Who: Sylvanas, Alleria, and Garrett What: Sylvanas corners Alleria's mysterious lover, and then they get chased by cerberus remnants. When: monday Where: Walmart and then somewhere else Status: Complete Rating: PG-13 because Garrett is AWESOME
It had started simple enough. Sylvanas had spotted Danika in the parking lot of a Gamestop. What she was doing there, she didn't know, and she didn't care. She did the only thing that made any sense at the time; she'd walked up to her and punched her in the face.
After a long chase, she now had her cornered in a Walmart bathroom.
Garrett had also been tailing Danika, partly out of curiosity and partly because that was the one part of his job for Neena he could still work on. He’d been watching Danika until someone who apparently also knew her had found her as well. That woman had punched her, which had led to a chase. Keeping up with them while trying to look like he wasn’t following them had been a little...annoying.
The handicap bathroom in the Wal-mart restrooms contained one Danika Thatcher, who was, indeed, cornered. She'd shut the door and locked it, for all the good it would do her against Sylvanas, and was currently pacing inside of it, trying to figure out her next move.
They were everywhere and they were after her and she knew she was being followed and this was the last place she needed to be right now. She should have left town when she'd had the chance, but spotting her twin had made her forget things like... oh... being sane, she guessed. Any sane woman on the lam would have run somewhere else by now.
"Let me out of here, you crazy bitch!" She shouted.
Garrett stood outside the women’s restroom, glancing about for a moment. He didn’t exactly want to enter the restroom, in case it might draw more attention to his quarry. But it wasn’t like they could leave without him seeing them, either. If it wasn’t for this nonsense with phones, he’d consider calling Neena.
"No! You owe it to my sister to talk to her!" Sylvanas wasn't armed, but she was pissed and had a mean right hook. She was furiously trying to message her sister.
"If you’re lucky I won't dunk you in the fucking toilet."
"You just try it. I don't owe your sister a damned thing! It's not my fault that she fell in love with me." Danika wasn't completely unarmed, but if she didn't need to draw more attention to her presence here, she wouldn't.
Meanwhile, Alleria was furiously messaging her sister back. She left her job without even a warning and ran for her car. This was a family emergency! Kind of.
"Do you love her? Did you just use her?" Sylvanas didn't want to be proven right. Not in this. It didn't feel like it was as satisfying as she would have liked, originally.
A loud noise rang through the bathroom as Danika punched her fist against the bathroom stall, "It's none of your business! If you love her you'll get out of here and forget you ever saw me."
Well. Whatever was going on in that bathroom was likely to start attracting attention whether he went in or not. And Garrett was feeling like taking the direct approach, anyway. He slipped into the restroom and leaned back against the door.
“Don’t mind me, I’m just here making sure no one decides to interrupt this epic catfight.”
"What the shit?!" Sylvanas backed into the stall, "Who the hell are you? Get out this is the lady's room!"
"Because that should really be your first point of concern, here," Danika rolled her eyes and, grateful for the fact that Sylvanas had dropped her guard, headed out of the stall. She walked up to the mirror and inspected her rather impressive black eye.
She glared at Danika, "Bitch."
She had no idea just what sort of thing the woman was wrapped up in. She hated her. It was a look of sheer loathing.
“I’m your friendly neighborhood private eye.” He glanced at Danika. He could definitely see the resemblance even better up close. Less pale, though. “I’m a friend of a friend, in a manner of speaking. Minus some of the friendship on the part of a mutual acquaintance,” he added, smirking. “I take it you two don’t care much for each other.”
The bathroom door creaked a bit, like someone was trying to open it. A muffled voice could be heard on the other side, "... Sylvanas?"
Danika looked down at her hands, recognizing the voice and hissing several dozen curse words, some of which weren't even in english, "You called her? Are you an idiot?!"
She turned her gaze to Garrett then, and sighed, "Listen, I don't know who you're friends or mutual acquaintances with or why you're standing here in the ladies room. Maybe that's just your schtick. But I've got an entire truckload of bad on my ass, and if you don't let me out of this bathroom, they're going to kill all four of us."
"What is this, some kind of spy game?" Sylvanas pulled a knife from her pocket, "Listen, you're coming with us, and we're going to have a sit down, or my hand to god I'm giving you another black eye."
“Spy game sounds about right, actually. Close enough, anyway.” Garrett smirked again. Now this was fun. “I also have some idea about the bad that is on your ass, with the exception of this woman and the one on the other side of the door behind me. But...” He held up a finger and paused to pull out a gun. “I suggest you go with us somewhere that is not here. And yes, I do have a permit that allows me to hide this anywhere on my person.”
"I'm not the type of person to ask you those questions, really." Danika had one tucked into her waistband against her back, but felt no need to reveal that just at the moment. The man was trying to be reasonable, or witty, or witty and badassed, or... some combination thereof that was frankly making her want to buy the guy a beer later.
She raised both of her hands, "If you DO know, then you know you really should save your ammunition for them."
From the other side of the door, Alleria's muffled voice could be heard again, "Someone tell me what the fuck is going on in there!"
Garrett raised an eyebrow at Sylvanas. “Should I let her in?”
"Yes!" Sylvanas hissed. She put her knife away, deciding he had the edge. She liked him. Somewhat. In a stab him in the face sort of way.
Garrett shifted forward and opened the door. “In you come, quickly.”
"Thank you." Alleria dashed through the door, not really paying attention to the fact that the man letting her in had a gun in his hand. She quickly made her way over to Danika and shoved her against the counter, then kissed her. Soundly.
Danika didn't do much in the way to fight back, really. Her hands flailed in the air a bit, then wrapped around the woman. If the scene wasn't awkward enough for the man watching these events transpire, Alleria soon made it more interesting when she backed away from the woman she'd just kissed, and hit her squarely in the jaw.
"THAT'S for all the times you ran out on me." Alleria growled.
The other woman wiped some blood away from her lip. This was not the best of days.
Sylvanas moved in to give her a left hook for good measure.
"God's sake ENOUGH WITH THE HITTING." Danika groaned.
Garrett was very, very tempted to laugh, but he settled on smirking. All this needed to be perfect was popcorn, but eating in a public restroom really didn’t seem like the thing to do. “You two certainly have things to discuss,” he quipped.
“No shit,” Sylvanas muttered.
"Thirded," Alleria agreed. She watched as Danika spit a tooth into the sink, only mildly concerned over her former lover's current discomfort. Honestly, the temptation to hamstring her or handcuff her or duct tape her hands together was extremely high.
The woman everyone seemed so interested in finding cleaned her face, calmly, then sighed, "It's a long story that involves my mother's doomsday cult, the apocalypse, my dead baby brother, my idiot twin sister, and the mess she's gotten me into by association. Also a terrorist cell. But I'm guessing you knew about that last part. So take me wherever you're going to take me, witty guy with a gun. But let's go there fast."
"Wait, gun?" Alleria blinked her eyes, then pointed at Garrett, "Shoot her in the leg so she can't run away this time."
“You realize how creepy you sound?” Sylvanas asked her sister.
Her sister merely shrugged in response.
“I am not shooting her here. We are in fucking Wal-Mart. People might not notice a man going into the ladies’ room, but they’ll notice if someone is bleeding fucking everywhere.” Garrett sighed. “Clearly I’m the only one with any sort of planning experience when it comes to these things.”
He scratched his beard and took a deep breath. “Right. You...sisters...take her out and I’ll bring up the rear. What kind of car do you have?” he asked Alleria. “It’s probably closer and more roomy than mine.”
"But to clarify, if we weren't in Wal-mart, you'd have already shot me, right?" Danika snorted.
Alleria wrinkled her nose in disappointment. She really wanted to make sure Danika couldn't run off this time, and she knew how creepy stalker that sounded. Still, the woman was slippery and hard to nail down, and she had things she needed to work OUT with her. She took one of Danika's arms in a firm grip, and nodded at Garrett, "I drive a Toyota 4-Runner. It's probably illegally parked in the handicapped zone. I wasn't really paying attention when I got here."
“Can I disown you?” Sylvanas asked.
Garrett snorted. Ah, siblings. “Well, shot you and dragged you someplace relatively safer, yes. I am rather good at handling...complicated messes, though usually those involved swords and someone making sure I didn’t bleed to death while I whaled away at things with a giant fuck off sword.” He sighed. He really needed one of those.
"Lets just go already!" Sylvanas grabbed Danika's other arm. "Before the smiley face grows displeased with us."
"We mustn't displease our Overlord, the Smiley Face." Danika quipped. Garrett's comments were interesting though. Whaling away at things with a giant fuck off sword sounded oddly like the cult she'd left her mother to.
"Come on," Alleria grumbled, then yanked on her arm. She started marching out of the bathroom. If Danika couldn't keep up her pace, she'd be dragged for all she cared.
“Very good, yes, off we go. Let’s hope we don’t attract too much attention,” Garrett said, bringing up the rear as they exited the bathroom.
The odd foursome got every assortment of looks imaginable as they made their way out of the restroom and through the wal-mart. Danika obviously looked a mess, and there was no telling what exactly had happened to her.
When someone from security finally stepped over to ask them if they needed any assistance (or to call the cops), Alleria just waved them off, "This is our dear friend, she's been on a bender and we had to stage an intervention. Hopefully this run through wal-mart will help her to reconsider her life choices."
Danika merely gave the security guard a lazy half-smirk, like she was still drunk and he was looking GOOOOD with the beer goggles currently on.
They had clear passage after that. When they finally got to Alleria's truck, she turned to Garrett, "Alright, where am I driving to?"
Sylvanas kept silent the whole way, save for once, where she glared at a five year old boy as they passed. She smirked when he pissed himself. She opened the door and unceremoniously shoved Danika into the back while Garrett and her sister talked.
Garrett pulled out a pen and wrote his address on the back of Alleria’s hand so she could see it while driving. “If you have any trouble, I’ll be keeping one eye on the road and one eye on...our intervention subject.” He laughed and got into the back with Danika. It made sense, since he was the one with the gun.
Honestly, Danika was beginning to wonder what she'd ever done to deserve such rough treatment from the two girls, let alone this random stranger who would have shot her. Today was ridiculous.
Alleria took a look at the address on her hand and nodded, "Alright."
Half of her hoped there wouldn't be any trouble. The other half of her - who dreamed about fighting orcs and kicking ass and living a much more adventurous life - thought it'd be kind of fun if they did run into trouble.
She climbed into the car, and started it up, "Buckle up, it's the law."
Then she pulled out of there.
(end part 1) (begin part 2)
Sylvanas sat shot gun, riding in silence and generally brooding. Really, she had no problem roughing up Danika, there was a violent streak deep within her that sometimes needed out.
The rear window shattered as a bullet passed through it, and then another shattered the driver side mirror!
A black SUV sped up and rammed into the back of the 4-runner, causing it to swerve.
“Shit!” Garrett unclicked his seatbelt and dove across to cover Danika. He pulled his gun and flicked off the safety. Sense the the SUV had been so kind as to provide him with a way to return fire by opening the rear window, he returned fire.
The other windshield shattered, and the man behind the wheel swerved and backed off.
“What the hell what the hell?!” Sylvanas climbed between the seats and pulled a bow from under a tarp. It was a prop bow, but it worked, and hell, she wasn’t just going to do nothing.
Apparently Alleria was not to be disappointed! Having your car shot at was definitely an adventure. She couldn't look behind her to see if everyone was okay, instead choosing to concentrate on just keeping her car on the damn road. Which was not that easy, "Is everyone okay back there!?"
"We're fine," Danika said in return, while pulling her pistol out and taking up a position similar to Garret's. She clicked her own safety off and shot out the tire on the retreating SUV, while replying to Sylvanas, "I told you. A whole truckload of bad, and you and your sister and random witty fun times guy just got dragged into it."
"Bite me." The arrows had rubber tips, but they'd still hurt like a bitch. If her sister would drive straight long enough for her to shoot. Another round of bullets shattered the windshield!
If Sylvanas had complaints about Alleria's driving while under enemy fire, she could get up there and do it herself. She was mainly trying not to jump 3 feet in the air every time gunshots went off.
The shattered windshield took her by surprise and she swerved off the road momentarily, then got control of the car again, "Hold onto something, I'm turning onto a side road!"
Which she did, almost immediately, and so quickly that they probably had no actual time to hold onto anything.
Garrett just continued his attempt to shoot out one of the SUV’s tires. “We’ll be fine!”
"There'll be another SUV behind this one. They come in twos," Danika informed the other guy with a gun. She fired off a few rounds as they skidded around a corner. If this kept up much longer, they'd all be out of clips and someone might get shot.
She briefly pondered just turning herself in. For Alleria's sake, if nothing else.
Sylvanas climbed up through the moon roof, and let one of the prop arrows fly. It smacked the driver straight in the forehead and the SUV swerved, then flipped. She pumped her bow in the air, then dove back down as that second predicted SUV caught up to them.
There was a bullet hole in the sleeve of her shirt.
“Impressive!” Now this was like the fun parts of the dreams of Kirkwall. A band of random people shooting things. He’d still like that sword, though. But a gun would do for now.
"I was aiming for his eye," Sylvanas admitted, fingering the hole in her shirt.
"It was still impressive," Danika admitted. She shot a few holes in the windshield of the second SUV, then pulled a clip out of her pocket and reloaded, "SO. This is fun. I feel like we need some snacks back here."
"You do not need snacks back there," Alleria grumbled, while swerving around a couple sets of soccer moms in their own gigantic ass cars, "Just no one get shot, alright!?"
She was kind of jealous that everyone else was getting to shoot things, though. It came through in her voice just slightly.
“We’re fine!” So far. Garrett had lost track of how many shots he’d fired, though.
“They missed,” Sylvanas assured her.
"They MISSED!?" The 4-Runner jerked and swerved as Alleria tried to take a look into the back to make sure her sister really was fine, despite how Garrett kept reassuring her that everyone was a-okay back there.
She nearly ran into another car in the process, and spun the wheel around in the other direction to get around it, while cussing vividly.
“Watch the road,” Sylvanas shouted!
The SUV following them sped up and tried to edge them off the road.
Garrett attempted to shoot out the side windows of the SUV. He knew it might be bulletproof, but just in case they weren’t, it was worth a shot. Literally.
The side windows shattered. A man leaned out and started shooting at their tires. Sylvanas eyed Danika, then the door. Maybe if they just shoved her out and let those men have her, they'd leave them alone.
Garrett let out a whoop and fired at the man, hoping to hit him in the head.
Danika was actually having a similar thought. Not because she gave two shits about Sylvanas, but because eventually they'd realise that the woman driving this car was the only stationary target worth hitting. Alleria had no protection from that if they chose to target her. And she was the only thing in Danika's life that she gave a damn about.
She glanced at Garrett, who was trying to headshot the guy, and at Sylvanas, then fired off a few more shots as she crawled over the woman and towards the door.
"New plan," She declared. She didn't say another thing - except for glancing at Alleria's seat apologetically - before opening the door and launching herself out of it.
“FUCK!” That was not how things were supposed to go. “IF YOU DIE YOUR SISTER WILL KILL ME, YOU BITCH!” Garrett yelled after Danika. Why couldn’t people be sensible about these things?
“God DAMN it.” Sylvanas tried to grab onto Danika as she launched herself out, without really thinking about it.
Sylvanas managed to grab ahold of the tail of Danika's shirt, which ripped in her hand as Danika hit the pavement and rolled a bit. From the ground, she let off a few more potshots at the SUV, which missed.
It did, however, roll to a stop. Some of the men in the SUV continued to lay down some covering fire on the 4-Runner, while two of them get out of the car and walked over to Danika.
Instead of shooting the woman with their pistols, however, they shot her with a taser. She spasmed on the ground for a few seconds before going limp.
Back in the 4-Runner, Alleria was seriously wondering why they hadn't shot Danika in the leg when they'd had the chance, "YOU LET HER ESCAPE AGAIN!? I'm pulling over. Damn it. I'm pulling over. I'm not losing her again!"
Sylvanas jumped out of the SUV when it came to a stop, and lobbed another arrow at the men. She aimed for the groin of the one closest to Danika.
Garrett fired at the men going for Danika. This was not how this was supposed to go. At all. This was the opposite of “as planned.” Not that he’d had that much of a plan, but still.
This was definitely the opposite of 'as planned'. Not that Alleria had had a plan either when she'd driven over to Wal-mart in a frenzy. She hopped out of the car, though she had no idea what she intended to do from that point, other than run after her former woman.
One of the men standing over Danika was, indeed, hit in the groin and ended up folding over, then collapsing to his knees. The other one ended up taking a bullet in the arm, but that didn't stop him from picking Danika up with his other hand and dragging her towards the SUV.
4 or 5 other people were all still laying down fire to cover the man's retreat. Alleria wasn't wearing any armor and soon realised how idiotic her actions were. She dodged behind a local US Post Office box, and curled up. This was the worst day. Officially.
Sylvanas didn’t try to shoot another arrow. She did resolve to get a REAL bow and REAL arrows. Instead, she wrote down the license plate number, then ran over to check on her sister.
With a sigh Garrett hopped out and ran over to the sisters. “Back to the car! Now!” He fired another shot and found that he’d emptied the clip, and he swore.
Sylvanas grabbed Alleria's arm and started hauling her back to the car. This was surreal. Like they were in a movie or a poorly written spy novel! "Come on!"
"I don't want to... they're taking her away. We have to DO something!" Alleria growled. She watched them haul Danika into the SUV with an extremely depressed look on her face.
She had to agree though. This was incredibly surreal, "...God damn it. God DAMN it. It's like we're cursed!"
“You owe us some explanations,” Sylvanas snarled at Garrett.
“Her sister hired me to find out where she was,” he said. “Also to find out if their mother was dead, but she called off that part. I’m a private investigator. Garrett Hawke.” Garrett Hawke who was Very Annoyed that he’d not been able to rescue his target.
Her sister. The one Alleria had kissed in the coffee shop that time. Great. Just wonderful, really, "I wish she'd said something."
It wasn't likely that the woman would have said something, though. She did, after all, publicly embarrass and harass her. Alleria sighed, and got herself up off the ground. The SUV had sped away, and there was nothing they could do, "Is anyone hurt?"
Sylvanas wrapped her arms around her sister, “I’m fine. The car is wrecked though.”
"I don't think my car insurance covers gunshots." Alleria let out a long sigh and looked around, "I guess we'll have to call a cab to wherever either of you parked."
“Well, we’d better start walking, then,” Garrett said. While ultimately disappointing, the day had been...invigorating. That was one thing he like about dreams of Kirkwall: he felt so alive while he was fighting.
"We can't go to the police, can we?" Sylvanas stuffed her hands into her pocket, "They'd think we were crazy."
"Where do you think they're taking her?" Alleria was extremely worried, even though she'd earlier wanted to do the woman harm, "... I mean they didn't want to kill her, right? If they did, they would have just shot her."
She started walking down the street.
“Some place unpleasant, I expect.” Garrett sighed and started leading them toward where he’d parked his car. It was going to be a bit of a walk.
Sylvanas didn’t mind. She was used to long walks and marches.