The group split up to take care of their respective tasks, Gwyn returned to her dorm to gather her things. The team were operating under the assumption that they would be watched from her on out so they’d be moving separately as much as they could.
Gwyn already had permission to leave the school as Principal Godheart had sent over an electronic slip to her ID, now she just needed to head over to the station and check in with the security. Marion had asked her to keep them distracted for a minute or two before she left.
As she approached the station she activated Alluring Sight, within a heartbeat she had the attention of all the station guards.
“Excuse me! I’m meant to be leaving, I have a slip from the principal.”
Gwyn called out loudly to the guard manning the booth, turning him away from the cameras’ monitor. It was hard for her to do so as she didn’t really like causing a scene.
“Yes miss, I’ve just registered it. You’re free to board”
The station guard told her kindly as a series of other guards watched her as they patrolled by, Gwen didn’t see her friends on the monitors but they had asked her to be a distraction for a little longer.
“Yes, but I need to leave for a while. I just don’t want to get in trouble if I’m not back in time. Nobody told me when I needed to be back, Could you look it up for me?”
Gwyn leant herself over the desk as she used both Charming Request and Alluring Sight, her buxom chest pressing onto the top of the counter in an attempt to be rather distracting. A healthy dose of her skills was needed to keep their attention as they seemed annoyingly professional, enough to not stare at an eighteen year old school-girl’s chest. The one time she needed it and they were gentlemen.
“Sure thing let me look this up for you”
He intoned inattentively as he tried to ignore her glistening skin, she was painfully embarrassed by the situation. After a moment of scanning her ID ring he informed her that she was needed back by next Monday and as there wasn’t any sign of the others she thanked him and hurried away and boarded the hover-train.
Whilst sitting in an empty booth on the train a random guard approached her, she grasped her taser nervously as he entered her booth and shut the door behind him. Her heart hammered in her chest as he spoke into the silence.
“Young lady, I’m afraid I'm going to ask to do a strip search.”
Gwyn was about to taser him before she realized that the guard looked and sounded suspiciously like Marion just with a fake mustache.
“That’s not funny! You almost gave me a heart attack!”
“Sure it was! Anyway we’ll be in disguise so don’t look for us but we’ll meet at your apartment.”
Marion chuckled at the grumpy Gwyn before leaving her alone, closing the door behind as she left.
----------------------------------------
When the train arrived at the city station she was alone once again, her friends had disguised themselves and were loitering nearby out of sight. Gwyn did activate her Alluring Sight to give them a greater shot of escaping unseen.
Once out, she hailed a waiting auto-taxi to take her to her apartment, she ignored the obnoxious robot that tried to talk her into a monthly plan as she traveled to her small home. Very rarely did she travel alone nowadays and she found she didn’t care much for it, she missed her friends already.
Soon the archology loomed up in the skyline and she exited the cab. As rode the elevator up to her floor she kept an eye on the other occupants and a hand on her taser. She still didn’t see her hidden companions anywhere but she trusted that they were watching over her along the way home.
When she finally entered her tiny apartment she found each of them lounging around as if they hadn’t raced her here. She threw herself into Tatiana’s arms on the couch and kissed her passionately.
“Not that I'm complaining but what was that for?” Tatiana blushed as she held Gwyn in her arms.
“I missed you.”
“It’s only been 20 minutes.” Marion said amusingly from her place beside the half opened blinds, keeping a lookout over the city.
“I missed you too, you as well Cécilia.”
‘Nice to know I’m an afterthought.” Cécilia chuckled as she surveyed the corridor for anyone who had followed Gwyn.
“So what is the plan?” After she had gotten comfortable in Tatiana’s lap she posed the simple but complex question.
“It’s rather simple, you go into the meeting area and look for your mother. We on the other hand will follow you at a distance and if it looks like it’s actually a trap we’ll spring a counter trap.” Marion explained the plan they had made while waiting for Gwyn.
“Isn’t that kind of simple?”
“Simple works best in these situations, too many moving parts mean more points of failure.” Cécilia explained but didn’t take her eye off the hallway.
“Are they even watching me?”
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“Oh, definitely. I saw at least four people tailing you from the station.”
Gwyn hadn’t noticed anyone at all. The fact that four people, not including the three girls had stalked her that far without her noticing was concerning.
“Don’t worry about them, we’ll handle it. You just focus on finding out if your mother is involved,” She sent a smile Gwyn’s way, “trust us.”
Gwyn huffed to herself, it wasn’t that she didn’t trust them, it was just she had absolutely no clue why her potential kidnappers wanted this system so badly. She had tried in her downtime to find out more in the menu but there was nothing, maybe it was a prototype? A proof of concept, but who were they sending it to?
She didn’t think it was the principal, even with the current situation that had been started by her. If principal Godheart wanted whatever this was she could have gotten it in easier than crashing it in. For another thing, was her mother actually having an affair with the principal?
It was certainly not something she had wanted to picture in her head but it had found its way in, she felt ill.
“Alright, do we have everything?”
Gwyn was broken from her nauseous thoughts by Tatiana’s checking. Each of the group nodded in affirmation. Instead of leaving through the front door the girls moved over to Gwyn's closet, much to her confusion. That confusion turned to stunned disbelief as the back of the wardrobe slid away to reveal the next apartment over which was filled with weapons of all kinds. She leveled a shocked look at the bashful Tatiana.
“When was that there?!”
“Umm, since we met. I bought up the apartments on either side.” Tatiana had a hard time meeting Gwyn’s eye.
“Have your lover’s spat later, we’ve got a counter trap to set.” Marion called out as she disappeared down a trapdoor to the floor below.
Tatiana just smiled nervously as she closed the trap door behind her as she descended. With nothing else to do Gwyn headed out the front door, presumably under the gaze of whoever was tracking her. As she awaited the auto-taxi she tried and failed to spot her stealthy friends in the crowd but they were far too skilled to be caught out by an amateur.
She clambered into another busted up cab and directed it to the city’s downtown where the area principal Godheart had said her absent mother was waiting. Whether she was actually there remained to be seen.
The auto-taxi promptly arrived outside the venue she’d been told her mother was at, upon exiting the cab she took in the motley collection of people lining up to enter. Each one of them held a copy of her mother’s new book. Was this just a book signing?
Why was she here then?
Gwyn headed inside the fully packed building in search of her mother, squeezing past the crowd. Inside the building she found that instead of her mother personally signing the books, she had set up a series of tables where sullen and most likely underpaid assistants were stamping her signature; the recipients seemed satisfied with that though.
It sadly reminded her of all her report cards and birthday cards that had just been stamped with ‘Good job’ by people she didn’t know. Shaking off her sad memories she headed towards the person who looked the most self-important, she guessed they were her mother’s manager.
“Excuse me, do you know where my mother is? Eve Morven?”
“Mrs Morven doesn’t have any children, if you want a signature please pay and line up.” The silky voiced manager didn’t even look up from their phone.
“I’m her daughter Gwyn. Gwynnestri Morven.” Gwyn was getting fed up with this situation, she’d much rather deal with kidnappers than her mother’s people, they tended to take after her.
“Gwynnestri? Like the elf?” The manager smirked amusingly at Gwyn.
Sometimes she hated her name, especially her full name. Her mother had named Gwyn after her favorite creation, an Elf named Gwynnestri that she had written about and had earned her fame from. Sometimes Gwyn thought her mother thought of her fictional character as her real daughter rather than the one she actually had.
“Yes, she wanted me here, so check again.” Gwyn used just a little bit of her ability.
The pompous manager just sighed and rechecked their roster “oh it’s right here, go on up then.”
No apology, no care. Just like Gwyn’s mother then.
Heading upstairs she passed by boxes upon boxes of her mother’s new book, Gwyn hadn’t bothered to read the copy she’d been sent. Eventually she made her way to the backroom where her obnoxious mother was supposed to be, she ignored the moans emanating from within and knocked loudly.
“Who is it?” The rather annoyed and breathless voice of her mother responded from within.
“It’s Gwyn. You asked me to be here, I’m missing school for whatever this is.”
There was a long pause before the door opened and a pair of twenty-something male and female assistants left, Gwyn blocked out the sight of the lipstick stains and half-dressed nature. She had enough mental scars thank you very much.
“There you are Gwynnestri, poor timing as always.”
Eve Morven was an older woman in her early forties who acted like she was still in her twenties, her fashionable dress was rumpled and she was wiping off lipstick from her neck as Gwyn entered. Her graying hair had been dyed a deep bronze and Gwyn could see the effects of costly anti-aging treatments dotting her face. She threw a scowl at Gwyn as she put her clothes back in a presentable order.
“You asked me to be here, don’t get mad at me for your decisions.”
“Don’t you dare take that tone with me.”
Mother and daughter glared at one another for a long while before her mother broke the silence.
“What have you gotten yourself mixed up in Gwynnestri? I don’t recall raising you to be such a menace.”
“You raised me?” Gwyn scoffed “Since when?”
“Don’t give me that attitude after all I’ve done for you, I got you into that school didn’t I?” Eve glared at her daughter.
“So it’s true then? You’re having an affair with principal Godheart?”
Eve scoffed herself “Affair implies your father doesn’t know, do you know how many mistresses he has. Me sleeping with that woman in order to get you into that pompous school is more than he ever gave you.”
Gwyn had enough, she didn’t want to hear anymore. She latched onto something her mother had said a moment ago.
“Mixed up in? What are you talking about?” It was most likely about the orb but she wondered what her mother knew about it.
Eve rolled her eyes at Gwyn “your little thievery. They told me all about it and offered me quite the sum to get you here.”
“Who? Tell me” Gwyn infused her voice with her power but her mother just shook her head as she smirked, the Charming Request didn’t work on those who didn’t even want to comply.
At this point Gwyn heard the sounds of tires squealing, with chilling blood she looked out the window to the office and saw multiple black cars surrounding the building, disgorging more masked henchmen.