duo may be right back to having a dragon glued to his hip every moment he's out of the Castle. He will not be amused if that happens... O.o
no subject
Date: 2005-11-29 08:58 am (UTC)YES! Go Duo Banshee! Fry that bad guys engine! *dances around*
Good for you, Duo, to keep from getting bad mundane drugs and keeping your head until Heero can show up and do his mothering/comforting bit...
*dances some more*
*whisper, can you tell I am enjoying your fic?!?*
no subject
Date: 2005-11-30 01:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-08 11:47 pm (UTC)You know they help migrains... *nods*
Yeah, that's my story and I'm stickin to it!
no subject
Date: 2005-11-29 09:32 am (UTC)Thanks for sharing.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-30 02:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-29 09:22 pm (UTC)When you mentioned that the magic had gone somewhere and done something but you weren't sure what, I was thinking, "...the car?" See?! I right! Yay!
Yay for new chapter. ^^
[/overuse of the word "yay"]
no subject
Date: 2005-11-30 02:03 am (UTC)It had to go somewhere, and it had to do something logical... Exploding the kidnapper would've been fun, but way too traumatic for the kid. And messy. Ick.
no subject
Date: 2005-12-07 06:47 pm (UTC)Yeah, the bad guy going "BOOM", or rather "splat" in this situation, would have just been a bit too much for the kid. Maybe that's why his subconscious didn't go after the driver, but the car instead? Because Duo would never do anything to hurt a kid...
And yes, I was into the sugar. ^_^
no subject
Date: 2005-11-30 08:02 pm (UTC)No go on cheap, but decent stockings. They wouldn't have fit on the shelf anyway (12 of them). Ended up with nice, but cheap decorated wine bags... they'll all fit, which is the bonus :)
Good luck with RL. I find one needs it... *glances at still untouched projects, 3 in-progress fics, pile of dishes in sink*
no subject
Date: 2005-12-02 12:51 am (UTC)Decorated wine bags are a bit more versatile anyway... I had a wild craft bunny bouncing off the inside of my head, trying to get me to make stockings again, but fortunately, the stocking patterns are all sold out. ^_^ It was a near miss...
no subject
Date: 2005-12-01 04:53 am (UTC)Now, I wonder how much of all these heroics and sudden flying wyverns appears on Mall security film and TV footage? The evening news might be quite interesting tonight ;-)
no subject
Date: 2005-12-02 12:55 am (UTC)Oh, I'm sure inquiring minds are dying to know... ^__^ But he's been seen flying before; just not landing in the mall parking lot in the middle of a media event.
no subject
Date: 2005-12-01 10:25 pm (UTC)poor duo he really cant leave without someone else. though maybe its good heero wasnt there, he mighta started a mass panic as killing the guy with the kid ><
-TCM
no subject
Date: 2005-12-02 12:58 am (UTC)Duo's got a way to go yet before he will have mastered that nasty little talent. But this probably took care of stranger abductions for the next five years in that area. ^_^
no subject
Date: 2005-12-06 03:37 am (UTC)Because it's so pretty and shiny and he's so obviously attatched to it and it'd make an interesting scene to see just where Duo would transport himself to in his wottrying over what Heero would do to HIM for wrecking the car AND *takes a breath* Have I ever told you how awesomely good this and your other stories are?
no subject
Date: 2005-12-06 03:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-02 04:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-03 02:16 am (UTC)