Empire Records, after midnight - NFB
Marty stands in the middle of Empire records brooding. He looks at the gun in his hand and places it in his shoulder holster and waits for Veronica and Nadia to arrive.
He's clearly not looking forward to this.
Veronica walks in.
"What's going on, Blank? I got your message. It better be important if it couldn't wait until a decent hour."
"It is important," Marty said stiffly. "Somebody from my past tracked me down and wants me to do one more job. If I don't they'll go after Marcella, my Mom and Angela."
"Jesus, Marty. I guess you need me to help you figure out a way to get around it?"
"Something like that," Marty said pulling out his revolver and screwing on a silencer. "Unfortunately, there's really only one solution to the problem. I'm really sorry Mars, there's nothing else I can do."
"Marty, Oh my God," Veronica said in shock. "No."
Marty pointed the gun at Veronica, his hand trembling a little.
And then he pulled the trigger, firing two shots at her.
Veronica wasn't expecting the shots and didn't have time to try to dodge them.
The first hit her upper right arm. Before she had a chance to react, the second shot hit her chest.
She crumpled to the floor.
Marty walked over to V's body and rolled her over with one foot.
He pointed the gun at her chest and fired two more shots before leaning over to check her pulse.
Nadia walked into Empire Records and Bidet to find Marty crouched over Veronica. A bleeding, dead looking Veronica.
"Oh my God! What happened?!
Marty looks up from Veronica and gives Nadia a haunted look. "Sorry Nadia."
And he points his gun at Nadia firing twice.
Nadia dove to the side and both shots missed her . . . barely. She dashed for cover by the sales desk, shouting curses at Marty.
Marty ran after her and began shooting blindly through the the sales desk.
Nadia bolted from the desk, running for the back room.
Marty chased after her firing two more times at Nadia.
The second shot caught her low in the back and she stumbled to a stop, her hand going to the wound. She stared at the blood for a moment, then wavered and fell.
Marty walked over and pointed his gun at her. "I'm sorry Nadia."
Nadia stared up at Marty, gasping for breath. "Why . . . why are you doing this?"
Marty swallowed hard.
"It's not me."
He pulled the trigger and shot her three times in the chest.
Her body jerked with each shot, and then she lay still.
Marty leaned over and checked Nadia for a pulse. He grimaced and turned to walk away.
Verbal limped out of the shadows. It was exceptionally easy to hide when no one ever really looked at you. He looked over the bodies of the two girls then up at Marty.
He didn't look pleased, but he didn't look angry, either. His expression was one of resignation and slight relief, as though an unpleasant job had just been completed.
Which, essentially, it had. "Nice job, Blank."
Marty gave Verbal a cold look. "We're done right? We're squared up."
Verbal shrugged. "The girls are dead, that was the deal." He turned slightly away, seeming to look over the bodies again. "Mr. Soze will be pleased, I'm sure."
He pulled a gun, much faster than any cripple ought to be able to and fired two shots into Marty's chest.
"Yeah, kid, you're done."
Marty fell to the floor and lay still.
Verbal fired one more time into Marty's chest before tucking the gun away and pulling out a cigarette and a gold zippo. He flexed his right hand, then lit up and took a long drag. He looked over the bodies again and took another drag.
To burn or not to burn? It would go a long way to ensuring the kids were all dead.
The sound of footsteps rapidly approaching through the back decided him. It would be . . . distasteful to have to kill someone else tonight. He stepped gracefully out the front door and let it fall shut behind him.
And like that?
He's gone.
My guess is, you'll never hear from him again.
Lucas had just been coming into the store when he heard the shots fired.
He damned well hoped it was some punk kid firing blanks. He broke into a run, only to stumble to a stop when he hit the sales floor.
"This? I was not expecting to see."
He hurried over to Marty, who was the closest of the kids and dropped down to check for a pulse.
Please, god, let there be a pulse. . . .
"I swear, there's not enough coffee in the world..." Nadia said and sighed deeply before opening her eyes. "I would like to state that getting shot? Ouch. Totally ouch."
Marty's hand fingered the holes in his chest.
"Damn it," he said, his voice now carrying a hint of petulance. "I liked this shirt."
Nadia sat up, hand going to her chest. "Can't imagine why,"she said absently. She looked down at her bloody hands and frowned. "A shot through the head would've been so much cleaner, but noooo..."
Marty was now fingering past the holes in the shirt to the holes in his chest. "C'mon, c'mon. Don't make me have to go to the clinic. I'm sick of that place."
"Dude, you should just give in and get a room there, seriously. Maybe a time-share thing with Rory?" Nadia suggested. She leaned over to look down at Veronica. She poked her curiously. "Hey." Poke. "Hey." Poke. She leaned back again. "Huh. Maybe she's really dead."
"Of course she is," Marty said, giving Nadia a Look.
Lucas looked back and forth between his two employees, his eyebrow climbing higher and higher as they spoke.
"Okay," he said finally. "What the hell is going on here?
"What? Seriously? ...Oh. Right. I just got shot. It's very traumatic, you know." Nadia pouted. "I don't think it's very nice to make fun and not even give me any coffee." The last was spoken with a hopeful expression directed towards Lucas. "Do you have coffee?"
"Coffee. . . ." Lucas repeated, somewhat stupidly. "Yeah, I've got some coffee. I'd have to brew it though."
He stood and took three steps towards the back room and stopped.
"What the hell is going on here?!"
Nadia looked happy about the prospect of coffee, then when Lucas paused again, she blinked and looked towards Marty, obviously expecting him to say something clever.
Lucas followed Nadia's gaze and crossed his arms as he, too, waited for Marty to say something clever.
Because finding two of his employees shot on the sales floor when neither was scheduled to work wasn't enough of a shock, oh no, not in Fandom. In Fandom they had to then sit up and demand caffeine and complain about getting shot.
If it weren't for the fact that he was really glad they weren't dead he'd possibly be firing them right now.
Which was when another Marty marched into the record store just to add to the confusion.
"He's gone. Is everyone all right?"
Marty then looked over at the shot-up version of himself and smirked. "You're a handsome devil. What's your name?
Lucas stared from one Marty to the other and crossed his arms. Joe had never had to deal with anything like this at the old Empire. Lucas was starting to wish all he head to worry about was employees hyped up on speed and gambling away all the income.
"Okay, someone had better start explaining before I start firing people."
Which was when the extra Nadia came in, rather more hesistantly than the extra Marty had, and carefully not looking at her double.
"I'd really appreciate it if you didn't fire us, actually."
"It's a long story," Marty said to Lucas as he kneeled down to look at Veronica and started poking her with his finger. "Hey. Wake up."
Piper wandered into the record store, concerned about everyone. Then she spotted Veronica. "Is she okay?"
"She's dead," Nadia-with-bullet-holes commented drily.
"Well, yes, I know that much," Piper said with a sigh.
"Me too," Marty added, on the odd chance that might help matters.
Lucas quietly gave up on any hope of understanding what the hell was going on here, and leaned against the sales desk to watch . . . whatever happened to unfold.
BloodyNadia reached over to poke Veronica again. "I think she hit her head." She paused. "Maybe bring her to the clinic, but does it really matter seeing as she's dead and all?"
"Oh, crap, she somehow opened her old head wound," the other Veronica said, walking in to the room. "That's from when she actually died."
She leaned over and shook her shoulder. "Get your ass up."
Marty rolled his eyes. "She's just being a drama queen."
"Like that's a big surprise?"
"Coffee," Bloody Nadia muttered. "My kingdom for some coffee, like, now."
Lucas was somehow not surprised in the least when a second Veronica came in. After all, they had two of everyone else. . . .
He was idly wondering when his double would show up. Hopefully without any blood.
He was almost missing being an apple tree.
"You," he pointed to bloody!Nadia "will get your coffee when I get an explanation. Or at the very least, a hint."
Bloody Nadia gave him a surprised look, then she grinned. She looked around the room then pointed at other Nadia. "I'm not her."
The unshot Marty chuckled a little and pointed at the bullet-ridden Marty. "Yeah and he's not me. Piper? You want to help us a little here with the un-mojoing?"
Marty may have done a little fingerwiggle while he was talking.
"Oh, right." Piper recited what sounded like a badly rhymed poem, but she was actually removing the glamour spell from the doppelgangers.
The non-shot-Marty watched as the bullet-riddled version of Veronica shimmered into a bullet-riddled version of Lilly Kane and the shot-up version of himself revert back to Angel.
"I think you might have over done it with the bullets there, hair-boy." Marty said poking Lilly a couple more times before looking over at the shot-up version of Nadia. "Thanks everyone for doing this. Feel free to change back to yourself at any time Jake".
"You owe me coffee big time," Bloody Nadia!Jake said with a nod. "If your guy's gone, someone pick up Lilly and let's get gone? Because, coffee, man." There was definitely a whine there.
"I got it," Angel said, reaching down to pick Lilly up. "She's light."
"Can you get her over to the clinic on your own? I'm thinking it's best I get out of town for a while," Marty replied.
"No problem," Angel said "Kinda not afraid of anything that's going to go bump in the night."
"Thanks, I also need to ask you a favor. Until I get back can you look after Angela? That Kint guy knew all about her except that she came from 1996 and if he comes back I need someone I can trust watching out for her."
Angel looked taken aback.
"I - yeah. If you want. But are you sure you want me?"
"Why wouldn't I? You've proven yourself to me on several occassions," Marty said in a not-so-offhand manner.
A quick frown shaped Angel's forehead, as though he knew that phrasing but couldn't place where it was from.
"I - okay. Yeah. I'll watch out for her for you. Promise."
"Thanks, I really appreciate it."
Nadia had been standing silently, carefully not looking at her bloodied friends, until that point. She looked over at Marty, her eyes wide, as her fingers dug into her arms.
"You're leaving?"
Marty gave Nadia a concerned look. "Yeah. The guy who brought this on? He knows everything about me, including where my friends and family are. Plus I need to make myself scarce for a few weeks to make sure the coast is clear."
She nodded, swallowing. "But what if he comes back?"
"That's another thing I'm going to make sure of. I'll be making sure that this guy truly leaves the island and that he won't come back," Marty said putting a reassuring hand on Nadia's shoulder. "So lay low for a week or so if you can. I'll send back word when everything is okay."
Nadia kept nodding and kept swallowing. "I think I can . . . I think there's somewhere I can go. How-what are you going to do? Is there any way I can help?"
Marty faltered for a second before responding. "I'm going to get my Mom to a safe place and make sure that no one I know gets targeted. I'll also make contact with some friends of mine in the business and make sure that what went down here tonight is what people believe. I appreciate the offer of help, but I've already gotten you into enough trouble."
Nadia shook her head, which was a nice change from nodding. "This isn't your fault. If you weren't a . . . well, he would have found someone else to do the job. You being who you are probably . . . probably saved all our lives."
Nadia squeezed her arms one last time, then wrapped them around Marty. "Stay safe, okay? We'll be waiting for you to get back."
Marty returned the hug. "I will. I'll be back as soon as I can."
Veronica overheard that and walked over. "When will you be back?"
"I'm not sure. A couple of weeks?," Marty replied.
She nodded grimly. "Just be careful, okay?"
"Me? C'mon Mars, you know what a careful fellow I am." Marty said with a reassuring grin before looking over to where Nadia was talking with Lucas and Jake.
"Keep an eye on Santos though, I'm not exactly sure what's going on this weekend but I'm pretty sure she's up to her neck in it, okay?
A small smile graced her lips. "At least you didn't have to pick any locks for this," she teased.
She followed his gaze to Nadia. "Don't worry. You know me. I never leave home without my taser. I'll keep an eye on Nadia."
"Thanks and... would you mind checking in on Angela while I'm gone? I'm going to try and find her but..." Marty shrugged. "You know. I better get moving the longer I stay here the more that guy can figure out what happened."
"No problem," Veronica said. "I'll explain everything to her." Impulsively , she leaned over and hugged Marty. "Thank you."
"Hey, it's not everyday when you get to kill your best friend. Let's... ah, never do that again. Shall we?" Marty said returning the hug. "I'll be back as soon as I can. Keep a low profile for a couple of days until that Kint guy gets out of town, all right?"
Marty then reached behind the counter where he had stowed a duffle bag and headed to the door. "And I'm still the better lockpick Mars!" he shouted as he headed out the door.
Veronica shook her head as she watched him go. One of these days they'd have to have a contest to see which of them was really better.
[ooc: Posted on oatmanspatient's behalf. Preplayed so no IC interaction possible. OOC comments are fine. Radio can report that something was up at the record store but specific details of what are NFB]