Harry Dresden (dresdensluck) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-05-20 00:48:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, harry dresden, scott summers (cyclops) |
Some days, he really wished he could go back to bed.
Who: Harry Dresden and Scott Summers and NPC bad guys
Where: a street somewhere in Orange County
What: Harry has an incident with enemies, Scott wanders into it.
When: 05/19, late
Warnings/Rating: PG-13, warnings for violence and implied NPC death and for NPC injury
Status complete
Harry had to admit, some days he could really start to get tired of people trying to kill him. It offended his sensibilities, what little of those he had, when it happened, which it had been doing with increasing frequency. Of course, getting shot at was an occupational hazard as a lawyer and a private investigator, especially if you were investigating, as carefully as you could, a terrorist organization with ties to the Yakuza.
Things tended to get violent then. Today had started easily enough with Harry asking a few questions at a dive in a very bad part of town, and had escalated when he had been followed to his car. Cue a fist fight, ended by a bouncer, thankfully, and then Harry leaving.
Of course, the rear left tire of his car getting shot out had changed things and indicated he had been sniffing up the right trail, a fact he appreciated once he had wrestled his car to the side of the road and bailed out. An oncoming car had slammed into the back of his, and then moved around to spill out several men. And now, for only the tenth of so time in his life, Harry was in something vaguely like a shootout.
Some days, he really wished he could go back to bed.
Today had to be the day that Emma had a late evening craving, and Scott volunteered to get it. It took sixteen stores, but he finally found seedless grapes that weren’t red grapes, as well as sour cream.
He wasn’t going to ask. A gun shot shattered a car window as he walked by, and he dove for cover.
Harry spotted the man diving for cover and sent a blast of fire at the ones shooting near him. “Welcome to the fun day I’m having. I’ll have you out of here in no time...” He squinted...” Scott Summers?”
“..Harry? What are you doing being shot at? Are you okay?” He came over to check up on the man.
“I’m a private investigator. And these gentlemen are thugs who, I am quite sure, were sent by someone I am investigating, or have investigated. Like, possibly, Cerberus.” He offered a dour smile. “And I’m okay.” He fired at the other men, and ducked back down. “How’s your day going?”
“Getting a few things for my wife,” Scott replied, holding up his bag. “How are you holding up?” He took another peek, then fired his beams, banking them off of a reflective pane and into the back of one of the gunmen.
“Pretty well. These guys are all somehow bad shots. I keep wondering if bad guys just don’t know how to judge, or if they can’t hire anyone better.” He shrugged, his voice casual, and ducked up, fired off a few more shots and sent a windblast slamming into one car shifting it to the tire landed on the foot of a shooter, causing him to cry out and drop his gun.
“Stormtrooper syndrome?” Scott rolled past another car, firing as he went. He collapsed a street pole onto another shooter.
Harry flattened himself under a hail of bullets and sent a small stream of fire across the street, giving a couple of young shooters the hot foot, then rising to calmly shoot them both in the shoulders, and diving back down again. There was quiet as the last shooter ran, and Harry rose, aimed and shot him in the leg.
“Now, about that. Do you think so? Why on earth would anyone hire people as bad as that.”
“They come cheap. Kitty used to call it rent-a-ninja.” Scott chuckled, and adjusted his glasses. “Cheapest bidder.” He looked Harry over, making sure the man was okay. “Who are you hunting for?”
Harry snorted at the term, reminding himself to look up Kitty again, soon. “Makes sense.” He smiled and nodded. “Been looking into the actions of a smile time contract worker, who just happens to have been involved in a few past cases of mine as a bad guy, and who seems to have been involved in Cerberus’ business on the low end, too. A man by the name of Hawley Griffin, apparently after the infamous novel character.”
“Cerberus?” He looked at Harry, surprise etched on his face. “You’re investigating them?” Was he crazy?
Harry nodded. “Among my other cases, yes.” He eyed the other man and decided not to mention the part that he had first started doing so on Emma’s asking. “They have been entirely too busy in the area, recently.”
“It’s worrisome.” There was something that had happened recently and he frowned as he tried to think about it. “There was something..recently that happened, but for the life of me I can’t remember it.”
Harry blinked. “Oh? Do you recall anything about it?” He stepped slightly closer and his eyes went out of focus as he used his Sight to reach out and magically check if Scott’s memory had been tampered with. Cerberus involved powered people that much he knew and with Emma being involved...
“No...It’s on the tip of my mind.” Scott tried to think about the event. Why Cerberus was familiar beyond Kitty. It had been really recently. “Shepard got shot at.”
Harry nodded and rubbed his face. SOmething was there... but he didn’t know what. “Hmm. Weird. Sometimes those sorts of things happen. Maybe ask him or her about it?” He had no idea who Shepard was.
“I’ll do so. You should ask her too, about Cerberus. She took down the head last year.” Obviously Cerberus was more than just a name. Scott sighed. He hoped whatever it was would come to him.
Harry mentally noted the name. "Will do. Any help could be useful. " He smiled at Scott, then nodded. "Been meaning to say hello to you for some time, anyway. With our kids and ladies becoming friends, we should probably know each other. "
“Want to get a drink later, when things settle down?” Scott asked. “Actually, we’re doing a BBQ. You’re invited.” He grinned.
"Both. We'll definitely be there for the barbecue. And you and I should still do the drink thing. " Harry nodded. With how things were going, they would need it.
“Be safe, Harry.” Scott clapped him on the shoulder. “If I don’t get this to Emma, then Cerberus will be the least of our problems.”
Harry laughed, long and loud. “See you later, then.” He nodded and turned to head to the store. A local cop he knew would take care of the criminals, and he would fill out some paperwork, and completely gloss over Scott’s presence. And who believed the idiots? No one.
He would work it out.
And maybe get Elaine ice cream.
~fin!~