[FIN] Who Will it Be?

[BlackFireKitsune]

Once it had Zev off the ground, the vines yanked him away from the door in the same manner and over to another wall to pin him against it. It didn't slam him into it, but it didn't take much care to be gentle about it, either, and used enough force to keep him in place and prevent too much squirming.

"Hey, you okay?" Abel asked, his voice emanating from the space to Zevran's left. The Chandelure's light didn't reach nearly this far, preventing either man from seeing anything at all.

Promptl the Chandelure spun in the air before vanishing completely, taking what little light it created with it and leaving both humans alone in the dark with the unknown pokemon - which seemed more interested in keeping them in place than on harming them.  

[TawnyAngel]

Zevran squirmed briefly in the grasp of the vines but, after some consideration of his position in current events, he gave up. They couldn't see, he couldn't reach his pokeballs or a weapon, and even if he could fighting was absolutely not what they were here to do. Anyway if they were wanted dead those vines would be around his neck, waiting to see what would happen next was the best thing he could do.

These thoughts made Zevran relax a little, and when he heard Abel's voice he relaxed further. "Si; I'm just hanging out here, a little tied up," he replied with a wry chuckle at his predicament. "And you?" Abel sounded alright but he wanted to check anyway.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Abel had come to similar conclusions himself and had ceased bothering trying to get away. If it wanted them dead, they would be dead already, and they were here to talk, not fight. "Ah, about the same," the taller blond replied, not without a faint tinge of humor in his quiet voice. "I guess it just wants to make sure we don't go anywhere or anything until... something," he hazarded a guess. "Until someone comes, probably."

The unseen pokemon rumbled quietly in the darkness.

"I'm just gonna take that as a 'yes' I think," Abel added, again with a small hint of humor.


A few minutes passed before a heavy door creaked somewhere far away, and the sound seemed to echo through the room. The Chandelure's orange glow returned, this time faintly illuminating a door - except the door was high up in the air - and silhouetted a person for a brief moment. The next moment the lights flickered on, immediately bathing the entire room in bright white lights. Abel blinked rapidly a few times as his eyes struggled to adjust to the sudden lighting when they'd been in the dark for what seemed like years.

The cavernous room they were in was like almost every other warehouse - lots of metal and steel siding, no windows, and a handful of closed, heavy-looking doors. One such door - the only open one - was up a set of stairs and was one of a set of more doors set along a steel catwalk that stretched from one wall to the other. The Chandelure's orange flames shot up, brightening as it cackled and whizzed down from the second floor and spun around the large room. A Haunter, laughing gleefully at their company, burst out from one wall and joined the other ghost. In the middle of the main floor lounged a large Venusaur. The grass-type cracked an eye open, grumbled, and closed it; its dark green vines remained pinning the pair of humans against one wall, though it did deign to lower them a bit so their feet at least touched the ground.

The silhouette at the top of the stairs, now a man with close-cropped black hair that was entirely dissimilar to the one who Alyssa spoke to earlier, kicked the door shut behind him and frowned down at the pair of ghosts first, and then the pair of humans. In his hands he held a rifle with obvious modifications. "Alright, who're you two and why are you here?"  

[TawnyAngel]

The sudden bright lights made Zevran wince and squint for a few moments as he waited for his eyes to adjust, but he took comfort in the assumption that the man making his dramatic entrance was suffering the same but pretending that he was not. At least now he could see what was pinning them as well, he wasn't sure what it was called but he'd seen it printed on various pokemon food mixes and in other advertising so he assumed they were popular to some degree.

"Hello!" he said more cheerfully than might be expected under the circumstances. "I am Zevran and this is Abel, as he was saying earlier he has some intriguing information for Michael Dirksen. Might Mr. Dirksen be available by any chance?" He wanted to cheekily ask the man with the rifle his own name but he looked rather too humourless to appreciate it so he held his tongue and waited for Abel to give more information if he wished or for the man himself to react.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

As Zevran spoke, the man descended the stairs and walked at a leisurely pace across the room, then halted at the Venusaur's side. He fixed them with a critical, suspicious look for a few moments before replying, "I'm Michael Dirksen. What information are you talking about?"

Abel frowned, puzzled something out in his head, considered the likelihood of his being shot for a brief moment, then replied, "No you're not."

The critical, suspicious expression turned mildly surprised before it became incredibly suspicious. He shifted his hold on his rifle to aim it right at the taller blond before asking slowly, "What did you say?"

Ah, sweet, he didn't get shot immediately. That was always good. He'd had guns pointed at him plenty of times before, sometimes fired, but the brief surge of fear of being shot never really went away no matter how many times you looked into the barrel of a gun. Taking a deep breath to steady himself - and his voice - because if he messed this up they were both dead, he replied, "I said, you're not him. Michael Dirksen looks at least fifteen years older than you do, has graying dark blond hair, green eyes, and a jagged scar on his cheek."

"How do you know that?"

"How I know that is one of the reasons I need to speak with him."  

[TawnyAngel]

This was Michael Dirksen?... Apparently not and he didn't like being called on it. Zevran stopped breathing as the rifle swung around to aim at Abel but mercifully the man didn't pull the trigger. As he had nothing useful to add Zevran remained silent, breath still held and heart suddenly beating frantically. They couldn't have come all this way just for Abel to be killed, they were so close!  

[BlackFireKitsune]

The pair engaged in a staring contest for a few long, silent moments - Abel from his spot pinned against the wall and the stranger from over the sight on his rifle - before the firearm lowered and he pulled a phone from his pocket. A couple taps later he lifted it to his ear, his gaze returning to the pair of blonds - one of them in particular - as he spoke, "Boss? Yeah, they knew I wasn't you. ...yep, it's that one, though I dunno who the other guy is. ...uh-huh. Yeah, let me ask." He lowered the phone and raised his voice a little as he spoke to Abel rather than into the phone, "What's the other thing you wanted to talk to him about?"

"Oh, I'm pretty sure I have evidence that Alyssa - I'm sure that isn't her real name - that she's stealing money from him," Abel replied readily.

The man's brows rose before he frowned. "That's a pretty serious accusation, I hope you know that." He switched to the phone again, speaking into it at a more normal volume, "He's saying she's stealing from you." A moment or two passed before he switched the phone to his other ear so he could look at the watch on his wrist. "Alright, I'll wait here with them til you get here. Yeah, of course Tiny's got 'em. Yeah. Alright." He lowered the phone again and pocketed it, his gaze returning to the pair of blonds. "Alright, Mr. Dirksen will be here in about ten minutes. He's interested in having that talk with you, so you'll just hang around here until he gets here," he said, his tones indicating it was less a suggestion and more an indisputable fact.

Abel exhaled a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "Alright," he replied simply. This was what he'd wanted all along, wasn't it? He just hadn't expected it to be so.. potentially fatal that quickly. He should've expected it though. Oh well, all that mattered was they could talk to him when he arrived, and maybe he'd get Alyssa to stop blackmailing him and Taavi.  

[TawnyAngel]

With the immediate threat to Abel's life removed Zevran started breathing again, and then he had to fight not to smirk when the man mentioned the hulking leafy-flowery thing's name. It was called Tiny? Of course it was called Tiny. "That's fine, I didn't have any other plans for the morning," Zevran replied with as much of an affable shrug as he could manage with the vines constricting him. More waiting, not ideal but better than hurrying along behind Alyssa worrying that Abel was going to collapse or something.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Yeah, same" the taller blond put in, grateful that he could just stay in one spot rather than worry about following Alyssa around more. He may or may not have been able to keep it up if he had to follow her more; the energy that had been sustaining them all night long was running low.

The armed man said nothing.

Well, this was bound to be.. an engaging ten minutes, wasn't it? Oh well, there were worse things, Abel supposed.

Roughly ten minutes later one of the other doors opened and a man identical to the one Abel had previously described entered, wrapped in a black coat with matching black leather gloves. He shut the door behind him before heading towards the small group, removing the gloves and pocketing them as he walked. As he halted beside the armed man, the latter said, "That one's Patty's toy," Abel's lips pursed into a thin line, "but I dunno about the other one. I don't think he's her other toy though."

"I see," Dirksen said, his gaze shifting from one to the other before focusing on the shorter blond. "Who're you then, and why are you here?"  

[TawnyAngel]

Toy?

Zevran's expression of quizzical interest faded, leaving his tattooed face neutral with a hint of pursed lips. Getting angry with these people would not help their cause but he was suddenly all out of affability, politeness was the best they were going to get from him for now. "My name is Zevran and I am here because Abel is a friend of mine," he said matter of factly, so far as he was concerned it wasn't any more complicated than that.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Dirksen nodded his head once at the response he gave. His focus switched back to Abel promptly as he asked, "I should warn you now that whatever you have to say to me had better be of the utmost importance if you want to leave here alive. You really shouldn't be here, you know. Now, how do you know who I am?"

"I know I shouldn't have any idea who you are," the taller blond admitted once he'd convinced himself to speak. Toy indeed, and of course they shouldn't be here. He didn't want to be here if it weren't for this being his only shot at getting Alyssa to leave him alone... Or Patty, he supposed she was really called. "I wouldn't have any idea at all, if she hadn't told me about you."

"Indeed?" He asked, eyebrows raising a bit. "And why would she do that?"

"That's one of the things I needed to talk to you about. I can show you instead, actually. I have two things to show you, both in my coat pocket, if I may?"

Dirksen gestured for him to go ahead, and several things happened at once: The vines around his upper body slackened and fell away just enough to allow him the freedom of movement to retrieve whatever it was from his pockets, but not move from that spot. The armed man lifted his rifle to aim at him again, and the Haunter veered away from the Chandelure to float over beside Abel, its detached hands held palm-up as it opened and closed them, waiting.

Slowly, Abel unzipped his jacket and reached into his pocket. "The first one is what we discovered this evening; I think she must be in charge of finances or something here? But she has two documents in her computer, one a copy of the other but with different values that are higher, so it looks like she must either be stealing money or covering for whoever is," he explained as he pulled out the small USB stick, held it up, then passed it to the Haunter. The ghost eagerly accepted it, closing one hand around it while the other remained open for the next item. Abel pulled it out just as slowly and offered it to the ghost, "And this one is a task she gave me - one I had absolutely no intention of doing - quite a few months ago. Earlier this year she put me in a position where I was forced to accept her help and in return, do an unspecified favor for her at a later date -- which turned out to be this."

The Haunter eagerly grasped the folded manila envelope before returning to Dirksen's side to present both items to him. He picked up the USB stick first, frowning at it thoughtfully for a few moments, then gave it back and took the envelope instead. Before opening it though, he waved the Haunter away, "Take that to Kevin to look into."

"Haun haunt!" The ghost saluted him and vanished from sight.

With the ghost gone for the moment, Dirksen inspected the envelope - Alyssa's handwriting scrawled over the front said in no uncertain terms that it was strictly for Abel's eyes only - before he opened it and pulled out a piece of paper with a clip attaching several pictures to the front of it. His expression hardened immediately and he shifted the papers to one hand. "Tiny." As his other hand dove into his inner coat pocket, the vines resumed their tight grip of Abel while one more emerged from the Venusaur's flowery protrusions and collided with his throat.

s**t, s**t, this was it, he couldn't breathe, he was--

Except he could breathe. He could breathe just fine, even with the vine suddenly coiled around his throat. So why... oh.

Dirksen produced a handgun from his pocket and aimed it right between his eyes.

The vine wasn't to restrict his breathing -- it was to restrict his movement so he couldn't avoid the bullet, if one came his way.

The older blond's expression grew more severe, but he didn't shoot just yet. "Is this some sort of joke? Did you make this yourself to try and get out of your predicament? Explain yourself immediately."  

[TawnyAngel]

 

[BlackFireKitsune]

No, it never really got old having a gun pointed at you, but he'd at least realized it was coming beforehand so he could mentally prepare himself for it. "Exactly," he agreed, keeping his voice as calm and level as he could manage, "I've never seen or met you before, I never even knew you existed until she gave that to me. I also can't copy her handwriting even if my life depended on it, and you're probably more familiar with her writing than I am and can say that it's definitely hers. I really did have absolutely no intention of doing what she tasked me with -- if I had, I would've tried soon after she gave it to me, I wouldn't have waited and made up excuses for months like I have been doing to avoid it."

Dirksen's darkened expression remained so for a few more moments, his features mildly contorted in quiet fury, but he finally relented and pocketed his handgun again, then straightened up to look at the papers again. "I can't deny any of that. If this is true - both of these matters that you've brought to my attention - then I have much to discuss with her." The vine around his throat fell away and zipped back to Tiny just as the Haunter returned, manifesting near Dirksen. He turned to it with a quizzical expression. "Did he find anything out about it?"

"Haunt!" The Pokémon pantomimed lifting something up to its ear -- if it had one.

"Ah, I see," he said with a nod before he pulled out his phone again.

Abel relaxed a bit and chanced a glance over at Zev. This was progress at least, and neither of them had been shot yet, so that was good. This was good.  

[TawnyAngel]

Dirksen was prepared to be reasonable at least for now, that was good, but they had no leverage over him to make sure he stayed reasonable. There was no reason for the man to let them go other than honour, which was often in short supply among thieves and other criminals no matter what certain phrases might indicate. He couldn't think of any other way they could have acted though, not in the time they had to do so, and so he couldn't regret it. He had never really thought that he'd live to be as old as he was now, every new year was something of a surprise, and if this was how he died it would be a better death than he had ever imagined for himself. He still hoped that it wouldn't end here though, Abel deserved to go on with his life free of the hold Patty had kept over him for so long. Patty. No wonder she's turned to crime with such a name inflicted upon her.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Before lifting the phone to his ear, Dirksen waved the haunter away again, "Go watch the door again, Spike."

"Haunt haunt!" So saying, the ghost vanished again.

As Dirksen turned away and spoke into the phone in quieter tones, the armed man lowered his rifle again. "What have you found so far? ...I see. She said she'd bring a copy of the file with her this morning, I'll send it up to you once she comes in. Yes. Alright."

A muffled voice - a woman's voice - filtered in from behind one of the closed doors.

"Ah, one moment Kevin, I think I hear her coming now."

Indeed, the same door Abel and Zev had entered from swung open to admit the familiar redhead. She immediately cast a furious glance around the room before her eyes alighted on the pair of blonds. She stalked towards them immediately, hands balled into fists at her sides. "You! What are you doing here?! And you were in my apartment too! How dare you even--"

"Do you have the file you promised me?" Dirksen interrupted.

Alyssa - Patty - faltered for a moment, both in her movement and her tirade. "Y-yes. Here," she said, rummaging around in her pocket momentarily before producing a USB stick identical to the one Abel had given the haunter. Said haunter suddenly whisked to her side, accepted the item, then floated to Dirksen's side.

"Thank you Spike. Tiny?"

Vines immediately shot out towards Patty, ensnaring her and slamming her into the wall less gently than it had with the two men.

"Thank you Tiny. Spike, take that up to Kevin, will you?"

"Hauuunt," the ghost replied, vanishing again.

With that done, Dirksen turned to Patty and strode towards her at an even pace. "I have reason to believe that you not only are stealing from me, but that on top of that you wanted me dead."

"What? No, I would never--" She started desperately, eyes widening as she struggled against the vines that held her, but Dirksen held up a hand to silence her.

"You and I both know any attempts would end in failure, so clearly you either thought that this man would succeed, or you didn't care for his income any longer. Whatever the case may be, I cannot forgive you even one transgression, let alone two."

"Oh come on, I would never-- you'd believe him over me? Really? He's lying to you, making s**t up--"

"Is he really though?" He asked, eyebrows raised skeptically.