෴Hex෴
෴Wilson෴
෴Raven෴
෴෴෴ ෴෴෴ ෴෴෴
Wilson’s gaze bored into Hex. She clamped her hand over her own mouth to keep it from betraying her.
“Tell me now! Who else is paying you!” His words were silky smooth, the weight of his power made them undeniable, impossible to resist. She twitched in place, and then broke.
“My boyfriend!” she blurted out. “My boyfriend gives me money.” She went limp and slid down the door she hadn’t realized her back was pressed against.
Wilson looked skeptical. “You get paid plenty, what the hell does your boyfriend” He filled the word with disdain, “Give you money for?”
She resisted briefly before the words were torn from her. “He gives me money for clothes, sexy outfits. He likes shooting, so I’m allowed to buy ammo with the money.” she wailed.
Raven shifted, turning her body away from the other two.
“What else! Tell me the truth!” His words thundered in her ears and mind.
“I—I can buy whatever I want with the money he gives me.” she gasped out, curled up on the floor.
“Don’t play me. You’re well paid, you’ve got skills, you’re young and hot. You hardly need a sugar daddy. What does he REALLY pay you to do.”
She gritted her teeth, pushing against the bottom of her chin to keep her mouth closed. “No!”
“All right, we’ll come back to that one.” His eyes pulsed in time with his vocal cadence.
Raven took a few steps away, peering around the room as though she was suddenly finding the rest of the armory fascinating to look at. Her body language had gone tight, uncomfortable.
“How much money does he give you for your–services?” Wilson’s tone was openly condescending.
She tried to turn away from his gaze, but couldn't seem to manage it. “Sometimes he just takes me out. It depends on how much money he has.” she finally grunted out.
Raven looked at the two, her expression hardening.
Wilson crouched down next to her. He gently brushed away her hand and looked back into her closed eyes. “Tell me the truth. What else does he pay you to do?”
She went limp under his power. “He likes having more than one girl in bed. I do that for him any time he wants me to.” Tears squeezed out from her clenched eyelids.
He reached out to grab her shoulder. Raven snatched his hand away. “For god's sake Wilson! Could you make this any more rapey? It’s very obvious by now that this isn't a security issue you’re asking about! You’re mad, and looking for someone to take it out on.”
He looked up at her, enraged. His ability was still fully active. “How dare you interrupt me like that. Get the fuck off me!”
She fell back under the onslaught of his gaze, but then the lights in the room started to strobe and pop. Locker doors popping open. An automated sentry gun in one of the larger lockers spun to life.
She looked down at him. “How dare me? No. How dare you do this. You made a promise to everyone who signs up for you that you’ll only use this ability when it’s absolutely needed.” The sentry gun aimed a brilliant green laser dot at Wilson’s chest. “Power the fuck down or accept my forceful resignation.” her voice had shifted from furious to cold.
Wilson stopped, looked at the brilliant viridian laser dot on his chest and then at the activated weapon system on the far side of the room, and took a deep shaky breath. “You’re right. That was getting out of hand.” He wiped his hand over his sweaty face. “Sorry, both of you. I took that too far.”
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The strobing lights and electronics going wild slowed and then stopped. The sentry gun remained active.
Raven looked at Wilson with a mixture of anger and sympathy on her face. “I know you’re in a bad place. But taking it out on her, or me, or anyone else, isn’t going to make things better. Besides, I think you’re forgetting who was there doing everything she could to keep that fucking shifter down and try to keep Darby going at the same time.”
Wilson stood up and nodded his head, his expression shifting from grief to sadness and self-loathing. “I–I know it, I just can’t let it go. I’m so sorry.”
“Of course you can. You just need time, like anyone else.” She countered. Raven looked pointedly at the crumpled figure on the floor beside him. “But right now, I’m not the one you owe that apology to.”
Wilson turned and looked down at Hex. He extended a hand to help her up. “Sorry about that. I shouldn’t have continued on that line of questions.” He looked over at Raven and then at the sentry gun. “You can spin that down any time you want.”
Raven smirked. “Dumbass. We don't store them loaded in the first place. Anyone can see it’s not even attached to an ammo pack. Got your attention though, didn’t it.” She didn’t move, but the whine of the spinning motor changed, the tone dropping as the barrels slowed down.
Hex looked up at his outstretched hand, her bloodshot eyes radiating fury. She slapped his hand away. “Fuck you and your bullshit half-assed apology.”
Wilson looked back at Raven with a confused expression as Hex got to her feet.
Raven strode to the door and yanked it open. “This dumpster fire of a meeting is concluded. Wilson, I think we need to have some additional discussions about appropriate behavior in stressful situations.”
Wilson walked out of the room and headed for the small conference room.
Hex staggered over to the door and headed toward her office. Raven put her hand on Hex’s forearm. “Are you ok?”
Hex coughed and rubbed at her temples. “I’ll be alright.”
Raven’s expression went cold. “Good. Maybe you should try having some fucking respect for yourself. You can do better than whoring on the side.”
With that she walked away toward the small conference room.
Hex staggered to her office and sat down to rest. A few minutes later she applied some lotion from a bottle with a precision dosing cap. When she was sure the door was closed and locked, she finally let herself cry.
A while and a few tissues later, when she thought she’d composed herself, she headed out to the main area and waited. Soon enough she spotted Raven and Wilson coming out of the small conference room.
Wilson saw her and looked away. Raven looked at her with cool disdain.
The events of the small armory flashed back through her. “So Wilson, is this how it’s gonna be now?” Hex called out.
He looked confused. “What do you mean?”
“Don’t play that confused bullshit with me. You attacked me. Then you give me some half assed apology and I’m supposed to just let it go?” She hissed at him.
He looked at her and shrugged. “I’m sorry, I was pissed off, and I went too far. Shit happens. You’ll get over it, so get over it.”
Raven listened to this and shook her head before walking down the hall toward Wraith’s office.
Hex stood there, shaking with barely contained rage. “Oh I got it. I guess I’m the one that should apologize then.” She suddenly relaxed, her scowl melting into a nonchalant grin.
He looked at her with a suspicious gaze. “For what? Is there something else you need to tell me?”
“Well, I was pissed off, but as you said, shit happens, right?” She vanished, her clothing falling to the floor.
Wilson had no time to recognize what that meant before a pair of Hex aspects appeared next to him. They were both dressed in combat gear that covered them from head to toe. One snapped a kick into his side. The other slammed her armored fist into his face. Those two flickered out of sight and reappeared in new positions with ongoing momentum. The one on the ground swept his legs out from under him with a muted cracking sound, and the other fell onto his sternum knee first with a pop-crunch, extracting a burst of pained sound and air from him as the knee drove the wind right out of him.
The aspect that swept his legs vanished, leaving the aspect on his chest there alone. “I was pissed off, and maybe I went too far. Shit happens. But hey, just remember that you’ll get over it, so get over it.” She leaned over and looked him in the face, reflective ski goggles betraying nothing of her expression. “Register this with your fucking truth vision! I have never done anything that would hurt WD40, the people here, or our missions. Never! But if you try that mind rape shit on me again, you better be ready to kill all of me, because I won't be holding back next time, and you won't get over that.”
She flickered over to the fallen outfit and gathered it up. As she folded the clothing into a tight bundle, Hex turned and pulled down the mask that covered her face and neck. “Have a good weekend, let me know when we’ve got more work lined up.” she said with a predatory grin. She glanced over at Raven and Wraith, who were standing in Wraith’s doorway, jaws agape. “Nothing to see here folks, apparently it's just full contact office politics day.” She blew them both a kiss before vanishing.