Right. Things were probably about to get sticky. Jirou abandoned his drink and Noel pushed herself up and out of her seat. After her? Fine. She was holding all the cards to this game anyway. It wasn't fair, but she really didn't want to have to take Jirou's memories too.

She went right up to the bar and asked to see the floor manager.

"Let me call back. Just a sec." The bar tender picked up a cordless from behind the bar and they all waited. And waited. Noel glanced at Jirou. "Uhhh... he's not picking up. Hold on." The barkeep tried a different number with the same result. The second bar tender hadn't come in yet and the drink orders were piling up. The guy clearly didn't know what to do, but he didn't have the time to waste on this. "Well, I can show you to his office. Let me fill these orders real quick."

It was too soon to speculate on what a missing floor manager meant. For all they knew he was in the toilet.

Noel leaned forward against the bar and watched him work. Bar tenders had a certain pizzaz. He didn't twirl or toss any bottles or anything, but the guy was completely comfortable in his element. He knew where everything was and where it went again. After he had finished a round and saw a few more patrons taking seats, it was clear that until the backup came in this guy wasn't going to be able to leave his post. He called out to a girl walking past.

"Brittany!"

A girl with chin length vibrant orange hair stopped walking but kept tying her apron around her waist. A tattoo curled up and out of her shirt from right where her shirt buttons met. It looked like the tail of a scorpion. Based on the size of the tail, the body of the thing had to reach entirely inappropriate places. Tattoo on her chest. Can't miss her.

"Take these guys to Frank's office for me? He's not picking up."

The woman that their waitress had mentioned earlier had not been hard to miss. Her fiery red hair stuck out like a match in a dimly lit room, and the tattoo on her chest certainly drew one's attention as well, though for different reasons. It had probably paid for itself by now thanks to generous tippers.

The waitress rolled her eyes and finished tying her apron. "This way." she muttered with discontent. She was obviously not happy being a chauffeur, which made sense. If she was chauffeuring, then she wasn't waiting table, which meant she wasn't earning tips. Jirou and Noel followed her through the kitchen and into the back office area of the club. The place was certainly more spacious on the inside than the exterior conveyed.

Jirou placed his hands in his jacket pockets, opening a couple packs of cards in preparation. He had walked into this mission blind, but he was not about to walk into some drug lord's domain unprepared. He looked over at Noel as they followed. She was a hard one to read, but he'd dealt with more dangerous femme fatales before. She'd already revealed a significant portion of her hand, while Jirou still held his trump card. The only questions now, were; what was the rest of her hand, and what would did that mean for Jirou?

He filed those thoughts away for now. He'd cross that bridge when he got there, and returned to looking forward as they followed. Again, he'd let her lead while he played the part of the hired muscle. He'd keep his hand hidden for now.

"There ya go." Brittany pointed at a door halfway down the hall, clearly not interested in spending any time whatsoever entertaining non-tippers. Why had they needed to talk to this girl again? Noel had to track their conversation back to the first waitress before she put her arm out to stop the orange-haired girl's retreat. She nearly clothes-lined herself on Noel's arm, the movement was that abrupt.

"You have a police friend."

"Huh?"

The statement was a little too out of the blue. Noel tried again. "You have a repeat customer who is a police officer, correct?"

She narrowed her eyes at Noel just ever so slightly. "So what?"

"So are you feeding him information?"

"What kinda information?" Brittany asked the question slowly and carefully and with more than her fair share of suspicion. She knew this wasn't a joking matter.

"The kind that gets people killed." No threat. No malice. Simple fact. Noel grabbed Brittany's mouth with her hand and pulled the waitress off balance by her face. "Come." The door was only a couple steps away and Brittany couldn't do more than put her hands up on Noel's wrist and try to free her mouth from the vice grip. Her shouts of outrage stopped in Noel's palm.

"This door?" Noel motioned with her head, her own free hand going to pluck Brittany's hands off of her wrist and yank the girl forward. It was clear that, though they were both female, only one of them worked out with any regularity. The orange haired girl glared and tried to shake her head out of Noel's grip. Yep. That would be the one.

"After you." Noel managed a smile for Jirou. This whole thing didn't have to be unpleasant, after all.

Noel certainly didn't waste time when it came to getting down to business, and she was very blunt in her approach to questioning the waitress. He watched the waitress's stance chance from one of irritation and impatience to one of caution and defense. She knew something, and she clearly realized how precarious her situation was.

When his partner suddenly grasped the ginger haired waitress by the mouth, his senses went on high alert, while a "Holy ****" expression filled his face. He stifled a laugh as he moved to open the door for Noel and their contact. It was the look of shock and and raw fury that burned from the waitress's eyes that he found amusing. He really wished he'd brought a video camera just for that moment.

He placed his free hand inside his leather jacket, grasping the the .45's hand grip, as he opened the office door. He stood off to the side and allowed Noel and Brittany inside, before closing the door behind them.

They were also not alone in the office. A dark haired man in a button dress shirt, who Jirou assumed was Frank, had a look of bewilderment on his face at the sight of them. The first thing he noticed was Noel holding Brittany by the mouth to keep her quiet, but the second and most important thing he noticed was the black barrel of a .45 leveled squarely on his person.

He wisely did his best to remain calm. "What can I do for you two today?"

Jirou slowly lowered the pistol to his side before he spoke. "We have a few questions for you, as well as Brittany here. We'd appreciate your cooperation in a matter." He nodded to Noel "You're up 'partner'."

They were not alone in the office. There was a very distinct click sound of the hammer being unnecessarily drawn back on a gun. Jirou had a gun, but the sound came from behind them. Way. Behind them. Noel glanced back over her shoulder and Brittany jerked violently in her hands as she tried to shout something that sounded like "Mot Mank." Sitting in the couch along the wall was a man wearing a navy blue sport coat and linen pants. He looked like he belonged on a boat rather than on a couch in an office, pointing a weapon at them.

"Actually, we would appreciate your cooperation."

There were two guns in play. Jirou had one. The man behind them had one. Noel had her hands full which was not conducive to fighting. Poor Frank (if that even was Frank) sat behind his desk unmoving as the phone on his desk rang again. Well, if there had been a man with a gun in here the whole time, that explained why he hadn't been picking up.

A quick sideways glance to Jirou. Fight? Or no fight? Whose side were any of these people on? The only threat, judging by the sheer amount of sweat on Frank (or not Frank's) forehead, was the man with the gun.

"What do you want?" This statement, Noel addressed to the man behind them. She used the words as an excuse to turn her body and Brittany's so that Noel could keep an eye on both men. Just in case.

The sudden click of a weapon being cocked might as well have been an actual gunshot itself. The distinct sound of the hammer being pulled back caught Jirou's attention like a slap to the face. He kicked himself for not checking the rooms corners when they made their way in.

Following in line with Noel, Jirou turned his body to face their second host. He made sure to keep the barrel of his .45 leveled on the man behind the desk.

"What I want my dear is for you to let that woman go and for your friend to drop that pistol of his on the ground." He aimed his weapon, a rather large revolver, at Noel.

"I'm afraid I'm disinclined to acquiesce to your request." a puzzled frown fell across the man in the blue sport's jacket. "It means no." The devilish smirk that he had when speaking to the man behind the desk had instantly vanished, and was now replaced with an emotionless and uncaring poker face.

"I suggest you do as I say, unless you want your friend here carried out in a body bag."A wicked grin crawled across the man's face as he menacingly pointed his revolver at Noel.

This was amusing to Jirou. This man obviously thought he held all the cards, just because he was pointing a weapon at a woman. He was making a serious mistake. Jirou could empty half of his magazine before their mysterious guest chambered a second round.

"What makes you think I care?" Jirou flicked the safety off of his pistol as he attempted to drive the point home, still keeping it pointed at the man behind the desk. "Do you think that just because you're pointing a revolver, which is a terrible choice I might add, at a woman that I'm going to just roll over like a dog?" Jirou shook his head in disbelief.

"The way I see it, you've only got one shot with that revolver of yours before either of us fills you full of lead, which means you have only a couple options here. Option A; You shoot my partner, I shoot you. I squeeze Shakes McGee behind the desk for information and go home happy. Option B; You try to shoot me, my partner shoots you, afterwords she interrogates our friend and leaves happy. Option C; You drop your weapon and sit there like a good boy. Personally, I like option C."

The color quickly ran from the man's face as he realized how precarious his situation was. He looked from Noel to Jirou, then from his heavy revolver to Jirou's sleek .45.

"What if I just shoot him?" he nodded towards the man behind the desk. "If I kill him, you lose whatever it is you came her for." Jirou detected an obvious hint of desperation in the man's voice, meanwhile the man sitting behind the desk was already sweating profusely. He'd probably soil himself at the first sign of trouble assuming he hadn't already.

"If you want to shoot him, go right ahead. I'll just shoot you in the arm and interrogate you instead. I really couldn't care less. I'm fairly certain you have a pretty good idea of what's going on here, so either way I'll leave here with whatever information I came here for."

Wisely, the man on the couch let the hammer forward slowly and slid the weapon Jirou's way.

"Good boy. Now, which one of you two ladies is Frank?"

He wanted to shoot her. Noel was pretty sure Brittany would take most of that hurt even though a revolver was powerful enough to send the bullet on into Noel even if she had used the waitress as a shield. It would suck, but Jirou was right. They had two of them here for a reason. It only really would take one to get the job done. Two was a guarantee.

The man decided to put the weapon down and Noel sighed. Not a sigh of relief, but one of slight frustration. It would have made things so much simpler if they could just shoot someone already. She would have chosen to fight if it were her.

> "Now, which one of you two ladies is Frank?"

Brittany finally wiggled her way free enough to bite Noel's hand. Hard. Noel yipped, drew back her hand and then reversed her sudden movement to smack the girl with that same hand. Noel's open-handed hit caught Brittany mid-sentence.

"That's Fran-KERSLAP!"

Oh. She was actually being helpful. Noel let the waitress's wrist go and the girl tottered a step forward and put her hand to her face in disbelief of what had just happened. Little angry tears accused Noel from Brittany's eyes, but even that didn't seem to bother the brunette. Nor did her muttering of "Dumb cow" as Brittany made her way over to the man on the couch for comfort. The man turned her face in his hands to see how pink her cheek was with a tenderness that spoke of familiarity.

Well, that made sense why Mister Revolver didn't want to shoot into them, but it didn't answer the question of who he was.

Of course —Noel looked at her hand where little teeth marks circled between her thumb and forefinger— Brittany knew who he was.

Noel put her hand in her mouth and tried to focus on Mr. Revolver. Her eyes went a bit vacant as she watched the memories of deeds past rather than the room.

That was a mistake.

Robert Powell. Policeman. He was undercover, but Brittany knew full well who and what he was. And she liked it. And he liked her. Blech. That was not a string of memories Noel wanted to access. She followed the memories to Frank who seemed to have been badgered over a barrel while the two used him and this distribution point to root out and systematically destroy the competition, raise prices, get Robert a raise, skim off the top and...

PTCHOW! The sound of the revolver in such close quarters jarred Noel out of her memory hopping. But it wasn't only the sound. It was her ear.

Brittany had the gun and Robert had his hand on her arm as if it had been his intervention that made the shot miss Noel's brain and instead take her ear.

Her eyes were shaking before she squeezed them shut and this time it was Noel who teared up. Her hand found her ear and touching the bloody mess did not make it hurt less. "We need them both." And they needed them both alive according to their earlier plans. She squeezed the words out between gritted teeth, but at more of a shout level. Noel couldn't hear a darn thing. Her whole head felt like it was ringing.

"Robert's a policeman and Brittany's tattoo..." Frick! She couldn't just cringe away deaf, dumb and blind. Noel forced her eyes open to look for Jirou. Something dropped from the ceiling onto his gun hand. Something small and buggy and altogether unpleasant. "Brittany does bugs." The ginger was a mutant who specialized in commanding and controlling venomous bugs. Her favorites were scorpions. They made great tools of intimidation.

There was a sour smell that came from behind them. As a frequent recipient of that intimidation, Frank just lost his sh*t.

He hadn't anticipated Brittany's move to escape from Noel's hold, nor had he anticipated her attempting to shoot his partner in the head. His mind raced as he tried to formulate a plan of action. He quickly brought his weapon to bare on Robert instead of Frank. Frank wasn't going anywhere, and right now Robert and Brittany were the biggest threats in the room.

Noel's warning about Brittany did not go unnoticed. The small scorpion that landed on his forearm was evidence enough that somebody was a mutant here. He instinctively flailed his arm, sending the scorpion across the room, landing behind the desk next to Frank who immediately jumped up and out of the seat and over the top of the desk. He must have really hated bugs.

Jirou brought the weapon back to Robert. "It's going to take more than a little bug to take me out, lady." a smirk briefly flashed across his face.

"Little bug?" there was a hint of danger in her voice as she said it. Something more ominous.

From behind the desk Jirou could hear the sound of something clicking, cracking, and even popping. It was coming from where he had tossed the scorpion from seconds before. Jirou glanced between Brittany and the sounds. There was something more to her powers than just simple bug control.

"Umm... Noel... Are you sure that was all she could do?" as if to answer him, the tell tale stinger of a scorpion appeared over the top of the desk. "Never mind. I think I just got my answer." out from behind the desk reappeared the scorpion from before, except this time it was about the size of a doberman.

Jirou pointed the .45 at the insect and squeezed off a couple of rounds. The scorpion briefly recoiled while its hard chitinous armor deflected the rounds with relative ease, though a few ended up lodging themselves within the creatures exoskeleton.

"Of course you are..." he said in response to the now bullet proof scorpion. He spat and cursed at the sudden development. He tossed the pistol to Noel to use on the two lovers. He reached within his jacket pockets and removed several cards with each hand. He'd done a decent job of keeping his trump card hidden until now, but it could no longer be helped. He immediately charged the cards in his hands.

"This is going to be loud." in defiance the mutated scorpion snapped it's large pincers and twitched it's tail. Jirou quickly launched a card from his right hand which struck the bug's carapace. Erupting in green flash and roaring explosion, the scorpion again recoiled. The cards, much like the pistol, did little to damage the insect's tough armor.

This was not looking good.

Okay. Okay. Get a grip. She tried to just let the ear go and just continue to function. They were close to the end of this and now was not the time to get distracted. Besides, Noel had her ears pierced a hundred million bajillion times (more like 5). This was just like that. Except it hurt a heck of a lot more.

Jirou made noises (was he talking?) and Noel moved her braid to the side in order to grip the sword hilt hidden there. "What?" She was about to draw when he tossed his gun at her. The heck? She ended up having to catch the weapon (safety off? really?) and deal with it before she could even think to draw her sword.

By the time she leveled the pistol at Brittany, it wasn't the ginger who was aiming the revolver. It was Robert. Noel threw herself to the side and collided with the wood paneled wall of the office. A chunk of the chair that she had been standing in front of vaporized into splinters. Frank could be seen throwing himself out the office door.

"Seriously?" Noel took aim and shot as soon as she had her footing and both hands to make the shot precise. Robert's gun hand went red and he dropped the weapon. Noel turned her gun toward Brittany... Brittany who was smiling like an angel just came down from heaven and gave her a sack full of cash.

Cue slow motion turn toward giant scorpion.

Between the gunshots, the giant scorpion, and Frank losing any and all form of bowel control, Jirou retained a fairly calm composure. His dark, narrow eyes remained dead locked on the German shepherd sized scorpion in the room. Its massive claws snapped and swung at the air in anticipation and anger. It was dead set on tearing Jirou and Noel apart and wanted nothing more than to obey it's master's commands.

"I don't suppose that sword of yours is going to have much luck against something like that will it?" he asked, his hands clutching several charged and ready cards. The scorpion's segmented armor meant that it would be difficult to pierce of crack, but if Noel could get that blade of her's in between the chitinous plates, down into the softer tissue, they would certainly have a better chance.

He tossed two more cards at the large black insect, which again recoiled in pain, though it's shiny exoskeleton still remained unscathed. Jirou wished he could pack more of a punch into his cards. Against normal human flesh they had about as much strength as a right hook from a professional boxer and could do some serious damage, but against tough armor and bone they weren't as effective. He had his limitations, and unfortunately the large arachnid before them had the perfect defense.

The scorpion advanced on Jirou before quickly shifting its attention to Noel and lashing out with its poisonous stinger. Jirou grabbed Noel by the collar and pulled her out of the way. The stinger missed its intended target, but still found purchase in Frank's thigh, who was crawling across the floor on his hands and knees as he attempted to flee the scene. He immediately began to seizure and foam at the mouth as the toxic cocktail made it's way through his system. His body shook violently for a few moments before his muscles contracted, forcing his frame into a grotesque fetal position.

"Son of a..." there went one of their leads, which meant they had to take the other two alive. Jirou noticed out of the corner of his eye that Robert was reaching for his ankle. The dark black finish of a snub nosed secondary revolver was unmistakable. He threw another card at the man's direction with exploded as it came in contact with his ankle and only good remaining hand. The revolver skidded across the floor and into the opposite corner of the room. Robert threw himself into the back of the sofa, screaming as his body registered the pain he now suffered in both hands.

All the while Brittany stood there with a deliciously evil grin on her face. If Jirou were a lesser man, he would have rearranged her face with a nice roundhouse kick to the jaw.

Jirou said something and through the ringing in Noel's head, she was able to make out one word. Sword. Yes. Of course Noel would get to the sword if it wasn't one emergency after another. When there were guns in hand, the sword just didn't seem like a fantastic idea. Also... that really was one REALLY HUGE scorpion.

The asian grabbed her collar and Noel gagged as he kept her out of stinger range. She was going to move! She had just... well... Frank... He was crumbling up like an old piece of paper. She hadn't thought the thing would be able to do that kind of damage. Jirou flung a card at Robert and Noel realized she was missing time and falling behind. She was practically standing still. Get it together!

She skittered back and out of range of a second tail sting, colliding with the chair that was missing a chunk thanks to the revolver as she did so. Noel was so much better than this. Ear be damned, she was better than this.

Brittany laughed. Frank's corpse was entirely disturbing. Noel shot back to her feet and made a split second decision.

They didn't need Brittany any more.

She aimed for the small space between the red-head's eyebrows and squeezed the trigger.

If Brittany died... would that make the scorpion go away? Or would it just get angrier? Noel ditched the gun and drew her sword just in case.