Appotropaic Apparatus
part oneLoud music, great drinks and all the ass you can grab. A tall, lean man sitting at a table near the dance floor tipped his glass back and swigged the contents dry. A night like every other night. Women in skimpy red dresses shook what they were worth in men's faces while men did little more than walk from chick to chick, like auctioneers checking out the different varieties of goods. The man at the table snickered. Such child's play. A real man did his shopping from the crowds, playing the spectator, waiting for the diamond in the ruff to show herself... or himself. He wasn't too picky. If it had a body to die for and somewhere to stick 'it' then he was satisfied. To his despair, the dance floor held little sport for him on this night. Maybe his expectations were too high. His glass empty, he waved for a waitress. They were pretty cute. 'Last Resort' had a reputation to uphold and scantly clad asses, revealing tops and bare midriffs were just a premier next to most of their attractions. Still, there was something very appealing tonight about a certain chestnut haired waitress at the bar. To his distaste, a young blonde came instead of the distant brunet, smiling and tapping her pen against her over-exposed breasts.
"Can I get you anything, mister?"
He shook his head and pointed towards the other girl, "See that one right there?" he asked.
The blonde nodded, "Yeah, he's new here. Just started last week. Why, ya interested?"
He? The man looked up and down the distant figure, eyeing the long legs that were hidden beneath very tight black pants and the even longer braid that fell like silk from the ponytail holder at the nape of the slender neck. Even from here the violet of 'his' eyes was striking and evident beneath the shroud of chestnut bangs.
"You mean that one's a boy?" he asked, aloud this time.
The blonde nodded, "Name's Duo. Real nice guy," she spat out the gum she had been chewing and added it to the collection under his table, "' Hear he does 'favors' too, if you're interested."
The man looked past her again, this time catching the boy's eyes in his own, their stares locked.
"Favors, eh?" he stood, slipping a twenty into the blonde's bra, "Tell him to meet me in room 2B."
She smiled and walked away, giving a little squeal as he slapped her butt in passing. The man walked down the stair and bumped into another crazed kid from the dance floor. He pushed the young man away from him without a word. That kid was lucky today. The prospect of sex has a rather calming effect on a man's temper.
Duo saw the blonde coming back and greeted her kindly as she came to stand beside him, offering a hello rather than a grope or goose.
Nice guys like him don't belong in places like these, she though.
Duo noticed the edge of the twenty sticking out from her shirt and nodded at it, "So, tell me. How come you get all the big tippers 'round here?"
She smiled slyly, "That comes with experience, kid."
"Duo!"
The American looked over the bar to his employer, a well-built man in his forties with a receding hairline and thinning beard.
"Take table seventeen, got that?"
Duo nodded but a black leather gloved hand held him in place, "Get Connie to take it. Duo's already got a customer."
Duo quirked an eyebrow in confusion.
"Room 2B. Mr. Big Tipper. Told him about your little specialties and he's interested. Better hurry down there."
"My speci..." Duo's eyes lit up, "Oh... Well then, I'd better get going. Do I owe you anything for the advertisement?"
She shook her head, "Just be careful, kid. And remember that up front pricing advice I gave ya. No pay, no lay."
Duo laughed lightly, "Gotcha." He smiled at her as he left and ambled down the back stair. Room 2B. The basement. It was colder down there and the rooms less spacious than the smoke rooms upstairs but one didn't need too much room. Just enough for a bed. Not even that much in some cases. Duo smiled to himself. With any luck he'd make enough money on this one to go without for a while. 2B was the first door on the right and lit with a crimson light that spilled across the floor and under the closed door. Duo stood before it and knocked.
"Come in my violet eyed angel."
Duo opened the door and peered inside. 2B was much more spacious than some of the other ones. Not only did it have a bed but a chair and small table in the front. The tall man sat in the chair, a new glass of crimson wine poured into a tall crystal cup. He smiled, "You're even more beautiful at short distance."
Duo sat down on his lap and nuzzled his throat, "So they say." He trailed his hands down the masculine chest, running circles across the muscles and tight abs, "I'm not cheap. Fifty dollars. But I sware to you it's worth it. Still interested?"
The man smiled, a quirky gleam in his eyes that belonged in one much younger.
"Show me."
The man grabbed his wandering hands and pulled them firmly to his groin and the burning erection that lay restricted beneath the jeans.
Duo purred seductively, "I meant the money. But I like it when a man gets to the point."
"So do I." The man trailed a finger over the soft tinted lips and skin before kissing the corner of his charcoal smudged eyes, "Be a good little boy and prove you're as good as you say. I like my pleasure before business."
Duo stood up, hands on his narrow hips, "Pleasure? I don't work in the field of pleasure. I'm an administrator of ecstasy." he reached behind and plucked the tie from his hair, letting it fall over him in cascading waves.
The man groaned with desire, hands reaching out as if to touch the silken strands.
The longhaired boy tipped his head back and trailed his hands down his own body, stopping at the waistband of his pants. He gave the sitting man a sly wink before reaching down into leather shorts and moaning deeply, his arm clenching and moving to it's own beat, far different to the one hammering above on the dance floor.
The man watched, his mouth watering at the site and body aching with need to join in the dance. Duo took notice of the soundless pleas and withdrew his hand.. and a gun.
One shot and it was over. The silenced bullet planted itself between the eyes of the man in the chair who's face remained a mask of horror and betrayal. Duo smiled and bent over the man, reaching into his back pants pocket and extracting a black disk and wallet. Cheap bastard only had a hundred stashed in it. Mr. Hank Parish. Ironic.
Duo rose his wristwatch communicator to his mouth, speaking clearly into it's disguised microphone, "Target destroyed. Disk attained. Mission Accomplished. Copy that, James?"
There was a brief period of silence before his communicator replied, "Ten four. I'm pulling the car to the back entrance. Be out there in forty second."
"Roger." Duo slipped the disk into his own pants and smiled at the corps, "Nice doing business with ya, Mr. Parish."
With that, he left his calling card. A shot in the heart, left shoulder, and then right.
"In the name if the father, son, and holy spirit. Tell um Shinigami sent ya."
He left the crimson room and ran down the cool concrete halls. No one would care when they found the dead man. He didn't want to be around when they did though. Death always lead to cops, lawyers, lawsuits and prison. Escape lead to another day, another kill, another job well done and a fat sum instantly added to his bank account.
James's black Honda sped around the corner, stopping only at the poison green exit sign that Duo stood under, masked by shadows of the night. Duo raced across the ally and into the passenger seat. James took off and Duo let out a sigh of relief.
"Let me see it." James ordered.
Duo complied, handing him the black disk. James looked over it as he drove, "This is it alright. Think you can decode and debug it at your office?"
Duo nodded, "Why risk it? HQ could do all that more efficiently than my home software."
"Perhaps," He handed it back, placing both hands on the steering wheel, "I'd still feel better if you handled it. I don't trust Headquarters much since that last incident with the camera failure in lab 9."
Duo nodded again, re-depositing the disk on his person, "Fine them. I'll fax the resultant data to you in the morning."
"No hurry. I've got a private mission that'll occupy my time for the next week or so. Just see what you can do with it in your spare time."
"Roger."
James smiled, pushing back his dark blue hair and watching through his glasses as Duo took to braiding his own chestnut locks, "You know, that outfit looks pretty damn good on you."
"Just remember what happened to the last guy who said that."
The driver laughed, a warm sound in the cold night, "Whatever. Seriously though, you played that part extremely well. If this assassin thing ever gets old, I suggest you take up waitressing at the 'Last Resort'."
Duo shrugged him off, "Guy's gotta do what a guy's gotta do." He tied the end of his braid and flung it back behind him. It reached his knees now, having grown out even longer in the past three years. A liability, true, but one he could never part with. "How much did I make for this one?"
"_We_ made over thirteen hundred. That's about six hundred a piece, plus whatever ya stoll from the target."
"Not enough."
James nodded, "HQ will double that if you can decode that disk."
The American's smile lifted, "Is that so.... What's on this thing anyway?"
James shook his head, "If we knew that then we wouldn't need to decode it."
The car stopped and Duo looked out his window. Home sweet home.
"Thanks for the help, James. Couldn't have done it without ya."
The blue haired man nodded, "What can I say? I'm the best damn intelligence expert out there. You keep safe, ya hear? I'm not gonna be around to pick your ass up off the cement for a while."
"Yeah, whatever. I can take care of myself. See ya, man."
James waved and drove off as Duo entered his tired old apartment complex. It seemed to him that the rattling of keys was just as good as saying, 'Heero, I'm home!' since the moment he took them out, he could hear him moving around behind the door. He entered his apartment and peered lovingly at the face of his best friend, Heero Maxwell. His cat.
"Hey, Heero, did you miss me?"
The cat purred and nuzzled his legs.
"Yeah, I know. Long night. Bet you're hungry, huh?"
Heero sat back on his hind legs and looked quizzically at his master's face.
"Come on. I'll fill you're bowl."
Cat and Master walked side by side into the Ground Zero affectionately termed 'the kitchen'. Or should it be the other way around? Duo opened the top cabinet and pulled out the bag of cat food. It smelled bad but compared to most of the other stenches in his kitchen, it didn't make a dent. Bowl full and kitty content, Duo moved to his room and flipped on the computer. The blue haze filled the dark room. He'd forgotten to buy a light bulb. Well, he'd spent most of his money on the costume. A one time wear. Well... the pants were pretty nice.. But other than that he had five pounds of leather which would never chafe his skin again. He wasn't sure if that was relief passing through his veins or resentment. Disk out a deposited in the A drive, Duo sat down before his monitor and began hacking his way through the information. This was more a job for Heero, the real Heero that is. Duo wasn't half bad but not half as good as him. With quick fingers and a quicker mind, he scraped off the first few layers of coding. His Heero had long since finished his dinner and had found his master's lap to be a very inviting resting place indeed. Duo stroked the cat while his eyes surveyed the disk data. No wonder James had told him to take him time. It was a three-day job at best. He sank back into his chair. He needed that money now. Not in three days and certainly not by the end of the week if things fell back.
Duo sat back and reassessed the situation. He clicked a few keys and the lights went out, his computer shutting down in mid program. Any progress he'd made was lost. Duo, while not widely renowned for him temper, lost it. He kicked the chair away and into the 'dinning room' and slapped the CPU with his hands "Stupid machine! Damn, crazy, stupid machine!"
He punched the eject button and grabbed hold of the extended black disk. An ark of blue-violet waves fell over his left hand, sending a cold, electrifying fire through his arm. It burned. He pulled back, shaking the arm as if it would help shed away the pain. With one last outburst he ran to the 'bathroom' and stuck his arm in the 'sink', turning freezing water on to cool his aching arm.
"Damn crazy machine.. shocked me...better not leave a mark..." he waited for the pain to subside and quickly gauzed up the flesh, red with irritation. It still hurt but it wasn't mind fogging, just a distraction, It'd be find in the morning, he told himself as he walked back to his computer, ready to exact revenge with a baseball bat.
It was back on, a blinking message lit up on screen. Duo would have sat but found his chair had somehow magically disappeared. He clicked the message and read his new mission.
"Kill Relena Peacecraft. Nineteen thousand dollars. Payment in advance." He went online and immediately checked his bank statements. A deposit of exactly nineteen thousand dollars had been added.
"Kill Relena?" Duo smiled, "And get paid to do it? Mission Accepted."