Bilbao

From XPwiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Note from Alicia: This is officially a fic, as it involves an NPC and a retired character, but it does fit nicely into current game continuity. There's also a sequel, but you don't get to see that one for a few weeks, because it has spoilers. :)

Domino raids another Eris office in hopes of finding more information that Nathan can give to Val Cooper to help in the investigation, but unfortunately, one of the company's newer research assistants is on temporary assignment to his homeland and working late. Manuel is not at all happy to see Dom. Particularly when she starts hitting him.




The Eris office here in Bilbao was in a older, but immaculately maintained building. Not much of a challenge, Domino assessed, her eyes narrowing as she assessed the building. It was nine PM, early enough for there to be plenty of people out and about on the street, but late enough that all the windows in the building were dark.

Only amateurs broke into places at three in the morning. She preferred to have a crowd to melt into. Tossing off a jaunty smile at a couple of teenagers who gave her an appreciative whistle as they drove by on their scooters, Domino strode across the street - and straight into the alley that separated the Eris building from its neighbor. Fire escapes were a wonderful thing, she thought, and started to climb.

Manuel was working late - things back in the States had become ... complicated ... with the investigation and everything it entailed, and he didn't feel like he had a good understanding of the changes that were happening so quickly at Eris. So here he was in his little cubicle, with his computer displaying a CNNfi Internet feed in one window while he crunched numbers and played with scenarios in another. His neck hurt from hunching over his papers and his monitor, so now was a good time to go get a cup of coffee from the kitchenette area of the office.

Domino, using her favorite lockpicking tools on the window at the top of the fire escape, on the far side of the Eris offices, didn't see him moving around. But she felt a disturbance in the variables and frowned, pausing for a moment.

Didn't feel disastrous. Huh. Something was a little off... but she wasn't going to turn and walk away, not when this office might have some information on what Eris knew about this new mutant splinter group of the Basque militants. Heck, if they'd actually had any dealings with them, chalk up one more incidence of their involvement with a group on the terrorist watchlist back in the States. Whoever Nathan was feeding information to in the government would probably love that.

Manuel paused as he waited for the single-shot coffeemaker to finish up with the French vanilla. Something didn't feel right. Confident, faintly amused, focused. Definitely not one of the housekeeping staff - he'd felt most of them and dismissed them already. No, something was definitely up. But first things first. Caffeine. He needed caffeine.

Domino moved soundlessly into the offices. Slow and steady won the race. She eyeballed the cubicle farm she'd exited into thoughtfully. Not likely that any sensitive information would be out here... supervisor's office? She started moving again, having a good idea of where to look. All of the Eris offices apparently used the same interior designer, and she'd broken into more than a few of them these last several weeks.

Manuel, sipping from his dismal office coffee, made his way back across said cube farm to his particular cube. That anomolous emotional trace was still out there, and it was ... looking for something? Something important. A thief, perhaps? He smiled thinly to himself as he let himself ponder that one. A thief. In the office. He could surely have some sport with the thief before he dispatched him. His eyes glowed scarlet as he sent an imperative at the out-of-place emotional pattern. ~Come to me.~ it whispered seductively.

There was the supervisor's office. Domino crept soundlessly towards it. She'd check the paper files, and then... well, no, she'd go over here, first, and see what... WHAT? She stopped, shaking her head. The urge to take a left and head into the next roomful of cubicles, visible through an open door, was almost overwhelming - and made no sense at all. What the hell...

Manuel smiled. Seems the thief had a bit of will. Well, he had more than enough to go around. ~Come. Now.~ he urged empathically, making it less of an insinuation and more of a need. A desire. At the same time, he pulled a metal ruler from a nearby desk drawer and held it in his right hand. Better to be prepared, just in case.

Domino took a hesitant step in that direction, then another, almost unconsciously. She could just... see, what this was, and then she'd get back to what she was doing? No! Damn it! The pull was too much, but it made no sense, and even as she kept watching, rage flooded through her and her stomach quivered.

The desk drawer Manuel had left just a little too far open abruptly slid off its runners and fell on his foot.

Manuel bit back an interjection and spent too many moments staring at the drawer. What the hell? That shouldn't have happened. But his burgular was getting angry, and that wouldn't do. Almost without effort, Manuel squashed it. Sighing, he started walking to where the intruder was. If the mountain wouldn't come to Mohammed...

Domino stepped out around a partition and grabbed him by the throat, slamming him down across the nearest desk before she'd even registered who she was assaulting. Her violet eyes widened. Oh crap!

Manuel fought for breath for a moment, and then -cut loose- against his attacker. Who it was never even registered to him. ~I am the most awesome thing you have ever beheld. I am so far beyond your comprehension that you cannot help but be in awe of me.~ he projected with a good fraction of his strength directly into the intruder's brain.

Cognitive dissonance was a funny, funny thing. The emotional whammy hit and hit hard, but Domino's mind insisted on presenting her with images of Manuel from the past couple of years, ones that certainly did not go along with what she was feeling.

"For fuck's sake, Manny, stop that," she said in exasperation, letting go of his throat and backing away.

Manuel massaged his bruised throat. "What the fuck are you doing here, Domino?" he demanded, his voice raspy from the abuse it had just suffered. But he didn't let up on the manipulation - instead, he just knotted it off and let it float out there on its own. It'd unravel as she fought against it, but for now he needed his attentions for other things.

Domino shook her head again, doggedly. He was not impressive to the point of godhood, she told herself firmly. He had his good points, but he whined far too much. Gods did not whine.

"Information larceny," she said, somewhat brusquely. "What are you doing here?

"I work here." he said with an amused look. "And I'm sorry, but I think you're going to have to go home empty-handed on this one." he said, putting the ruler down and smiling at Domino. "I will not permit you to fuck up my life. End of discussion."

"Mmm," Domino said, somewhat darkly, and the desk Manuel was leaning against as he caught his breath abruptly collapsed, spilling Manuel to the floor. "You're working for these lunatics? Charming." Manuel, working for Eris. Working for Gideon, who had killed GW. The wrath that had been there since January and just sunk out of sight rather than vanishing started to resurface.

Manuel picked himself up off the ground and dusted himself off. "That's getting tedious." he said, and once again quashed her anger. "They're hardly lunatics, unless you've taken a far more in-depth interest in international finance than I can remember you ever having before..." he said. "Go home, Domino. Go home and forget all about this little adventure." he said.

"Like fuck," she hissed at him. There was plenty more anger where that had come from. All she had to do was think of GW, lying on a slab in the mansion's infirmary, and there was more anger than she knew what to do with. "You don't really have any idea who you're working for, do you? That's funny, in a sad sort of way. You'd probably gnaw on your own liver to know just how little distance you've actually managed to get from the mansion, I imagine."

"I wasn't asking." he said, and did something he'd only done once or twice before. He hit her with everything he had. ~Get OUT! FLEE! NOW!~ the emotions demanded. ~YOU DO NOT BELONG HERE. YOU ARE NOT WANTED HERE. IT IS DANGEROUS FOR YOU TO BE HERE. FLEE. NOW.~

It was a contradiction, again. Her stomach was quivering just a little, enough to tell her that the variables were shifting, but not dangerously. Domino closed her eyes for a moment, facing the panic head-on. It did not make sense. It did not make sense.

She didn't manage to force her way through it, but there was something Manuel had forgotten to take into mind. Her impulse, when faced with danger, was to fight it. And so she did manage to take a step forward and punch him in the jaw.

Manuel's head rocked back as if it was on a spring. He spat blood and looked at Domino again. "That was foolish." he said, and then upped the intensity again. Fear and a desire to obey. Fear like a ten-year-old girl faces in the combat pits of Hong Kong when fighting three adults. And this time, she wasn't lucky enough, not good enough, to save herself from what came after. "Go before I become angry with you."

Domino took an unsteady step backwards, almost tottering as the emotional assault nudged her closer and closer to something she hadn't experienced in years - a flashback. But the fear triggered other things, too, even as they triggered memories. You stood your ground. You always stood your ground. If you ran, they chased you, and then it wasn't just them who thought you were easy meat, it was everyone.

And she was not easy meat. Never. Never. Her vision hazy, she interpreted Manuel straightening as someone moving towards her, and lunged at him, more clumsily than she should have.

Manuel skipped back out of the way, but did not take the opportunity to strike back. "Leave, Domino. No one has to get hurt. Besides, there's someone who needs you." he said, changing the focus of his manipulations. There was someplace else she had to be, right now. Someone needed her. it was life-or-death, and any delay could make all the difference. "You must go! Quickly, before it's too late!"

Domino paused, uncertainly. Nate? No... "Pete?" she muttered, still confused by the images in her mind.

Manuel was too disciplined to let his surprise show. "Go! Quickly! He needs you!" he urged, playing his role in the fantasy he was weaving in her mind.

Swaying, Domino caught herself against the partition separating the cubicles. If she was in Hong Kong again, Pete couldn't need her, because Pete was still all those years in the future, and what the hell was going on? She clutched at her skull, wincing. "Stop it," she muttered, trying to think of what Nate had shown her, the meditative pattern that was supposed to compose your emotions.

"No." he said with a small smile, and went over the "safe" threshold with his manipulation. After all, it really was of no difference to him if she developed a phobia or other emotional trauma at his hands. He'd washed his hands of the entire school and everyone associated with it. If she continued to be stubborn, he'd drive her insane next. It was well-within his power.

She was being attacked. The realization sliced through the confusion, clear and cold, and instinct took over. Domino lashed out with a kick that slammed Manuel back to the floor and then took off at a staggering run for the nearest window. Not the one she'd come in through, but one on this side of the building, with no fire escape.

She crashed through it and fell - onto an awning that startlingly enough, held her weight for long enough for her to slide sideways. Instinctively, she grabbed at some of the stonework, slowing herself if not stopping her fall. The final impact, onto a pile of garbage bags, was still enough to knock her out, but not enough to injure her.

Manuel made his way to the window to look out at the now-unconscious Domino. Then, looking around, he smirked to himself and had to fight an urge to piss all over her. But that would be far more uncouth than he really wanted to be. Even if she did, by the feel of it, knock a tooth or two loose. Dammit.

The windowsill creaked ominously under his hands as he rested his weight on it.

Manuel backed off and retreated to the men's room to get himself cleaned up. He owed the mercenary an ill turn for this little stunt, that was definitely for sure. On his way out he pulled out his cellphone and called the local police to report the unconscious woman lying in the trash.