Game On (Planned)

The set was over. Most of the band headed off to take a break, to get a drink, but Pulse stayed on stage for a while signing autographs, feeding the fan girls' screaming obsession with him.

But Lee did see that he kept looking in her direction.

Finally he was off the stage and Lee lost sight of him from her seated position because of the equipment and the other people milling around beside the stage. But then, suddenly, he seemed to appear right beside her table.

Lee's heart was pounding. The question she was unable to answer was whether it was her heart doing that on its own, or whether Pulse was speeding things up for her.

This was it. She'd managed to get Pulse to the table, over to her, and now Lee had absolutely no idea what to do. Suddenly, a wave of panic washed through her, but she covered it with a smile. How the hell was she supposed to seduce this man, at least enough to be able to get him alone? She'd never seduced anyone before. Well, except for Tarin, if you could call it that, and with him she knew exactly what to do to get specific reactions.

"Hi there," Lee heard herself saying before she had been able to consciously come up with anything. "That was absolutely amazing up there."

"Well, it's easier when we've got the right crowd out here."

"That can't be all of it," Lee insisted with a shake of her head which sent her curled hair bouncing across her shoulders. "I haven't seen someone play guitar that well in years. Do you write the songs too, or just add that flair on the guitar?" Well, despite everything else, the man was at least a good musician.

The man didn't answer her right away, though. Instead he grinned as he asked a question of his own. "How 'bout we go some place quieter? It's hard to talk with everyone around like this."

This was what they were hoping for. At least it was a step in the direction they were aiming at. Though, with a quick glance around, Lee saw that there might have been another little reason why Pulse had suggested it; at that moment, there was a line of bouncers separating the teenage fan girls from her table, and many of them were shooting daggers at her.

"Sure," Lee said, her smile widening a touch as she stood up. Huh, maybe she was better at this whole thing than she had thought.

As she followed Pulse into the back of the club, Lee could feel her heart pounding, thumping faster than normal in her chest.

Before she knew it, before she was ready, Lee was following Pulse into a small room, complete with a couch. Stopping nervously just inside the door, which Pulse had closed behind them, Lee watched the man grab a beer from the mini fridge and sit down on the couch. As soon as the bottle was open, he'd patted the seat beside him, then draped his arm over the back.

She'd gotten this far, Lee couldn't back out now. It was far too late, they'd never have a chance like this again. So Lee moved forward, sitting on the couch and crossing her legs. Almost as soon as her weight had settled on the couch, Lee felt an arm draping across her shoulders.

"So, I've never seen you here before," Pulse said after taking a sip of his beer. "I would have noticed if you'd been here during a show before."

"My friend's been talking non-stop about you since she saw you a while ago," Lee replied with a smile and a slightly teasing shake of her head which sent her hair moving over her shoulders again. "She's going to be sooo jealous that I actually got to meet you."

"Well," Pulse said slowly, leaning closer. "We could always give her a real reason to be jealous."

And before she could even react, Lee felt the man's lips pressing against hers.

This was so wrong! Lee didn't want to be doing this! Even if she would want to kiss anyone other than Tarin, this guy was not attractive.

But Lee knew she had to play along, or everything would be ruined and they wouldn't have the chance to get him. So Lee raised her hand up to Pulse's shoulder, returning the kiss even as she started to siphon from him.

Each second that passed, Lee felt her heart rate speeding up, getting heavier, harder. This she knew wasn't her. This was coming from Pulse, she was sure. While her heart did beat faster when she was kissing Tarin, it wasn't to this almost painful degree. Plus, that probably had a lot more to do with the fact that it was Tarin.

But Lee still threw herself into the kiss, pretending it was her husband sitting there with her so that she could kiss him like this, even as she felt Pulse's hands starting to roam. Lee's eyes squeezed shut.

And then Lee felt her head being yanked back by a hand in her hair. Opening her eyes, a couple tears prickling because of the pull against her scalp, Lee saw Pulse staring at her with anger in his eyes.

"What the hell is this?" She heard him ask a moment before the hand that wasn't in her hair pushed under the top of her dress.

"What?" Lee asked, shocked, still feeling her heart pounding in her chest. She could only hope that Tarin didn't actually have the link with the spirit, that maybe he was in Jacen's field, so he wouldn't actually be seeing what was going on here. "That hurts!"

A moment later, Pulse's hand emerged holding something small and black. "This! What the hell is this?"

(OOC: Permission was given in the C-Box for Tarin to post out of order.)

IC:
As soon as Pulse's voice came over the ear piece Jacen knew that he was the same man that had spoken on Lori's recording. There was no mistaking the slight menace that remained veiled behind his sensual and sexual over tones. He was the ultimate bad boy which explained why so many girls loved him. He was the perfect outlet for their acts of rebellion and he could make their hearts race. What more could they ever ask for?

"Damn it Lee, don't go out of sight!" Jacen swore under his breath as the woman stood and went along with the other man. He wasn't experienced in whether this was the way things were supposed to go on an infiltration mission like this but he didn't like having to rely on only sound for an indicator on whether Lee was in trouble. Sure she was a tough girl that could take care of herself but that didn't means he had to make a bad situation worse!

While Jacen continued listening he was surepticiously making his way through the crowd to get a little closer to the bouncers. Two of the large, burly men had planted themselves in front of the hall way that obviously led back to the dressing rooms and they were glaring at anyone, male or female, that moved forward like they were going to try to slip past. From Jacen's experience, bouncers were normally extremely tough and experienced when it came to street fighting, but few of them had formal combat training. That was something he would deffinately use to his advantage if it became necessary.

The sound of what had to be kissing was coming over the receiver and Jacen glanced over at Tarin, feeling bad for the guy. Once again he was glad that he hadn't asked Kealey to come and do this sort of thing but he couldn't imagine what Tarin must be feeling. These were the sounds of his wife in another room with another man. Could anything be more awful?

"This! What the hell is this?"

Suddenly Lee's cry of pain and Pulse's angry cursing came over the ear piece and with almost no delay Tarin was on his feet and moving toward the bouncers. Swiveling his head Jacen could almost see the slight glimmer of pleasure as one of the men registered the fact that they might actually get to beat someone down. Without even thinking Jacen broke into a run, shoving his way through the crowd so that he arrived right at the same time as Tarin. Two strong punches cleared the path for Tarin and a swift spin kick sent the second bouncer to the ground as well. Picking up the pace, Jacen reached back and withdrew his pistol, arriving at the door just as Tarin reared back and kicked in the door.

"Listen to the man Pulse." Jacen spit out as he stepped in right next to Tarin with his right arm raised and pointed the weapon directly between the murderer's eyes and his left hand braced under it, "Let the lady go."

OOC - Sorry I forgot to post...I forgot we switched the order. I went ahead and took some action. If what I did, or what I had Pulse say isn't okay...just pretend like I never posted and send me a PM. I won't be around much today, so it's going to be the easiest way to let me know what I screwed up.


Tarin had heard about situations like this on TV, and even from a couple of eye witnesses. Time slowed down, things that would never have stuck out to a person under normal circumstances seemed especially vivid. Tarin figured he’d never forget the arrangement of band stickers on the far wall of the room where Lee had gone with Pulse. Where Lee still was with Pulse. Where all of them were. This wasn’t how it had been supposed to work, not at all. The man wasn’t responding well to instructions either, he didn’t move in accordance to Tarin’s instructions and Lee remained firmly in his grasp.

Jacen reiterated the command, and Tarin hoped for a second that Pulse would think himself cornered and cave. That didn’t happen either, and despite the fact that Lee was struggling like a trooper, and even managed to land a solid blow, Pulse didn’t let go. In fact, once he’d caught his breath, he pulled Lee in closer to his body, arm wrapping around her neck as the other hand found its way to the side of her head.

”Sending a woman this small to do a man’s work?” he said, eyes darting from Jacen’s gun to the door they’d burst through. ”I’ll bet her bones would snap like toothpicks. Now, which one of you is the adapted? I a’int stupid, one of us, one of them, right? That’s how you work.”

In the next few seconds, Tarin’s mind worked faster than it had probably ever worked in his life. The proverbial gig was up, and Pulse had all the bargaining power. There was surely help one the way, and the situations that presented themselves as possible endings to this scenario were not favorable. Either something bad was going to happen to Lee, something bad was going to happen to all of them. Pulse had used that word too…adapted. Tarin cast a quick look to Jacen and spoke before the other man could open his mouth, keeping the look steady afterwards and hoping his unspoken, ’keep your mouth shut’ would work.

“I am. It’s me.” He said, moving forward a couple of steps, causing Pulse to move backwards, still clinging to Lee.

”We heard you was in town, snooping around, you know.” Pulse said, and Tarin nodded his head, “Why don’t you let the lady go and we can talk about this.” Man, what he was doing was stupid, Tarin noted a little grimly as he spoke and tried to keep up the façade. This wasn’t going to end favorably though, no matter what, and out of all of them, Jacen had the most chance of figuring out what was going on. Tarin had to get him and Lee out, and as soon as possible. Preferably before help arrived.

Damn it! Lee's mind struggled frantically trying to figure out how the hell she was going to get out of this. Her elbow hadn't released the hold Pulse had in her hair. In fact, after he straightened back up, he even wrapped his arm around her neck, and she felt his other hand beside her head.

Damn it, damn it, damn it! Lee could feel the energy in her, she knew that she had siphoned more than enough since entering the club to break out of this man's hold, even if it might break his arm at the same time, but with Jacen there, she couldn't access that energy. And so her hands were simply clawing at the arm, snug around her throat, unable to actually pull it away.

And then Lee heard Pulse speak, and her eyes widened as she stared across the room at the two men who had come in to rescue her. This was not working, not at all. If either of them came closer to try and help, the man was going to snap her neck, and she didn't have the strength to fight him.

Lee wanted to yell at them, wanted to scream. Jacen needed to leave, if only for ten seconds so she could get the arm off her throat. But breathing was difficult enough at the moment, Pulse was quite a bit taller than her, so yelling was out of the question. Still, Lee had to get Jacen out of there, so she tried, her mouth forming the words 'get out' even though no noise actually passed her lips.

Next thing she knew, Tarin and Jacen had 'traded places', Tarin claiming to be this 'adapted' whatever it was, and Jacen saying he'd seen the spirits of the people Pulse had killed. Lee's eyes widened even further. So not good. Lee's mouth stopped moving, stopped trying to get her message across to Jacen as she stared at her husband, anger coming into her eyes as she realized he was setting things up for a trade, him for her.

No, that is not how things were supposed to go, Lee thought as she stood there, held by the throat, barely able to suck in enough oxygen to keep the edges of her vision from turning black. But she kept pulling, tugging, clawing at the arm holding her, even though it wasn't doing any good.

And then Lee's nails broke the skin on Pulse's arm, drawing blood in three lines down the forearm. Which only resulted in him tightening his arm.

Air was suddenly even harder to come by, and the edges of Lee's vision did start fading to black now. There wasn't time for this, for whatever plan Tarin was coming up with. Lee turned her eyes to Jacen, hopefully he'd listen. With every ounce of energy she could muster, she spoke, forming the words as distinctly as possible with her mouth. "Get out now." She could only hope that what little sound actually came out was loud enough to reach them.

Jacen couldn't believe he was going along with this but now that the roles had been chosen he had no choice but to simply play along. "Next time I'm gonna demand real agents, not some damn civilians that happen to have a special ability." Jacen muttered in annoyance just loud enough for Lee and Pulse to probably make most of it out. Side stepping Jacen stood next to the doorway and then slowly reached back to place his weapon back in its holster. "You lead the way." Jacen said with a quick nod toward Tarin, "I'll follow behind the lady and our friend. Stay close though. I don't feel like having a heart attack unless it comes naturally."

"I wouldn't count on that." Pulse said with a smirk and a firm jerk on Lee, forcing her toward the doorway, "And remember.. any funny business and I snap her neck!"

As expected, the two muscle bound bouncers that Tarin and Jacen had dealt with minutes earlier were suddenly standing right behind the fake adapted. It was a safe bet that they would probably stay right next to him in order to make sure he didn't attempt to run or make a break for it.

"Let's get something clear." Jacen's hand suddenly snaked out, grabbing Pulse's shoulder and bringing him to a halt. He didn't tighten his grip on any Lee's neck any more, but it was obvious he muscles were tensing just in case he had to do something. "You better start running right now," Jacen hissed, his voice only loud enough for Pulse and Lee to hear, "because if you hurt my partner, next time there won't be a human, mutant, or adapted on earth that'll stop me from killing you."

For a moment the two men stared at each other and then the sneer returned to Pulse's face. "Sweet dreams jack ass. I hope heart conditions don't run in your family."

***

The walk out toward the car was relatively simple. Jacen had chosen to take the back so that he could guarantee his field was on Pulse at all times. Even though this meant Tarin was forced to glance over his shoulder every so often to make sure he wasn't getting to far ahead, it was the best way to make sure that Pulse didn't realize Tarin wasn't really an adapted.

"What the hell do we do now?" Jacen thought as he tried desperately to come up with some sort of plan other than what Tarin was now attempting, "And how in the world do I keep Lee from melting down once we get away?"

Jacen was still playing along, that was good. As long as they kept up the façade, it would give them time to try and figure something else out. A trade situation was much better than a stand-off anytime, at least in Tarin’s mind. Hopefully Jacen had figured out what he was playing at, too. It didn’t matter though, if they ended up having to go through with the trade. Tarin had a plan slowly forming in his mind though, as long as there wasn’t anyone else like Jacen around. If they’d let Jacen or Lee go, chances were the other two would never have found them…this way it was almost a guarantee...as long as Tarin was alive long enough to pull off his plan.

The bouncers were back, Tarin had expected that, though, he and Jacen hadn’t hit the guys to make sure they stayed down. Jacen described how they’d walk out to the back and Tarin simply nodded his head, eyes never leaving Lee, who looked less and less excited by this situation by the moment. She was keeping her mouth shut and playing along though, so Tarin just kept steadily looking at her. They had information to get, this was going to be the fastest way.

Jacen and Pulse were working out logistics, Tarin noticed when he pulled away from his thoughts about Lee and Tarin just followed along. Jacen was the one who knew about these types of things, and as he and Pulse exchanged words, Tarin kept his mouth shut. Then they were moving.

Tarin was in front and he had to keep checking back to make sure that he never walked out of Jacen’s field. It wasn’t necessarily easy considering how many people there were in their little group and by the time they made it to the parking lot, Tarin was a nervous wreck. About six feet from the car, they all stopped and Tarin turned to look at Lee and Jacen. Lee spoke, and Tarin’s jaw clenched slightly.

“You’ll find me.” He said, looking back at her steadily and what he hoped was confidently. “Use the spirits.” There, hopefully Lee would be far enough from Jacen when he sent the spirit.

”Enough chit chat, now screw off before I get impatient.” Pulse said, and released Lee.

“Now, get in the car and drive, now. No arguments.” Tarin said, face still carefully blank as he stared at Lee. Internally though, he was terrified. This had to work.