Mad Dogs (Colab with Takeda Kusanagi) - Part 3 and 4
Camila tossed her hair back, and welcomed the shower sprayfull-force on her face. The water was again awakening the soreness that hadresulted from her spar with Takeda, but at the same time was relaxing hermuscles, numbing the pain, making it far more bearable.
She was, however, barely registering it to begin with, because she was focusedanalyzing her situation and her feelings about it. Takeda, mostly, was in hermind. She had to admit with grudging admiration he was one of the few peopleshe knew in Paragon that truly intrigued her. From day one, she thought trulythat she annoyed him. She had actually enjoyed conflict, having discovered longago, that pressure and rivalry brought forth her craftiness and ability to workwell under pressure. So, she continued to listen, and tease, and verbally sparwith him. Not for a moment did she doubt that he did not have any lost love forher.
Then, she was surprised to find otherwise: first, it was the small things --"Millie", he called her, and to her surprise, she saw not teasing init, but a strange form of fondness. Then his appreciation of her writing on hisnotebook. And accepting her dare to "follow the rabbit down the hole"as well, giving them both a day of horrors and wonders (being the mostdistinctive the fact that they managed to work amazingly well as a team, evenagainst the dreaded Rularuu). Finally, maybe to show her how to learn humility,she was proved wrong beyond a shadow of a doubt.
"You're his favorite" Sin had said. This was in the aftermath of thestrange 7-question game she had managed to somehow sucker Takeda into playing.When Camila pointed out that not two minutes before Sin had said that whenasked who would Takeda hook up with, he had answered "Trina", Sinshrugged "Yes. Hooking up is not the same as being the favorite. Which youare. Trina told him that you and Quinn are really tight, otherwise I'dbet my two front teeth that he would choose to hook up with you. Takeda is notthe kind of guy to go around trying to pin for women he can't have or havingfun trying to steal other guys' girlfriends." As she seemed unconviced,Sin had grinned "Better believe it, I asked him directly and he confirmedit. Plus, and if you still don't believe me, there were other people listeningto us on comm that night. We played it over the open channel."
Still and for a while, Camila hadn't truly believed Sinclaire's words, mostlybecause she knew that the other woman's opinion might be very well biasedagainst Dream Gazer: despite the claims Trina had made about no longerbeing interested in Explosive Peace, Sin had confided to her that she felt as though every time she turned around, Trina was trying to steerher away from him. However, and on retrospective, it had become clear thatindeed she should have trusted Sin from the start.
It did annoy her to have drawn so many wrong conclusions, although living withTakeda did give her new insight about him -- still, the more she thought shehad figured him out, the more he'd do something out of the blue that wouldleave her intrigued, stunned or both.
Water pooled at her feet as she quickly began to rinse her hair: what had drawnher to hang with mercenaries who were absolutely unknowing of the ways ofmagic? The answer had eluded her for a long time, but, as she stood under thehot shower, it dawned on her that she was a wolf... and lone wolves, like her,were the ones that eventually are hunted down and killed by other packs.
Since she started living at the warehouse, she hadn't had the dream about thewolves again, but it didn't mean she had forgotten about it: the images were sovivid, so strong... the image of being devoured by wolves and being reborn asone of them haunted her, and the only explanation she had found for it had beenconnected to her role as a Mageslayer. The slayers were known as the"Wolves of the Council" and the word "wolf" caused dreadamong mages, not connected to old fairy tales, but rather to the idea that theynot only moved in packs, the Trinities, but also the fact that only death wouldstop them. Once in a fight, they would fight to the death -- and that knowledgeoften lead a lot of law-breakers to prefer to surrender rather than take on aQuaesitor.
She was a wolf. And now she was packless, torn between the fear of betrayalagain and the feeling of inadequacy. She had been betrayed once, but the truthwas, she couldn't ever unlock her full strength alone. It had been when she hadtraveled with Takeda to the Shadow Shard that she had again found the feelingof belong she had lost. Her form of combat was seen by many as reckless, but itwas far from it. It was focused. It was trusting.
Trust in her packmates, that they would catch her if she would fall. It waspure trust.
She closed the tap, and exhaled softly, shuddering slightly as a light chillenveloped her. She remembered the strange mission for Father Time... and hownecessity had bred strange bedfellows. Heroes and Villains united together toface a common foe... she had risked taking on a large group of the demonicfaeries, the redcaps. It wasn't distraction, it wasn't recklessness -- it hadbeen instinct. She had fought the way she knew how, letting herself fall,trusting on her pack...
For a moment, she realized her foolishness, as she was overwhelmed, an arrowlodging itself deeply into her side. For a moment, she thought all was over.
She had let herself fall.
But then... bullets rained, killing and wounding the vicious little monsters,and when the dust settled, they were both standing still.
She had let herself fall and Takeda had caught her.
After drying herself quickly, she put on a large T-shirt, and barefooted,padded to the makeshift kitchen. Even without thinking she found herselfpreparing three tall glasses of juice and a plate of biscuits. It wasn't doneby any conscious effort -- it had been like that when Filipe and Jason wherealive: the pack.
Lone, packless wolves died quick, bloody deaths.
Without speaking, she walked to the training area, quietly placing the glassand a few biscuits on a neat pile in a handy place for when Mataki was donepracticing. Not wanting to interrupt, she left silent and walked towards Takedaroom. In all likelihood he was still showering, and after knocking at his door,she sat on the ground, resting against the wall and thinking, that Takeda andhis gang were not wolves. They were dogs. Strays, as he jokingly often referredto them.
She had no pack, which meant she too was a stray -- even if she was a wolf. Inthe end, wolves and dogs found themselves often in opposing sides of a battle:one side tamed, serving man, the other wild, remnants of a bloody world of thesurvival of the fittest. One side had love, the other had fear.
But dogs and wolves were still very the same: the pack was, in the end, allthat mattered. The pack was their strength, their solace, their comfort.
Takeda opened the door, and with one of her enigmatic, Cheshire cat smiles, sheheld a glass to him.
"I thought you might be thirsty."
The pack was their home.
"You mean you two were...?"
"Yes."
"And she was married?"
"Yes."
"Is she still married?"
"Yes."
"Are you two still...?"
"No."
"Did her husband ever...?"
"No."
"Was she going to leave him?"
"Yes."
"So you two were gonna...?"
"No."
"But she did would you...?"
"No."
"Are they not...?"
"No."
"But still she's...!"
"Yes."
"And you two was...?"
"Yes."
"And if things were different would you...?"
"No."
Camila sat and thought a moment. "I'm not wearing any panties."
"Millie! What the hell...!"
"Well your responses were single syllable and I thought you were messing with me!"
"You wanted to know about her so I told you!"
"Specifics would be nice, other than yes or no stuff."
"You were asking only yes or no questions."
"Well, I didn't know if it was cool or not to ask about her, you know?"
Takeda sighed and took a quick sip of juice. "Let's start over then. Ask me something."
Camila took an exaggerated deep breath and began again. "Her name is Salina?"
"Yes. Salina Capshaw."
"She told me her name was Salina Tsuko."
"Her married name; hopes it'll rings some bells around the scientific community."
"Why? Is he supposed to be famous? Or more like... infamous?"
"The second one. Part of the reason she tends to roll with Chrysalis is because the organization shares her distaste for Crey agenda. Rumor had it her husband was receiving all kinds of funding and resources from a private benefactor to further his research in what kind of was like a skeletal design for the Paragon Protector program, only his research involved psi-op candidates and cybernetic experimentation." Takeda set the glass down on the metal desk by the window and sat back in his chair. "His project was shut down and he went to ground with his family here in Paragon. Funny thing is that while he's still happily married and has a wonderful teenageaged daughter, the family in the photos on his desk aren't really the people he went into the witness relocation program with."
"A fake family? He's got actors playing as his family?"
"Salina Tsuko is, to be technical about it, dead. No records of her ever being in Paragon."
"Then who is Salina supposed to be? His real wife?"
"Correct."
"Then there's more you're not telling me because...?"
"It's her story to tell, not mine. All I can tell you is that SIGMA has his fingerprints all over it and my handler set that gig up as a favor to her. One of the main scientist who moved the project underground used as his meal ticket to get in with the big boys. He 'remarried' and relocated after he found out she breached containment and had achieved total recall. And with the combat software he helped design he had no doubt she'd come gunning for him. And since I scored some of the software she needed to remove the fail-safes he had installed to keep her from killing him..."
"So let me get this straight," Camila smirked, "you were shagging a robot?"
"Millie!"
"You said yes eariler!"
"She's not a robot!"
"Android?"
"No!"
"You're blushing."
"Millie!"
"Cyborg?"
"She's a synthetic!" Takeda raked his fingers through his spikey hair and shrugged. "The good doctor did a 60 to 70% swap out so she can retain some of her physical attributes and abilities ideal to cutting his work in half; reproduction and such. So naturally after she gave birth the people who moved him had to add to his fake family to account for their whereabouts; they hired stand-ins while he did his work uninterupted."
"So...she's a synthetic MILF?"
Takeda threw up his hands. "And I'm done."
Camila offered two thumbs up. "Hey, I'd do her. Good choice -- you go,boy!"
"Somehow with the accent it just sounds... wrong."
"More wrong than normal?"
"Yeah, I'll give you that one."
"Nice." Camila looked away for a moment, becoming serious again. "You two were gunner-mates, and sort of hooked up? Foxhole sort of romance?" She was trying to make light of things but was beginning to get the picture now about him and the mystery woman who fought like a machine on the different occassions she had joined them on missions: Salina Tsuko, aka Salina Capshaw. Synthetic hybrid thanks to her sell-out researcher husband, with a daughter probably born into being a science experiement. They went into hiding and her loving husband got replacements and went into a subdivision of Crey perhaps. Chances were that somehow Takeda and Salina met on an assignment of joint crossing, and given the nature in which the man worked they probably met while pointing guns at each other. The rest had to be a very interesting if not not unusual story.
"Where's Mataki? Still over in the garage?"
"Yeah, he was wanting to know when we'd get our own signature vehicles."
"A Mataki-mobile? Funny."
"And you could have a Takeda T-bird!"
"For you I'm envisioning a Camila crotch-rocket."
"Hey, don't tease like that; remember, I'm not wearing underwear."
"...you're a mess." Takeda grumbled as he reached for his juice.
"Actually not yet. Wanna see?"
"Millie! Cut that out!"
"Don't be shy! I've seen you naked before!"
"No you haven't and -- hey, put that back!"
"Ooooo, love letters maybe?"
"No, that's my --"
Camila stopped as her hand swept across the cover of the folder. "A scrapbook?" She immediately handed it over. "I'm sorry. Wow -- you actually have pictures of people who are...?" She understood. People who were important to him were in that book, people she may or may not meet; people who may or may not be alive. Perhaps the reason why he was the way he was could possibly be in those pages; she had no right to look. "Here."
"Thanks." Takeda carefully placed the book on the desk and sipped his drink. Camila tried to hide how fidgety she was having managed to successfully score a few points and key notes to put under her belt, but not really sure how to piece things together.
"Salina is... very pretty."
"High resolution polyimer -- wait, what do you mean by that?"
"I'm just saying that for you to wanna help her find her husband she must be special to you. Even though she's synthetic now, she seems like a really good gal, yeah?"
Takeda thought a moment, meditating on something for the moment. "Yeah."
"So even though she was married, she really wasn't?"
"Yes."
"And though her husband didn't know about you two, it didn't matter?"
"No."
"And when you I asked if she was going to leave him she actually plans to--"
"Yes."
"And if things had turned out differently between you to, maybe you'd both be...?"
Takeda downed the juice and tossed her the glass. "I don't know."
Before an awkward silence could set in Camila rose from her seat on the bed and turned the glass between her hands. "Well, I'm gonna put this in the sink and maybe go knife Mataki for a little bit. After that I might head to bed, but if something comes up you'll come get me right?" After a nod of confirmation she forced a smile, not certain if maybe she had pushed things a bit too much this time around. Takeda was hard to read sometimes, but the start of understanding why was helping her make progress as well as possibly create new obstacles. She headed to the door and waved. "Anyway, carry on then. I'll catch you in the morning. Oh, and one more thing real quick..."
"Damn it Millie! NO FLASHING!"
"Ah, you're blushing! I got you good that time!"
"What the hell is wrong with you?!"
"I'm wearing panties dahling -- carry on!"
Before she closed the door she chanced a quick glance to make sure they were still cool.
There he was -- shaking his head in disbelief, but there was a smile.
Things were still cool.
She was, however, barely registering it to begin with, because she was focusedanalyzing her situation and her feelings about it. Takeda, mostly, was in hermind. She had to admit with grudging admiration he was one of the few peopleshe knew in Paragon that truly intrigued her. From day one, she thought trulythat she annoyed him. She had actually enjoyed conflict, having discovered longago, that pressure and rivalry brought forth her craftiness and ability to workwell under pressure. So, she continued to listen, and tease, and verbally sparwith him. Not for a moment did she doubt that he did not have any lost love forher.
Then, she was surprised to find otherwise: first, it was the small things --"Millie", he called her, and to her surprise, she saw not teasing init, but a strange form of fondness. Then his appreciation of her writing on hisnotebook. And accepting her dare to "follow the rabbit down the hole"as well, giving them both a day of horrors and wonders (being the mostdistinctive the fact that they managed to work amazingly well as a team, evenagainst the dreaded Rularuu). Finally, maybe to show her how to learn humility,she was proved wrong beyond a shadow of a doubt.
"You're his favorite" Sin had said. This was in the aftermath of thestrange 7-question game she had managed to somehow sucker Takeda into playing.When Camila pointed out that not two minutes before Sin had said that whenasked who would Takeda hook up with, he had answered "Trina", Sinshrugged "Yes. Hooking up is not the same as being the favorite. Which youare. Trina told him that you and Quinn are really tight, otherwise I'dbet my two front teeth that he would choose to hook up with you. Takeda is notthe kind of guy to go around trying to pin for women he can't have or havingfun trying to steal other guys' girlfriends." As she seemed unconviced,Sin had grinned "Better believe it, I asked him directly and he confirmedit. Plus, and if you still don't believe me, there were other people listeningto us on comm that night. We played it over the open channel."
Still and for a while, Camila hadn't truly believed Sinclaire's words, mostlybecause she knew that the other woman's opinion might be very well biasedagainst Dream Gazer: despite the claims Trina had made about no longerbeing interested in Explosive Peace, Sin had confided to her that she felt as though every time she turned around, Trina was trying to steerher away from him. However, and on retrospective, it had become clear thatindeed she should have trusted Sin from the start.
It did annoy her to have drawn so many wrong conclusions, although living withTakeda did give her new insight about him -- still, the more she thought shehad figured him out, the more he'd do something out of the blue that wouldleave her intrigued, stunned or both.
Water pooled at her feet as she quickly began to rinse her hair: what had drawnher to hang with mercenaries who were absolutely unknowing of the ways ofmagic? The answer had eluded her for a long time, but, as she stood under thehot shower, it dawned on her that she was a wolf... and lone wolves, like her,were the ones that eventually are hunted down and killed by other packs.
Since she started living at the warehouse, she hadn't had the dream about thewolves again, but it didn't mean she had forgotten about it: the images were sovivid, so strong... the image of being devoured by wolves and being reborn asone of them haunted her, and the only explanation she had found for it had beenconnected to her role as a Mageslayer. The slayers were known as the"Wolves of the Council" and the word "wolf" caused dreadamong mages, not connected to old fairy tales, but rather to the idea that theynot only moved in packs, the Trinities, but also the fact that only death wouldstop them. Once in a fight, they would fight to the death -- and that knowledgeoften lead a lot of law-breakers to prefer to surrender rather than take on aQuaesitor.
She was a wolf. And now she was packless, torn between the fear of betrayalagain and the feeling of inadequacy. She had been betrayed once, but the truthwas, she couldn't ever unlock her full strength alone. It had been when she hadtraveled with Takeda to the Shadow Shard that she had again found the feelingof belong she had lost. Her form of combat was seen by many as reckless, but itwas far from it. It was focused. It was trusting.
Trust in her packmates, that they would catch her if she would fall. It waspure trust.
She closed the tap, and exhaled softly, shuddering slightly as a light chillenveloped her. She remembered the strange mission for Father Time... and hownecessity had bred strange bedfellows. Heroes and Villains united together toface a common foe... she had risked taking on a large group of the demonicfaeries, the redcaps. It wasn't distraction, it wasn't recklessness -- it hadbeen instinct. She had fought the way she knew how, letting herself fall,trusting on her pack...
For a moment, she realized her foolishness, as she was overwhelmed, an arrowlodging itself deeply into her side. For a moment, she thought all was over.
She had let herself fall.
But then... bullets rained, killing and wounding the vicious little monsters,and when the dust settled, they were both standing still.
She had let herself fall and Takeda had caught her.
After drying herself quickly, she put on a large T-shirt, and barefooted,padded to the makeshift kitchen. Even without thinking she found herselfpreparing three tall glasses of juice and a plate of biscuits. It wasn't doneby any conscious effort -- it had been like that when Filipe and Jason wherealive: the pack.
Lone, packless wolves died quick, bloody deaths.
Without speaking, she walked to the training area, quietly placing the glassand a few biscuits on a neat pile in a handy place for when Mataki was donepracticing. Not wanting to interrupt, she left silent and walked towards Takedaroom. In all likelihood he was still showering, and after knocking at his door,she sat on the ground, resting against the wall and thinking, that Takeda andhis gang were not wolves. They were dogs. Strays, as he jokingly often referredto them.
She had no pack, which meant she too was a stray -- even if she was a wolf. Inthe end, wolves and dogs found themselves often in opposing sides of a battle:one side tamed, serving man, the other wild, remnants of a bloody world of thesurvival of the fittest. One side had love, the other had fear.
But dogs and wolves were still very the same: the pack was, in the end, allthat mattered. The pack was their strength, their solace, their comfort.
Takeda opened the door, and with one of her enigmatic, Cheshire cat smiles, sheheld a glass to him.
"I thought you might be thirsty."
The pack was their home.
"You mean you two were...?"
"Yes."
"And she was married?"
"Yes."
"Is she still married?"
"Yes."
"Are you two still...?"
"No."
"Did her husband ever...?"
"No."
"Was she going to leave him?"
"Yes."
"So you two were gonna...?"
"No."
"But she did would you...?"
"No."
"Are they not...?"
"No."
"But still she's...!"
"Yes."
"And you two was...?"
"Yes."
"And if things were different would you...?"
"No."
Camila sat and thought a moment. "I'm not wearing any panties."
"Millie! What the hell...!"
"Well your responses were single syllable and I thought you were messing with me!"
"You wanted to know about her so I told you!"
"Specifics would be nice, other than yes or no stuff."
"You were asking only yes or no questions."
"Well, I didn't know if it was cool or not to ask about her, you know?"
Takeda sighed and took a quick sip of juice. "Let's start over then. Ask me something."
Camila took an exaggerated deep breath and began again. "Her name is Salina?"
"Yes. Salina Capshaw."
"She told me her name was Salina Tsuko."
"Her married name; hopes it'll rings some bells around the scientific community."
"Why? Is he supposed to be famous? Or more like... infamous?"
"The second one. Part of the reason she tends to roll with Chrysalis is because the organization shares her distaste for Crey agenda. Rumor had it her husband was receiving all kinds of funding and resources from a private benefactor to further his research in what kind of was like a skeletal design for the Paragon Protector program, only his research involved psi-op candidates and cybernetic experimentation." Takeda set the glass down on the metal desk by the window and sat back in his chair. "His project was shut down and he went to ground with his family here in Paragon. Funny thing is that while he's still happily married and has a wonderful teenageaged daughter, the family in the photos on his desk aren't really the people he went into the witness relocation program with."
"A fake family? He's got actors playing as his family?"
"Salina Tsuko is, to be technical about it, dead. No records of her ever being in Paragon."
"Then who is Salina supposed to be? His real wife?"
"Correct."
"Then there's more you're not telling me because...?"
"It's her story to tell, not mine. All I can tell you is that SIGMA has his fingerprints all over it and my handler set that gig up as a favor to her. One of the main scientist who moved the project underground used as his meal ticket to get in with the big boys. He 'remarried' and relocated after he found out she breached containment and had achieved total recall. And with the combat software he helped design he had no doubt she'd come gunning for him. And since I scored some of the software she needed to remove the fail-safes he had installed to keep her from killing him..."
"So let me get this straight," Camila smirked, "you were shagging a robot?"
"Millie!"
"You said yes eariler!"
"She's not a robot!"
"Android?"
"No!"
"You're blushing."
"Millie!"
"Cyborg?"
"She's a synthetic!" Takeda raked his fingers through his spikey hair and shrugged. "The good doctor did a 60 to 70% swap out so she can retain some of her physical attributes and abilities ideal to cutting his work in half; reproduction and such. So naturally after she gave birth the people who moved him had to add to his fake family to account for their whereabouts; they hired stand-ins while he did his work uninterupted."
"So...she's a synthetic MILF?"
Takeda threw up his hands. "And I'm done."
Camila offered two thumbs up. "Hey, I'd do her. Good choice -- you go,boy!"
"Somehow with the accent it just sounds... wrong."
"More wrong than normal?"
"Yeah, I'll give you that one."
"Nice." Camila looked away for a moment, becoming serious again. "You two were gunner-mates, and sort of hooked up? Foxhole sort of romance?" She was trying to make light of things but was beginning to get the picture now about him and the mystery woman who fought like a machine on the different occassions she had joined them on missions: Salina Tsuko, aka Salina Capshaw. Synthetic hybrid thanks to her sell-out researcher husband, with a daughter probably born into being a science experiement. They went into hiding and her loving husband got replacements and went into a subdivision of Crey perhaps. Chances were that somehow Takeda and Salina met on an assignment of joint crossing, and given the nature in which the man worked they probably met while pointing guns at each other. The rest had to be a very interesting if not not unusual story.
"Where's Mataki? Still over in the garage?"
"Yeah, he was wanting to know when we'd get our own signature vehicles."
"A Mataki-mobile? Funny."
"And you could have a Takeda T-bird!"
"For you I'm envisioning a Camila crotch-rocket."
"Hey, don't tease like that; remember, I'm not wearing underwear."
"...you're a mess." Takeda grumbled as he reached for his juice.
"Actually not yet. Wanna see?"
"Millie! Cut that out!"
"Don't be shy! I've seen you naked before!"
"No you haven't and -- hey, put that back!"
"Ooooo, love letters maybe?"
"No, that's my --"
Camila stopped as her hand swept across the cover of the folder. "A scrapbook?" She immediately handed it over. "I'm sorry. Wow -- you actually have pictures of people who are...?" She understood. People who were important to him were in that book, people she may or may not meet; people who may or may not be alive. Perhaps the reason why he was the way he was could possibly be in those pages; she had no right to look. "Here."
"Thanks." Takeda carefully placed the book on the desk and sipped his drink. Camila tried to hide how fidgety she was having managed to successfully score a few points and key notes to put under her belt, but not really sure how to piece things together.
"Salina is... very pretty."
"High resolution polyimer -- wait, what do you mean by that?"
"I'm just saying that for you to wanna help her find her husband she must be special to you. Even though she's synthetic now, she seems like a really good gal, yeah?"
Takeda thought a moment, meditating on something for the moment. "Yeah."
"So even though she was married, she really wasn't?"
"Yes."
"And though her husband didn't know about you two, it didn't matter?"
"No."
"And when you I asked if she was going to leave him she actually plans to--"
"Yes."
"And if things had turned out differently between you to, maybe you'd both be...?"
Takeda downed the juice and tossed her the glass. "I don't know."
Before an awkward silence could set in Camila rose from her seat on the bed and turned the glass between her hands. "Well, I'm gonna put this in the sink and maybe go knife Mataki for a little bit. After that I might head to bed, but if something comes up you'll come get me right?" After a nod of confirmation she forced a smile, not certain if maybe she had pushed things a bit too much this time around. Takeda was hard to read sometimes, but the start of understanding why was helping her make progress as well as possibly create new obstacles. She headed to the door and waved. "Anyway, carry on then. I'll catch you in the morning. Oh, and one more thing real quick..."
"Damn it Millie! NO FLASHING!"
"Ah, you're blushing! I got you good that time!"
"What the hell is wrong with you?!"
"I'm wearing panties dahling -- carry on!"
Before she closed the door she chanced a quick glance to make sure they were still cool.
There he was -- shaking his head in disbelief, but there was a smile.
Things were still cool.