Let's Get Lost in Your Ferrari

[frankiealton]

 

Dr. Blight was angry. Things had not worked out the way she had expected… again. She growled as she shoved clothes haphazardly into suitcases. Failure was starting to become a reoccurring theme in her life and she did not care for it at all. And this time it hadn’t been just her, but Greedly, Skumm and Plunder as well. It was bad enough to be losing to those annoying tree-hugging brats all the time but certainly the four of them together should have been enough to beat those stupid teenagers.

Now that the “syndicate” was no longer in business there was nothing left to do but pack up her things and get out of town. It wasn’t as if she were in a hurry to leave to avoid the authorities- Plunder was damn good at covering his tracks- but she just saw no reason to keep hanging around here. She was rather eager to get back home, to her lab, where she could stay holed up with MAL working on her research and generally avoiding interaction with the outside world.

Plunder had graciously made arrangements to get her back to the United States, setting her up with a first class ticket and more than enough cash to take care of any expenses she might encounter along the way. She considered the act “gracious” in that she was surprised that he hadn’t just told her to go to hell after it was all over with. She had been rather mean to him, probably unnecessarily so, and seeing as how the whole operation was a bust he really owed her no favors.

She frowned a little as she recalled her actions the day before, shoving Plunder down on the ground and turning her back on him angrily… Even she wasn’t really quite sure why she had been so harsh to him. Perhaps it was because she had expected more from him than from the other so-called Eco-villains. Blight had worked with most of the others at some point, and it was no surprise to her that they had not been successful in dealing with the annoying Planeteers.

Nukem, though once a distinguished nuclear physicist, now only hung on to any sort of lucidity by the barest of threads. Sludge… well, she barely even liked to place him in the same category as herself. She still wondered what she had been thinking when she decided to work with him. Greedly was at least somewhat smarter than Nukem and Sludge, but he was also a little scared because unlike the rest of the Eco-villains, he actually had something to lose. Greedly had a family, so he could not afford to put it all on the line the way some of the rest of them did. As for Skumm, she was not really certain what to think. He was cunning, and heartless, and perhaps capable of darker things than the rest of them.

But Looten Plunder was someone different. He was confident, eloquent, successful. He was a man who was in control of the world around him. He also possessed a natural capacity for leadership, something that was severely lacking in the rest of the group. Somehow he could manage to draw them all together for a common purpose, despite their constant bickering and mistrust of one another. Blight had hoped that perhaps Plunder would be the one to turn the tide in their favor. So when the plan had fallen apart it had left her even more disappointed than usual, and she had taken out the brunt of that disappointment on him.

She turned her attention back to packing her belongings, but she paused again when she came across a vintage sapphire and diamond necklace Plunder had given her. She held it delicately, staring at the sparkling stones as she remembered how she ended up with it. She had gone out to lunch with Greedly and Plunder early on in the project, a business lunch to discuss details of the plan. Afterwards they had gone for a walk through the city. Well, she and Plunder had gone for a walk, Greedly unsurprisingly had not been too thrilled about that idea and had taken a taxi back to the corporate offices.

She hadn’t even realized that he had noticed her admiring it through the jeweler’s window. A few days later she found a small, neatly wrapped package waiting for her on her desk when she arrived at her lab. It was the necklace, along with a simple handwritten note stating that it was “a token of gratitude for all of her hard work.”

Dr. Blight wasn’t sure how to interpret the gesture. Looten Plunder was a charmer by nature, that much was clear. That was part of what made him such a successful businessman. He had a knack for winning people over, for making them feel like he cared about them. And she had no desire to be another victim of his deception. She refused to be taken in by his charm just to find out that he was only trying to use her for one of his schemes.

Every ounce of common sense she possessed told her not to trust him. He was a villain for god’s sake, just like the rest of them. He lied and cheated and manipulated to accomplish his goals, and there was no reason to think he would act any differently with her. But yet some part of her, that illogical, emotional side of her, wanted to trust him.

She sighed a little as she considered her feelings. It felt like she was constantly struggling with her bipolar nature. Generally she was a typical scientist- logical, rational, thoughtful, in control of her emotions. But there was another side of her, a side that had started manifesting in recent years, that was wild, reckless, passionate. A side of her that said “to hell with the consequences.” A side of her that was quite literally insane.

At first she had been scared of that side. But slowly she had started to embrace it, to give in to the dangerous desires, to stop caring about what people thought of her. Looten Plunder seemed to be able to draw that side of her out more than anyone else ever had. And it was not by accident, she reasoned. No, he encouraged it and even rewarded it. And that made her both strangely afraid of him yet oddly attracted to him at the same time. It was confusing, terrifying, fascinating, intriguing…

And it left her wondering what he had to gain from it all.

There had to be something. She couldn’t imagine that Plunder was just acting this way for no reason. He was a businessman in all aspects of life. Every action he took was quite deliberate, planned to yield a certain result. Every conversation, no matter how casual it may seem, was well thought out ahead of time, every word carefully chosen. She also couldn’t imagine that was he sought to gain out of all of this was her friendship, or something even more.

It wasn’t too difficult to imagine that he saw some potential monetary gain from associating with her. She was a brilliant scientist, after all, and she could supply him with technology not readily available through more legitimate means. Not only that, but she was comfortable operating outside of the law, taking on projects that other scientists would not touch.

But some part of her still hoped that perhaps there was something more to it than that…

Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud knock at her door. She was a little startled and opened the door slowly. It was a driver, sent by Plunder, to take her back to the high rise that served as his corporate headquarters. Bleak would be waiting there with the helicopter.

She stared blankly out of the window of the limo Plunder had sent for her. She watched the city scenery pass by with disinterest. She was happy to be going home, back to her house and her lab where people left her alone. Plunder had a laboratory built into the lower levels of his corporate building downtown, and though it was probably just as well equipped as her own it had never seemed comfortable. She didn’t like the idea of working for someone else, though she was hardly working for him. Most of the experiments she conducted there were personal, but he had not seemed to mind. In fact, he had not bothered to question her or interfere with what she was doing at all.

Blight frowned as the limo pulled into the parking deck. Scientific equipment cost a lot of money. Why had he bothered building such a nice, fully equipped lab to produce research that would most likely not be of any benefit to him financially? She had never considered it before, but thinking of it now, it hardly seemed like him. But she had never questioned it before… before those stupid Planeteers came and screwed everything up like usual.

She growled a little as she stepped out of the limo. Those stupid teenagers were always messing up anything good in her life. This time they had interfered with her chance for…

Chance for what? she thought to herself bitterly, stopping herself before  she could continue any further with that idea. She shook off the thoughts racing through her mind. This venture was over, in a few minutes she would be flying away from here, never to look back. She sighed a little miserably as she stepped into the elevator and hit the button for the roof.

As she stepped onto the roof she noticed Bleak already waiting for her. He was sitting down, leaning against the wall of the stairwell, smoking a cigarette and sipping on a beer. Blight didn’t imagine that he was supposed to be doing that while he was “on duty”, but Bleak looked like he didn’t really care. He looked… stressed, to say the least.

“What’s the matter with you?” Blight asked a little harshly. “Well, besides the obvious…”

“He’s gonna fire me. This whole bloody mess is my fault.” Argos Bleak sounded morose as he looked down apathetically at his half finished beer.

Dr. Blight frowned a little, uncertain of what to say to console him. Plunder was likely to fire him, from what she had learned about the man in their dealings thus far he was quick tempered and impetuous. And at the moment he was also angry as hell. And she was at least partially responsible for that anger.

“It’s not all your fault,” Blight admitted. “We all failed. We got too confident.”

“Hmph. Well try telling him that…” Bleak muttered in response.

“I’d rather not,” Blight answered dryly, leaning on the wall next to where Bleak was sitting. “Can I have a beer?”

He looked up at her a little curiously. “If you want. I should warn you, they’re not that great.” He handed her a can.

Blight examined the can a little warily. It was written in Czech, which she did not understand. She opened it and cautiously took a sip. “God!” she exclaimed, making a disgusted face. “This beer is awful!”

Bleak chuckled. “Yeah, it’s pretty terrible. But you try finding a decent beer around here.”

“Well I guess that’s one benefit of going back to the U.S.” Blight said, somehow forcing herself to take another sip of her beer. “Back to my lab. My research…”

“So what are you gonna work on now? A time machine?” Bleak joked as he finished off his beer and popped open another can.

“Building one of those right now, actually. For Greedly.” Blight said boredly, taking a sip of her beer.

“You’re gonna let that man travel through time? I don’t think that’s such a good idea...”

Blight shrugged. “How much harm could he do?”

Bleak looked like he was about to say something, but he stopped himself. “Whatever. That’s your business, who am I to tell you what to do?”

They were both silent for a minute. “Weather control. That could be fun.” Bleak said, startling Blight a little. She had been drifting off into her own world of thought.

She laughed a little at the suggestion. “That’s child’s play. My grandmother figured that one out sixty years ago.”

“Your grandmother?” Bleak said, his eyes wide. “Blimey, you must have one hell of a family.”

“That’s an understatement,” Blight said dryly.

“Well what about some sort of spaceship? Or a giant robot with laser guns?”

Bleak was teasing her now. She laughed. “I really am becoming a mad scientist, aren’t I?”

Bleak nodded and finished off his beer. They were both silent for a while, considering what they were going to do now that this endeavor had fallen apart.

“What about cloning rays…” Blight mused, smirking a little.

Bleak looked up at her and shook his head. “You’re kidding me, right?”

Blight looked at him with a devious smile. “What?” she teased. “You don’t think I can do it?”

“Oh, I’m certain you can…” Bleak replied a little warily. “But what are you gonna do with it after you make it?”

“I dunno,” Blight answered. “I never think that far ahead. Normally I invent things just to prove that I can.”

Bleak nodded, though he didn’t quite understand her reasoning. “I bet Mr. Plunder could find a way to make a fortune with something like that.”

Blight nodded, a slight scowl crossing her face. “I’m sure he could. But that would require working with him again, which I already told him I was not going to do.” She folded her arms across her chest and set her jaw, as if to prove her immovability on this matter.

“Well, that’s up to you,” Bleak said, not interested in trying to sway her opinion. He doubted he was going to be employed by Plunder for much longer anyway so the man’s future business dealings were hardly his concern.

Blight looked a little disappointed in Bleak’s response. She had secretly hoped that we would try to persuade her to work with Plunder again. She actually was quite interested in working with Plunder again in the future, but considering her behavior earlier today she was reluctant to admit it. She did not want to appear to be desperate or anything.

“Besides, even if I wanted to work with him again, it’s not like he would want to work with me. I pretty sure he hates me after the way I treated him earlier.” Blight said, still hoping for some sort of encouragement from Bleak.

“He doesn’t hate you.” Bleak said, as if it were obvious. Blight looked at him curiously. “I mean, he’s getting you out of the country isn’t he?”

“Well, yeah…” Blight answered uncertainly. Her hand unconsciously moved to rest on her handbag which contained a false passport and plane tickets Plunder had given her, as well as a good amount of cash in various currencies. She had entered this country under a false identity, and she would leave under a different alias. No one would ever know Barbara Blight had been here; no one would ever be able to tie her to the events that had happened in recent weeks. And it was all thanks to Plunder. He had been careful to protect her throughout all of this enterprise.

“If he didn’t care about you, he would have thrown you to the wolves by now. You would be rotting away in some prison and he’d be long gone.”

“Well there’s a comforting thought,” Blight muttered.

Bleak just shrugged. He took one last drag from his cigarette before flicking the butt away.

Blight was silent as she mulled over Bleak’s words. She had never considered Plunder’s protection to be anything more than a benefit of doing business with him. She assumed it was just part of his nature to be that attentive to details. Maybe Bleak was just reading too much into it… though she doubted he was the kind of man who would read into anything on that level, and besides he knew Plunder better than she did so perhaps he had a point. But even if Plunder had liked her on some level, she doubted that he still retained that feeling after the way she had treated him earlier.

The evening air was quickly beginning to grow cold. Dr. Blight shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. Her blazer wasn’t really enough to keep her warm, but it was all that she had at the moment. The rest of her clothes were already packed away and loaded into the chopper and she really had no desire to go looking through them. She cast a quick glance over at Bleak who was wearing an open vest over a t-shirt. “Aren’t you cold?” she asked a little indignantly.

“I’m alright,” he replied nonchalantly. “Well, you ready to get going, Doc?”

“I guess so,” Blight said softly, looking down at her feet. They were both silent for a moment until they heard the sound of footsteps quickly approaching. She looked up to see Plunder striding toward them, his trenchcoat billowing around him in the strong breeze.

Plunder stopped abruptly a few feet away from her and scowled. “What are you still doing here?”

“I was just about to leave,” she said in response, trying to keep her voice neutral.

“Right.” Plunder snapped, his voice caustic. “Apparently you don’t appreciate how much work it was for me to get you out of this country safely or you’d be on that plane by now.”

Blight opened her mouth to respond, but managed to stop herself before she said something nasty. Instead she looked away and exhaled slowly, trying to will her tense muscles to relax and trying to think of something to say that would calm Plunder down without making her seem too overly friendly.

Blight looked up finally, her eyes meeting his. Her voice was a little tense. “I know it was a lot of work. And I do appreciate it. You didn’t have to do that.”

Plunder scoffed and folded his arms across his chest, looking down at the ground for a moment. “You’re right. I didn’t have to do it. But I don’t turn my back on my colleagues.”

He sounded bitter and angry and… hurt. She could deal with the first two easily enough, but the last one made her feel uncomfortable. She felt vaguely guilty, which was quite unusual for her. It was confusing and somewhat annoying. Plunder was a business colleague, she shouldn’t feel guilty about being mean to him. It wasn’t as if they were dating, or even really friends for that matter. In fact it was doubtful they would ever work together again.

But still she felt bad about turning her back on him, especially in front of the other Eco-villains and the Planeteers.

Dr. Blight was not sure how to respond. Her typical reaction would be to snap back with a bitter angry remark of her own. Even on her better days the best one could hope for was that she would just let it go and walk away. But tonight she actually felt like making it right. She struggled to come up with a way to apologize without actually apologizing.

“Look, I was really angry earlier. I didn’t mean anything by it. I was lashing out and unfortunately you were the one I targeted.” Blight said, trying to sound casual about it. She looked up at Plunder, trying to gauge his response. His expression was unreadable and it made her feel a little nervous.

The moment of silence stretched on a little too long for her comfort. She frowned a little, wondering if she had just made matters worse.

“Why did you target me?” he asked finally. He sounded more curious than offended, though there was still a little something harsh to his tone.

“This was your project. You were the leader.” She explained.

“Is that all?”

She thought for a moment. “I had expected more from you. You know… than I did from the others… I thought maybe your leadership would give us the edge we needed this time.” She wasn’t sure how that comment would come across, but it was the truth.

“I see,” Plunder responded tonelessly, furrowing his brow a little as if he were thinking.

“But I don’t think it’s all your fault, you know,” Blight added quickly, feeling like she might have upset him.

“No?” he asked, looking up at her a little hopefully.

“We were all too arrogant. We started celebrating too early. We should have taken some more definite steps to ensure Captain Planet was eliminated before we started acting like we had won.”

“I can agree with that,” Plunder said with a slight nod.

“We can just consider it lessons learned for next time.” Blight said, venturing a small smile.

“Next time?” Plunder raised an eyebrow. “I thought you said you were never going to work with me again…”

He sounded a little angry, but he also sounded a little like he was teasing her. Blight smirked, hoping that meant that she had managed to get back on his good side.

“Well… sometimes ‘never’ isn’t quite as long as you’d think…” she said mirthfully.

Plunder actually chuckled a little at the response. “Is that so? That hardly seems like the kind of explanation I would expect from a scientific minded person such as yourself.”

Dr. Blight had to smile. She laughed softly. “Well as much as I absolutely hate to admit it there are a few things in this world that cannot be explained by science.” There was a lot of meaning behind her words, perhaps more than she intended, and she wondered if he caught any of it.

If Plunder did catch on, he did not seem to show it. He lifted up his arm and pulled back his sleeve, looking at his watch for a moment. “It’s almost seven. There’s no way you’re going to make your flight now.”

“Oh,” Blight said, sounding a little disappointed. She looked past Plunder, to the horizon where the last traces of sunlight were quickly disappearing. “Well, don’t worry about it. I’ll find another way home.”

“There’s no need to do that. I can book you another flight for the morning.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Blight replied softly, feeling a little guilty for beings so difficult. She still didn’t look at him.

“I know,” Plunder said.  “You already told me that.”

Dr. Blight looked at him now, but she didn’t say anything. After a few moments of silence passed she noticed him smile just slightly. She tilted her head a little and looked at him curiously.

“Well, since you have nowhere else to be tonight, I don’t suppose you would care to join me for dinner?” His tone was somewhat unreadable. Not entirely businesslike, but still not completely casual.

“I… I guess so,” Blight answered a little uncertainly. She really did want to go to dinner with him, but she wasn’t really certain why he wanted to go to dinner with her. She was still suspicious of his motives. She did not trust anyone easily.

“Good,” he replied neutrally. “And I will have someone take care of finding you accommodations for tonight, seeing as how your apartment has already been emptied.”

Blight narrowed her eyes and glared at him now. He was being too considerate. He certainly had no legitimate reason to be concerned about her at this point.

“Is everything ok, Dr. Blight?” he asked uncertainly, instinctively taking a slight step back from her when he noticed the angry look on her face.

“What do you have to gain from all of this?” Blight demanded, crossing her arms across her chest and giving him a suspicious look.

Plunder looked confused. “I… um… what do you mean?”

“What do you have to gain by helping me?” she clarified, sounding just a little annoyed. “Getting me out of the country safely. Taking me to dinner. Giving me a place to stay tonight. There has to be something you want in return.”

He frowned a little and shook his head. “No, there isn’t. I don’t want anything from you,” he answered sincerely. “Really.”

Blight was silent as she considered his words. For some reason she found the idea that he didn’t want anything from her to be strangely comforting. If it were true, then it would certainly be something special coming from someone as greedy as Looten Plunder. Finally she nodded, and smiled a little uncertainly. “Ok, let’s go.”

Plunder smiled back and turned to head toward the elevator. Blight followed him, casting a glance back over her shoulder at Bleak who was watching them curiously. She grinned at him and turned her head back around. She stepped with Plunder into the elevator and watched as he hit the button for the parking deck.

“So what about Bleak?” Blight asked as the elevator doors closed. Plunder looked at her but did not respond. “Are you going to fire him?” Blight asked more directly.

Plunder sighed, sounding a little exasperated. “I’m not going to fire him.  I’m just going to let him think that I’m going to fire him for a while…”

“You’re evil,” she teased.

Plunder grinned. “I am. Is that going to be a problem?”

“Not at all…” Dr. Blight replied, with a smirk. She relaxed and leaned back against the wall of the elevator. They were silent as they continued their descent to the lowest level of the building.

She smiled to herself as they got into Plunder’s dark green Ferrari and he took off speeding down the now darkened streets of the city. At least this project had not proven to be a complete failure…