Desperate Times (Closed)

[Sleepless_Dreamer]

Place

 

[Elephantom]

Marv was having a relatively nice and quiet dinner with her mother, in his house, of course. There was no 'assignments' for the current moment being, leaving Marv in a much-needed period I rest, yet however he tried to rest, he still couldn't stop thinking about what his next dreaded assignment would be.


Both of them were rather quiet in the duration of their dinner, until Marv decided to speak and break the ice around here, and 'speak' is a loose term here as he was still trying to muster up the energy to talk. Last night was weary and too awful, way too much for his own needs, and he was still trying to get over that, with ease, of course.


His mother didn't know about his affiliates, or his assignments, or at least not yet, and Marv thoroughly hoped to keep it that way.


"Mothe-"


Before he could even finish that word, he was abruptly interrupted by the noise that emanated from the telephone, hinting that a call found its over there, presumably for Marv, but which also worried Marv, as beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, for it was the voicemails that prompted him to do his 'job'.


"Mother, I'll answer that."


He said, with a hint of anxiety in his voice that he hoped his mother wouldn't notice, and apparently, she did notice it, the unease in his voice was just too audible. Her mother decided to stay quiet about it, as he was always a very paranoid young man.


He steadily walked his way over to the telephone, before answering it, hoping that it was just a crank call or something. His attempt at predicting the future was immensely faulty. As he held the receiver close to his ear, he listened to what the person on the other end had to say, she was a female, or so he could make it out.


"Delivery at Sycamore Street for a Mr. Ross, you don't wanna be late for it."


The person suddenly hanged up, leaving Marv frozen for a minute or two, before he decided to put the receiver back, and try to rally up an excuse to convince his mother with, and coincidentally, he happened to be not the best liar around these parts.


"Mother, I may have to go right now, gonna meet some old friends for a reunion."


Her mother looked at him for a minute, possibly in disbelief, as Marv truly wasn't the most social person back in his childhood, and still isn't a really social person right now.


"Nice seeing you having some friends, didn't know that you had friends back in your school."


Marv instantaneously replied, with a rather wooden tone.


"Yes, mother."


He scooted out before walking the way over to sycamore street, which was quite near him, no need to use his bike or something.


20 minutes later...





He nervously shuffled his hands together as he looked at the briefcase which stood still in the fairly empty parking lot, and wasn't hampered by anyone. He opened the briefcase which had a single note inside it, which was more straightforward than the call.


"Funny that you made it here. We'll be concise, two blocks from here, towards the west, at sycamore street's end. There's auto repair shop, called Joe's garage. Situated in it, are people from the Triad. Your objective is to kill them. Failure to do so will result in the death of your mother."





Marv let out a slight sigh at seeing the last line. His mother was one stakes here and do was his own life, he decided to obey the letter's commands before moving his way over to the said auto repair shop, hopefully, it was not intensely guarded by the Triad.


30 minutes later...





He looked at the repair shop in front of him, which was in a decrepit condition and has a flickering neon sign in from of it, signifying the name of the store. It succeeded heavily, however, in a more annoying manner than an intriguing one. The door was left ajar, allowing for a more smoother entrance, and possibly left that way by a dumb bimbo.


He cleared his throat, before moving on into the building in a rather brisk pace, and unhindered by any obstacles, which were just a single flight of stairs leading up to the building. The air was, unsurprisingly, very humid, and a strong g scent of neglect intensified as he approached the building. His typical form of entrance wasn't a really nice way to enter a building, and which was exactly what he did when he kicked the door down, which hit another unsuspecting man, leaving him staggering on the floor.


Marv took the advantage before taking a skateboard carelessly left on the floor, and then smashing the fairly hard skateboard into the man's head, caving it in and splattering immense amounts of blood on his hand and the skateboard, which he immediately discarded.


"Shit, I think this is a teenager or something."


He slowly muttered to himself as he scratched his helmet, unsure of what to do next other than do a direct frontal assault upon men who may or may not be armed with guns.

 

[Sleepless_Dreamer]

"Penny for your thoughts?"


Penelope Montes leaned over a mahogany desk and looked at the serious-faced man in front of her. Her raven hair was streaked with blue this week, and the couple top buttons of her blouse were, perpetually, undone. She twirled a piece of gum around one blue-painted fingernail. Apparently blue was her favorite color right now. That would probably be changing soon, though. She looked over the top of her thick-rimmed glasses and flashed her best winning smile at the man.


"Get the hell away from me," was his reply. He swatted at her like a bug.


Pouting, she pulled back and sat down in a leather chair with a heavy huff. She folded her arms across her chest, but not before scratching at her new tattoo on her left wrist. A blue rose with dead, black petals. "We should go get a drink."


"No."


"God, you really need to loosen up. Eddie did."


"Yeah, and now Eddie's dead." The man replied. He tossed a manilla folder onto the desk. "Here. Try not to get this one killed." He was quiet for a moment. Then he added, "You know... if you don't start behaving you're going away. For good this time. And they won't be as... nice... to you in prison."


Penny chuckled and licked her lower lip. "You know that whole 'lesbian rape in prison' threat doesn't really apply to me right?" Her tone was set pretty much constantly on 'bedroom voice'. To accompany it, she made a rather obscene gesture with her fingers in her mouth. When no response was given, she was left with nothing to do but wink, take the file, and stand up. Her heels clicked gracefully as she swayed out of the office.


One hour later.





Penny emerged from a small room, licking the last bits of crab rangoon from her fingers. She was still in the black pencil skirt and checkered button up blouse from before, but her heels were now dangling from one hand rather than on her feet. One stiletto was dripping with something red and thick, and there was an equally crimson substance running up-- or down, it was hard to tell-- her thigh. With the remnants of rangoon gone, she was able to use her now-free hand to push her glasses up on her nose. She stopped when she saw the helmeted stranger.


"Oh.... hey." She cocked her head to the side. "You must be the new guy. Sorry, I got started early. I'm pretty sure there are more downstairs, though. Probably playing one of those dumb ass card games. Estupdio, am I right?"


She quietly padded her way over to him, stopping just short of the masked crusader. She looked up at him, but all she could see was her own reflection in her visor. There were flecks of blood on her cleavage. She frowned. "Huh... thought I got those. Anyway," she focused on him again. "We should go down there and finish 'em off before they realize shit went to hell in a hand basket up here."

 

[Elephantom]

"Shit, you're one of the good guys?"


He asked the newly arrived women, all subtly bloody from what he supposed was a fresh kill, his voice and his words clearly indicated that his knowledge of good/bad was mostly stressed by now. He had one of his eyebrows raised up, although it wasn't actually visible.


"Be my guest, let's get ourselves killed."


He said as he mockingly bowed down and pointed towards the other room which he supposed was to lead to a hallway and another and another room. Shit, wasn't it supposed to be an auto repair shop?


He steadily started to walk towards the door, before nudging the door, to open it slightly and get a view of the surroundings, his freshly bloodied arms visible in the momentous lights of the flickering fluorescent light fixture on the ceiling.


His forehead was extremely stressed by now, and there was beads sweat on his forehead, however, all of this were quite not visible to any of the other people, only showing a person, with a hidden emotion.


He decided to peek outside the door only to barely get spotted by a man armed with baton followed by a bare-handed guy and another person with a baseball bat. Totalling up to three individuals with blunt weaponry, with the exception of one of them who was completely unarmed. All of them failed to notice this masked man.


"So, what do you know? There's armed men over there, no guns, but they do have blunt armaments. I suppose we can get acquainted later on, right?"


He said, obviously directed at the younger individual who was dressed in... Rather promiscuous clothing. His eyes averted to the door before closing it shut. His mind devised a numerous lot of plans, one of them being to rush in and kill those people, however, the odds were staked against him and his new partner, or so he supposed it was.

 

[Sleepless_Dreamer]

At the mention of "good guys" Penelope couldn't help herself. She released a low, rolling chuckle. Yeah, his definition of good was definitely skewed. She would have normally teased him for that, even though he was a complete stranger essentially, but there didn't seem to be much time for that. He was clearly antsy and wanting to speed right onto the grand finale.


"Typical man..."


She remarked aloud to herself, or perhaps to Mama. Regardless, the helmet-wearing killer was on the move, and Penny was quick to follow him. Her bare feet collected dirt and soot and all sorts of lovely debris as they walked upon the cold concrete. She came to a halt when he did. Their size different made it difficult to peer over his shoulder, so she leaned around him instead. Her breasts unabashedly pressed against his back as she fought to see what he saw. Just when she thought she saw something, he had closed the door rather quickly. She took a step back and looked at him curiously.


"Only three? Are they big?" But before he could answer her questions, she remembered something. "Oh!" She exclaimed, almost too loudly. "Can you wait here for juuust a second? I forgot something." She turned to leave but stopped and turned back toward him. "Here, hold these."


She handed him her shoes, then turned and quickly sashayed her way back from which she came. The second ticked by like hammer thudding hours. It seemed like she had been gone forever when she finally returned. She was holding some gun-like contraption with a "Dewalt" logo on it. She gave it a steady, satisfied pat.


"Nail gun. Or something." She shrugged. "I don't know, it fires sharp projectiles. Okay, let's go."

 

[Elephantom]

He was holding her shoes in a rather dumbfounded fashion, unable to digest the fact that she left him, or he may have been too quick to judge. After what felt like hours, she finally returned, holding a nail gun. Way to go, she definitely made some visits to the home depot, shit, he should've been more productive. He settled the shoes on the ground before proceeding to speak again.


"Well, them people, they're quit big if you're still lingering on that question. But I'd say that we can take them, we do have leverage over them, as there's flight of stairs leading down into that room. And they're armed only with blunt weapons, there may be more, but I really don't know at this point."


He dashed back before grabbing onto the skateboard which left neglected on the hard, almost cold concrete floor, next to that mashed piece of head, which looked rather grim, and stank of the grim stench of death, or more precisely, blood.


"Fancy seeing that you're already equipped with a gun, never thought that I'd receive reinforcements."


He looked at the oddly frail women, in comparison to him, and thought of how his definition of reinforcement was way too loose in his statement, the women, however, made up with her obviously calculated demeanour, or so he thought.


He was just about to say a fairly rude remark about that 'voice typo' but refrained from completing his action, and instead focusing on the door. His hands were slightly shaking as anxiety and a more dread form of excitement took hold of him.


He kicked open the door, startling all three people down there, who were more quick to react than the previous unlucky fellow, they started to rush up the stairs when Marv slammed the long skateboard into one of the hooligans's head, sending him staggering back, and initiating a domino effect as the trio all fell down on the hard floor with a rstehr loud thud, the sound was drowned out by the punk rock music which was blaring in the background at a deafening volume. Seems like the Chinese, or the ones here, have a taste for American music, of the worst kind.


The trio quickly regained their senses as they stood on their feets once again, but failing to realize their previous mistake as they again attempted to climb the stairs, only to fall down at the might of the skateboard, which somehow signified his hate for teenage culture, and the somewhat ironic situation which concerned the skateboard, and the teenagers.


Marv quickly skipped past their bodies as they tried to get up with fruitless results. Marv was quickly met with a swinging lead pipe, which narrowly avoided him, instead scraping on his helmet, allowing Marv to hit his stomach with a low-flying uppercut, and then followed by Marv planting his feet into his stomach, leaving him stunned as Marv smashed the skateboard into his head, spilling blood everywhere, and creating quite a mess.


He saw the trio quickly regaining momentum as he went for a propane tank in the corner of the room, leaving him off-guard, as he got an unexpected hit on the back of his knee leaving him startled as he backed away from the trio, avoiding a punch that nearly hit him.


Certain that he was the cornered and left with no weapons except his fist, the trio took up triumphant yet ugly grins, which openly showed the bad condition of their teeth. However that, was the least of his concerns right now.

 

[Sleepless_Dreamer]

Penny had to admit, she hadn't been so sure about this guy. He certainly lacked the... size... that Eddie had, had. He had been the perfect yin to her yang. All muscles and yelling and bulging veins. He had essentially been a distraction so when she, the unsuspecting pin-up secretary, came waltzing in nobody suspected her of much. They were too busy trying to tame the bull in a China shop that was Eddie. This guy, Marv she believed his name was, was shaping up to be one hell of a replacement. What he lacked in size, he made up for in vigor. He was busting through doors and skulls quicker than Penny could drop her panties at a Panic! At the Disco concert.


For a moment, perhaps a moment too many, she stood at the top of the stairs and just watched Marv do his thing. It wasn't until Marv had his back turned to three beat up and pissed off Triad members that Penny remembered she was there to help, not just watch. "Aye... dios mio, mama. Estos hombres son feos!"


The Spanish rolled off her tongue like a purr while she rolled just as easily down to the lower level. While the men were distracted with Marv, Penny opted to go for the biggest-- and least hurt-- of the trio. She put the tool to the base of his skull and was pleased to find that it fit quite like the barrel of a gun. Before he could react, the quick sounds of shooting air could be heard, followed by strangled gargles. Three nails released into the back of his head and lodged into his spine, cerebellum, and probably something else that wasn't meant to be pierced. He fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes, bleeding out and dying much slower than one might have thought.


This offered the opening that Marv needed to complete whatever he had set out to do when he went reaching for that propane tank. The remaining two men were getting over their shock. When one swung at her, Penny (seemingly) clumsily fell to the ground, right onto her butt. While she was down there, she unleashed a couple more nails, this time into the top of her attacker's foot. She quickly scooted back, inching her skirt up to indecent lengths in the process, and stood up. A tattooed thigh and a decent amount of cheek were exposed.


"Oh, shit." She exclaimed whilst not fixing her skirt, but rather looking at a slit that had formed in it. "This was my favorite one!" She looked up angrily at the man with the nails in his foot and decided to shoot another one into his chest for good measure.


"Pendejo..."

 

[Elephantom]

"Tough shit."


He subtly exclaimed before smashing the wounded goon's head in with the propane tank, for a much needed assurance, whilst leaving the propane tank lodged on to the dead man's head.


"Lets get this over with."


He stated with a rather shaky tone, as he picked up a knife, which was again, carelessly left in a table, which was possibly reserved for a game of poker, and the stakes were probably much higher than the your average money...


However, Marv didn't have any time to dwell on useless thoughts as he picked up the knife, which was a rather simple bowie knife. No designs or flairs, for its one purpose was to cut other beings up.


He tightly grasped the knife's handle, which was unsurprisingly, very filthy and in a very decrepit condition, owing to the recklessness of this rather strange bunch of hoodlums. He wondered as to how they even earned a position in a very sophisticated groups such as the triad.


He kicked open the door, stunning a guy who was trying to eavesdrop on the situation that was previously going on. Leaving no time for any remarks or observations, Marv stabbed the guy in his chest face, entering it deep into his eye, piercing the brain as copious amounts of blood spilled on his helmet. It was a rather violent move, as he could've just stabbed him in the heart, but he tends to lose his pragmatic nature sometimes, even if he regrets it much later on.


Another hooligan whipped him with his pistol, which connected with his cheek, leaving him momentarily stunned as the man tried to pull another move by throwing a hook at him, which proved to be fatally wrong choice as Marv blocked that strike before spearing him into the wall with tremendous force, leaving the thug disoriented and unarmed, having lost his pistol in the process.


Marv quickly backed away as the man attempted to kick him in the chest, quite succeeding in doing so as Marv failed his evasive manoeuvre, leaving him staggering back onto the ground, and resulting in him losing grip of his weaponry. The man who quickly realized that he had no weapon left with him, took advantage of the situation and went for his knife, succeeding in obtaining it.


By now, Marv was seriously angry, as he quickly stood up to his feet, before pointing his hand at the man.


"You're dead meat."


Soon after saying that, Marv quickly rushed to grab the man, receiving a slice wound on his chest in the process as the man tried to defend himself. Marv quickly got hold of his face, before violently gouging out the goon's eyes with his thumbs, as the goon screamed helplessly, as commotion could be heard from the room next to this room.


Marv quickly stood up, as blood continued to gush out from both the man's terrible wounds and the wound on his abdominal area, the pain was rather numb as adrenaline pumped through his veins. Before relaxing himself with a deep breath, quickly realizing what he did right now.

 

[Sleepless_Dreamer]

For the most part, Penny kept out of the fray. She was more of a "kill people before they know you're trying to kill them" type person. Now that everyone had been very clearly alerted to what was going on, her role had diminished considerably. There was only so much a nail gun could do, after all. Yet, as luck would have it-- as it often seemed to do in regards to our dear Penelope-- the goon had dropped his pistol. As weird as it may have seemed, Penny wasn't a huge fan of firearms, at least not the kind that fired actual bullets. But she also wasn't an idiot, and she knew when the odds were against them. Thus, she picked up the gun to keep for herself.


"Hey, Daft Punk." She called out to Marv. "You got that guy? Yeah... it looks like you got him. I'll be right back!"


For the second time, the voluptuous woman left Marv to fend for himself. She figured he would be alright, on account of the guy he was currently assaulting was bleeding out of his eyes and stomach. She moved with serpentine grace over to where goon number three's corpse lie with a propane tank lodged in his skull. The raven-haired beauty stuck the gun in the waist band of her skirt and put all her effort into removing the tank from the smashed skull and gray matter. It took some coaxing, but she managed. Feeling rather triumphant, she returned with the awkward, heavy object in tow.


"I'm back," she informed him. Despite the chaos, her voice was still like one out of those late night 1-900 commercials. Her eyes lifted to a small corridor, where a quartet of Triads headed their way. "You might wanna stand back here," she informed Marv.


The woman released the weight of the tank onto the ground and used one bare foot to push it away from her with an impressive amount of force given her stature. Her foot had even slipped a bit on the slimy surface. As it went rolling down the hall, Penny removed the gun and leveled it at the tank. She couldn't help but to chuckle at herself. "I can't believe I'm doing this," she said. "I mean... I've always wanted to try it, but..."


When the tank was far enough away, Penelope unleashed a flurry of bullets. Her aim wasn't great, so she figured quantity over quality is what mattered here. A shot missed and hit an approaching goon, another ricocheted off a wall and hit a second, but the third and fourth hit the propane tank. Just when it seemed like nothing was going to happen, something did. The tank exploded with more force than Penny would have expected. The small area contained it to an extent, but the push back was still enough to send her flying backward. She landed painfully on the stairs, her back bending at a very unpleasant angle. Her ears rang, and something warm ran down the side of her face. But, on the bright side... no more Triads.

 

[Elephantom]

The explosion sent him flying back to the wall, and momentarily stunned as pieces of debris flew around the room, tossed around by the raw energy the explosion provided. From what he could guess, there was more explosives and flammable items in the room next to them, which could've boosted the explosion. The sound was simply just deafening, leaving Marv temporarily deaf as he tried to get a grip on the situationm


Marv took a quick glance at the woman, who was in a rather painful position and situated at the stairs, and currently bleeding at the forehead, fortunately, he had dashed back to avoid any damage. However, he quickly noticed that he had suffered some blunt damage in the left area of his abdominal region, leaving it bruised. Marv tried to muster some energy to speak, for he was already too weary to respond quickly, he decided to take some time to say one of his dank remarks.


"Shit, did they never tell you that propane tanks make a damn big explosion."


He stated, before he looked around at the room, observing the situation which lay before him, which was completely charred and devoid of any gangsters.


Marv quickly went over to the woman before lending here q hand, it was the least he could do, he decided to make another sarcastic remark to accompany his action with.


"That was a dandy move you did, great job."


His tone was more on the boorish side, as he looked at the woman, hand still held out to her, in case she decides that she needs some support to help her lift herself.

 

[Sleepless_Dreamer]

When the ringing in her ears subsided, Marv's snide remarks were the first thing that Penny heard. She quickly decided she would have much rather preferred the ringing. She glared up at him through glasses that were now decidedly crooked and cracked. Some of the blood running down her face had made its way to her lips, and she spit it at his shoe.


"No, I never got proper explosion education in her barrio... punto."


Regardless, she took his hand and used him to help herself up. If she'd been worried about the tear in her skirt before, she would be even more worried now that her whole outfit was essentially going to have to go in the trash tonight. She ran her tongue across the front of her teeth and surveyed the situation for a moment. "Dandy job" or not, the problem had been taken care of. It wasn't her concern how messy it was, how much noise they'd made, or how long it would take the Cleaners to clear this all up. Her instructions had been to kill the Triad, and she took her instructions quite literally.


"What can I say, some girls like to get right down to the good parts." She offered a grin that quickly turned to a wince when a sharp pain shot down her back. "Ugh, come on. Let's get out of here. They're probably waiting for us."


She turned and lead the way, albeit slowly, up the stairs. Her shoes were found nestled safely on the landing. She grabbed them and even took the time to slip back into the heels, as impractical as that probably seemed. While fires still burned downstairs and sirens could be heard in the distance, there seemed to be a sense of calm-- a sense of satisfaction even-- about Penny. She had a grin like the cat who'd just gotten the canary as she waltzed right out the front door. As expected, an unmarked black vehicle was waiting for them just around the corner.


"Our chariot awaits."

 

[Elephantom]

"Chariots or not, you need some medical attention. Probably bet that this black vehicle has a violent surprise waiting for us, you know, like those hit-and-run techniques. We come close to them, and BOOM! They shoot us and drive away, but that's only a possibility."


Marv remarked looking at the pretty beat up young woman, he looked back at the entrance before deciding to speak. He looked at his shoes, which were caked with blood and other pieces of gore, leaving him to wonder about the possibilities of buying a more proper, synthetic outfit. His canvas sneakers were just too ruined for cleaning, it was red all over.


"We'd rather hurry, cops don't take time to arrive at crime scenes, especially big-ass ones such as this."


He stated before noticing that the sirens intensified. Left with no choice but to go to the aforementioned black vehicles, he did what he had to do, and that was accompany the lady.


"Glory in the form of violence, am I right?"

 

[Sleepless_Dreamer]

"Psh," Penny dismissed Marv's worries with the wave of a hand. "Danny wouldn't do that. He hates the sight of blood."


They made it to the car. Just as the door started to open, Penny quickly placed a shapely hip against it and promptly closed it. She turned to look at her new 'partner' for a moment. "But don't call him Danny. In fact, don't call him anything. And most definitely don't tell him that I call him Danny, comprendes?"


After a moment, she removed herself from the door and this time she opened it herself. She slid into the back, pulling Marv along with her. He would probably have a heck of a time with that goofy helmet on his head but would manage nonetheless. Once they were inside and the door was closed, the vehicle rolled quietly away. A row of empty seats was before them, and then after that was the occupied driver and front passenger seats. The driver was a guy Penny didn't recognize. A monkey in a suit, really. The passenger was a man with pale skin, and fiery red hair and a beard of the same color. He didn't turn in his seat, but Penny could see his eyes move just enough to glance out of his peripheral.


"Was it necessary to bring the whole fire brigade?" The man asked in a deep, Scottish brogue.


"Probably not," Penny shrugged while placing her nail gun neatly in her lap. "But you know, desperate times...desperate measures."


The man made an unamused sound. He went quiet for a moment while typing something into his phone. When he was finished, he lifted his head and looked out the windshield.


"Marvin, you're ma seems well. Though... poor thing'll have a heart attack if she sees you strollin' in lookin' like that. You're gunna need to get cleaned up before you go home. Both of you."

 

[Elephantom]

"Sheesh, I won't tell him that he's Danny."


He replied back to her as they both entered the shady car, well, he had some certain problems entering it, mostly because of his helmet, but he did fit in after leaning down a bit.


He listened to their short banter, before getting slightly annoyed at that pretty directed remark, however, it was invisible to everyone. His fear of monkeys were only defeated by his fear of his mother getting a strangely timed heart attack.


His body shuffled around as he tried to get comfortable in his seat, but being rather unable to do so, due to the fact that his bottoms were quite caked in blood and he was wounded. But all that couldn't stop him from making another crappy remark.


"Even cold water won't clean your seats, Mister..."


He was hindered from completing this sentence due to his lack of knowledge of all the people situated in the car, or the person who really owned this car.


He looked over at the background, as trees passed by. One could get a clear view of the sandy shores and the glistening waters of the bushford beach. It was truly amazing, although he wasn't in any mood to enjoy this more properly, nor was he close enough to compliment it properly, but he had to do it, with an uncaring disposition to any other conditions he had to previously suffer.


"The river looks good."

 

[Sleepless_Dreamer]

No attempt was made at filling in the blank after "Mister". It seemed as though the red-headed man pretended like he hadn't heard it. Marv's lack of a real reaction about his mother seemed to displease the man Penny had so calmly referred to as Danny. His light blue eyes looked out the window at mention of the river. He huffed.


"Looks great, sure. But it's one of the dirtiest fucking rivers in the state." The man said.


"We have that much in common," Penny remarked. She looked at Marv and offered a smile and a wink.


"You'll be going to Riverside General," the man informed them. "I've arranged for someone to clean you up, then you'll be taken to the Avenida Del Sol."


Penny groaned and folded her arms across her chest in a defiant manner. She huffed at a stray piece of hair that had fallen loose from its holder and was now hanging in her face. This wasn't the first time she hadn't been permitted to return to her home after a "job". In fact, these instances were becoming more and more frequent. She wasn't a fan.


"If you're going to put us up in a hotel, you could at least put us somewhere nice. Like a Hilton or a Sheraton... not those cock-roach invested porn houses."


Her comment was ignored. Instead, the red-haired man told them that they would have everything they needed waiting for them. Clothes, food, and most importantly, alcohol. This was their form of payment. No monetary rewards had ever been offered anyone like Penny or Marv. The reward, Penny supposed, was her freedom and Marv's mother's life.


The rest of the car ride passed uneventfully and quietly. The duo, as promised, were taken to the hospital and delivered into the morgue. With nothing but cadavers for patients, they were able to be treated discreetly and without anyone to ask questions. Penny sat on an autopsy table while an old geezer with shaky hands put stitches in her busted head. Marv had been situated somewhere behind her in the room, and Penny was complaining about how she couldn't see him.


"He's probably taking his helmet off," she was telling the geezer. "And I'm missing out on the big revelation. Can you see him?" She asked the man. "Is he hot?"

 

[Elephantom]

"Sorry, he's not 'hot'. He's just a bald guy, guess the hair went off from him just too fast."


The old guy responded, with Marv shrugging it off without a care for his actual looks, other than the mask which seemed to symbolize him in a lot of ways. He didn't suffer anything serious, just some debris lodged into his shoulder and forearm, and a bruises all over his lower left abdominal region. His eyes averted to the old man, before he proceeded to speak, he could've been rendered dumbfounded, but he just had to say something.


"Man, is this thing finished?"


The geezer didn't reply or anything, he was way too busy stitching something into that woman's head. Marv decided to back away, sitting impatiently on that piece of steel folding chair propped up for some portable sitting. Marv grumbled a bit, before finally looking at the thousands of dead bodies situated in the morgue, it was creepy at its best. All of them, cleaned up and prepped for whatever thing bodies were supposed to do in morgues. This wasn't exactly the best areas, according to Marv's preferences, who felt as if the this site was a bit too much on the shady side. He feel the air of death that roamed around the room. His mouth was utterly dry and a bit bitter from all the killing.


"Uh, nudge me when this is all over."


For anyone who understood him properly, this usually meant the call of sleep. He quickly dozed off, and soon afterwards, the extremely audible snoring came up. The main culprit being Marv, who was now stuck in a deep slumber, and was probably seeing a nightmare, evident in his occasional mutterings of unintelligible words.

 

[Sleepless_Dreamer]

Penny gave a disappointed huff at the old man's response. "Well, can't win 'em all, I guess." She fell into silence as she was patched up to the best of the geezer's ability. Penny had an assumption that he was probably a coroner or a mortician, so he was used to working with much less... live subjects. Still, she imagined the act of stitching skin together was pretty much the same across the board. She just tried to keep as still as one of those cadavers over there.


"Ay, dios mio, Mama. No estan demonios aqui. Solamente un viejo y... no se como este otra hombre es."


The geezer, having finished Penny, took a step back and regarded her with a strange expression. He had of course read her file which said she had frequent bouts of delusions and hallucination that lead to her talking to her dead mother, whom she was convinced was still constantly scolding her from beyond the grave. Still, it didn't make it any less weird to witness. Penny slid down from the cold steel table and turned toward the snoring Marv.


Her eyes, made purple through those fancy contacts-- which made one wonder if the glasses were non-prescription or if the contacts were-- up and downed Marv. No, definitely not hot, she gathered, but not the ugliest thing she'd seen all day. Walking over to him, she gave his chair a nice kick.


"Hey, Sleeping Beauty... and I use that term lightly. Get up, we gotta go."


"Shift change is in ten minutes," nameless old guy said.


"Yeah, shift change is in ten minutes. We gotta go check out that hotel. I wonder if they gave us the honeymoon suite. I wonder if it even has a honeymoon suite..."