Subject: [OTL]: [Broken Roads] South 75 2/? Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1999 03:21:30 -0600 From: "Shaianne K. PeriHawk" Disclaimer: I own none of the GI Joe characters contained within, some TV corporation gave some comic company the go ahead to turn a neato TV series into a comic that was just cool. I *do* own Ana, Kim, and Stone. They I will draw blood over. So if you get some bizarre desire to use them, please ask me first. Thank you. Feedback: Ah yes. How am I doing? I'd like to hear about it. This series has been my childe for the last few months and I'd like to know my work and bizarre brainstorms have been paying off. Please email me at perihawk@yahoo.com. Thanks again. Dedicated to one araignee, a darling girl who's been an inspiration. Glad she's enjoying this series. Um, Don't know what I'd rate this, have to ask my beta and change this line later. South 75, part two Shai PeriHawk I stared at the man. "I don't know what you're talking about." Big lie. So he'd seen Kim? Why hadn't he turned her in? ~ Looking for my friend, she has red hair. ~ I couldn't see his face or eyes beneath the strange mask/goggle contraption on his head, but there was a slight air of worry around him. The woman I'd seen earlier flashed through my mind. "With a temper to match?" In a second, I was pinned to the wall, with something *sharp* pressed to my throat. I guess that was the wrong thing to say. ~ You see her. ~ It wasn't a question. He seemed almost angry now. Did he think I was part of this? "Yes." The evening had *not* gone well so far. No reason not to be honest. "If you're looking to get her away from the slave traders, we may be on the same side." He looked away suddenly, and then he was gone, leaving me in mid-air. I hit the floor with bruising force. My legs buckled and I fell in a rumpled heap. I waited, watching him tensely, waiting. Snake Eyes put a finger to the general vicinity of his lips, and disappeared into the shadows, somehow. Then, amazingly, my evening got worse. "Pretty getting tired?" Stone. Something inside me snapped. I sprang at Stone, and used sheer angry force to throw him into the metal wall. I leapt at him with my knee up, using the extra force to smash into his gut. Fury and pain mixed in his eyes. He moved in blurred liquid motions and my face was pressed against the wall, my arm twisted up behind me. I gritted my teeth, I should have seen that coming. He was behind me, his chest to my shoulders, pressing me into the wall. His mouth was right next to my ear, sending frightened shivers down my spine. "You have fooled everyone, Pretty. Every one but me, because I'm the only one who knows who you really are. You think you can redeem yourself by rescuing your friends, but you will never get them all, I swear it." I felt his breath along the nape of my neck, then his cool lips. He slipped his free hand between the wall and my body and flattened it against my abdomen. "I don't want you to doubt again, little one. You *will* be mine." "Zartan scares you, doesn't he, Stone?" I hissed. "I guess it takes one psychopath to scare another-" I gasped as he pressed all his body weight into me. His hand moved to my breast and squeezed until I whimpered from the pain. "I am the only- psychopath you have to worry about. You will surrender to me, Pretty, you will." He went back into the ball room, leaving me standing against the wall. My shoulder hurt, my breast hurt, and I was crying and couldn't remember when I started. Only Stone could make me cry. I slid to the floor, my legs couldn't support me. It was all too much, but I couldn't give in now. I struggled to control my tears. I had to get myself together. Someone helped me to my feet. Snake Eyes. Tension radiated from his body like heat. I leaned on him until my legs worked properly, he looked skinny, but he was strong. ~ I follow you. You tell me story. ~ There was no concession for argument, but I detected a small corner of sympathy. Maybe now he believed I wasn't a ringer in the slave trade. I nodded and led the way. I opened the door and tossed the damn shoes into a corner. Kim looked up from her copy of *The Three Musketeers*, her body tense. "Relax, kid." I didn't say anything else. Kim nodded, closed her book, and sat forward on the bed. I snatched my clothes from where I'd tossed them before my shower, and walked into the bathroom. Snake Eyes' hand close around my arm. ~ Where you go? ~ He was still very tense, something had him worried. I'd had enough, I angrily wiped the tears from my face and turned to look at the ninja. "Dude, I don't care *how* many ways you can kill me, I'm not staying in this hanky one second longer." The door slammed shut behind me. I stepped out a few minutes later to see Kim and Snake Eyes staring at each other, as if daring the other to move. I cleared my throat. Kim jumped, Snake Eyes turned his head my way. "It started two months ago, when I woke up face-down in an alley in down-town Nashville." I sat down on the bed next to Kim. ~ How you be there? ~ Genuine curiosity made him lean forward, ever so slightly. I raised my head to look at the black-clad ninja. "I said the story began there, and I meant it. I don't remember anything before that." I could read the surprise in the shift of his body. "Oh, later, I remembered the night before, but only under extreme pressure. What I *did* remember was not the actual events, but like something out of a movie." I shivered as I remember Logan's fist balled in my shirt. "Every now and then, something will *feel* right, but I have no real memories before that. "Two people took me in, helped me figure out what was going on. When Stone showed up, we discovered more than we wanted." ~ Man in hallway? ~ Now he tensed again. "Yeah, the man in the hallway." "Stone is here?" Kim shouted. She leapt to her feet, I snagged her shirt and yanked the girl back. I locked my arms around the struggling teen-ager. "Now is not the time, Kim. We don't know his position here, we can't risk it. *We might not get him.*" Only after the last did she quit struggling. I squeezed her in a hug. "We'll get him, Kimmy-girl. We will." Over the girl's head, I watched Snake Eyes. "Stone is evil. He's a slave trader, a fight monger, and a murderer. "During the party after a rugby game in Nashville, he kidnapped 30 college girls to trade in the fights. 15 were recovered in Nashville. In Chicago, he killed Kim's parents when she discovered his trade. Four girls were recovered there. Now we're down here, with twelve to go." Kim had relaxed in my arms, her breathing steadied. "The friends in Nashville did some checking. The two teams that were taken had a habit for randomness. Two years ago, they up and went to Mardi Gras without a word to anybody. They think that's why Stone targeted them." ~ What about you? ~ I sighed, Kim squeezed my arms. "I wish I knew. Stone drugged the keg at the party. I didn't drink at all. Some of the things Stone has said imply that I might have worked with him at one time. The point is that I *don't remember* and if there was the slightest chance that I am an abettor to the Slave Trade-" I shivered violently. ~ Numbers wrong. Where extra woman? ~ A corner of my mouth twitched. "I added your girl to the list when I saw her. I don't like the slave trade." ~ How you free other girls? ~ "With a lot of help. There was someone who, sort-of knew me in Chicago. He was part of a larger organisation that took them down." I laughed shortly. "Here, I have no idea." Snake Eyes nodded slowly. ~ Will be in contact. For now, keep *her* ~ he pointed to Kim, ~ out of vents. Zartan not be amused he find her. ~ He slipped silently out the door. He seemed more concerned for the possibility of Kim interfering than her safety. I couldn't make up my mind about him. Kim's eyes met mine. I walked over, and quietly turned the lock. ~ fin ~