Saturday, May 18, 2013

Mortis Grievance: The Swordfish Cell

"So what? You have access to the castle?"
"It's not very well protected, it's not very well hidden and I have contacts there...well, a contact...well, a contact and some skinny bloke named Marshmallow..." Ursa started laughing. Indishan and Ricky turned to glare at him.
"Watch the road, you imbecile." Mortis scolded the Australian detective lazily. Indishan made a disgruntled noise and turned his attentions to the road.

The car was a small silver thing that travelled far too slowly for Richard's liking. He had been in a car belonging to each of the three killers before. Garnet was no longer allowed to drive as he had been so reckless, not by the law or any of his friends. Jayden was okay, but he always confused the pedals. Mortis was slow, just like Indishan. He was ever so slightly obsessed over following all the rules, right of way, always way below the speed limit and threatening to kill anyone who failed to indicate. They all freaked Richard out, but he couldn't drive. Firstly he had a jittery leg and it was difficult to walk or even get up sometimes thanks to that thing. Garnet had called it Restless Leg Syndrome. The redheaded killer had also said Ricky had a tendency to move around a lot, very jerkily, in his sleep. PLMS. Apparently it may have had something to do with his lifestyle habits, but the only thing he could have been bothered to change was smoking, and only after Garnet had gotten sick, and he still smoked, just not nearly as much. Anyway, back to the point, when he wanted a ride for a purpose like this one, he needed Garnet's speed and Mortis' care. Indishan had neither. The suspension was terrible as well.

Ricky sat in the front passenger seat, drumming his fingers on his knees impatiently. In the back sat the other three, Mort behind Ricky, Hiro behind Indishan and Ursa between the two of them. There had been a lot of objection to sitting beside the long-haired Necromancer, and he had threatened to slit their throats with Monty (a razor held in a padded area on his wrist) if they got too close or annoyed him. They journeyed on in silence but for the occasional humming from any one of the people in the car or the occasional scrape as Mortis sharpened his knives, clearly worried.

-----

Elliot didn't look up when he heard the grass being trodden down by the man's approach. April did. He was a pale man, just under 6ft, stumbling uncertainly, clearly weakened. He had long, dark hair falling across his face and his shirt was torn and very bloody. She got up as he drew close enough and caught him as he stumbled and fell. Carefully, she lay him against the grass, on his back, and Elliot turned to stare. "He doesn't look very well." He commented.
"Oh, really?" His wife snapped with a roll of her eyes. The man on the floor let out a groan. "Are you okay? What's your name?"
"Don't...remember..."
Elliot frowned. "Listen, I've spoken to Tüpürcək and Labaha and listened to exactly what they've had to say, and we've reached an agreement. Most Sanctuaries are unaware of Mevolent's takeover in Azerbaijan and the Philippines, and as such they are a secret weapon. Tüpürcək and Labaha have rigged it up. We can get rid of every last one of them. No bother. The problem is, with so few people knowing the plans over there, we'd become a suspicion, a hated anomaly..." He paused and looked at the man on the floor. "You're Irish."
He gave a slight nod. Elliot frowned. "I think I've found us a scapegoat." The Irish man gave him a look but seemed too weak to protest.

-----

Charles was up. He was sat outside on a bench with Perseus. They sat hand in hand, the white-haired detective's head on the Cuban Mage's shoulder. Fiable screwed the lid off a bottle of cola and took a mouthful as Frivolidad began to speak.
"God it's cold here."
"It's quite mild, actually." Charles replied once he'd swallowed his mouthful. "For France, at least."
"Is this meant to be summer?"
"Spring."
"It's freezing."
"Wear a coat next time."
"I left my coat in Ireland."
"Never heard that excuse before."
Frivolidad gave him a look and he burst into laughter. The Cuban Mage gave his boyfriend a sharp elbow to the chest and he gave a gasp of pain before laughing harder. When he finally calmed down, Perseus grinned and shook his head. "Want to go get some lunch?"
He pointed to his naked eyes. "Depends where. If it involves reading, I can't. If you cook something, I'll eat it." He may have just about survived the fight, but his glasses sure didn't. In fact, part of the lens had stabbed into one of his eyes and made the eyesight much worse. Before that he had struggled to read without the lenses. Percy stayed silent. Charles sighed. "I need to visit the opticians."
"Yeah...I, uh, can't cook."
"Yeah, thought so." There was an awkward silence. "Actually, I am hungry..."
"I don't have any money."
"That's funny, neither do I. Not on me at least...so either one of Mevolent's goons stole my wallet or it's still with the medical people with my jacket, gun and watch. So what do you propose we do for lunch?"
"Sponge off Jasmin?"
"I think other people are doing that right now."
"...sponge off his girlfriend?" Perseus grinned as Charles began to chuckle.

-----

Advantageous led the four men down into the cells. He wasn't sure what they wanted with Franz, but he didn't think it would be very good. Straker was stood guard by the cells still. He narrowed his eyes as the bespectacled man entered with the four others behind him. The four newcomers didn't look at anything but their prize. Ransom was glaring intently at the one with long hair. Twist began to unlock the cell and Straker stepped forward.
"Woah, woah, woah, rookie. You do not want to do that. Do you have permission?"
Advantageous said nothing.
"Helloooo? Can you hear me, mate?"
He nodded and went back to unlocking the cell and helping Ransom to his feet. Straker stood there with his mouth open. The man with long hair moved to stand behind him and kept backing off as Franz went straight for him.
"Franz Ransom?" Ricky asked quickly, well aware that one of them was about to kill the other. Franz stopped as he backed Mortis into the bars of another cell.
"Yes?" He backed off and turned as Mort palmed a knife from his sleeve. The Necromancer gave him a cool glare as he walked to Ricky and then frowned. He could hear a faint, weak croak of his own name. He looked into the cell and gasped.

"My name is-"
"Richard Sloth, or Evan Ryton. I know your true name as well, but shall not speak it. I can't use it against you, can I, Phillipa?" He turned directly to Mortis with a grin, who glared over his shoulder at him. Laughter arose as everyone figured out what Franz was saying. He also identified Hiro and Ursa by their given names (Thatch Ellard and just Daniel). None was as amusing as Phillipa for Mortis. "It's to do with the anti-crocodile thing." He muttered, turning back to the cell and vowing to kill all of them later.
"Do you want something from me, Evan?"
"Ricky, please. And yes. I'd like a favour. I'm willing to, uh, pay..."
"I don't require it if the tainted one returns what he stole from me."
Ricky nodded. "Riiiiight...well, we'll see what we can do. Meanwhile, uh, I need to talk to you about Mevolent." They began to leave, Twist dealing with the objecting Mr Straker.

At the exact same time as this conversation happened:
He looked into the cell and gasped. "Garnet." He hissed. Garnet looked up and laughed a little
"Mort, either help me or kill me. Please. They torture me in so many ways."
Ransom's voice broke in. "Can I, Phillipa?" Laughter arose, including from Garnet and the other man in the cell. The woman just looked bored. And pregnant. Garnet repeated the name between weak giggled. Mortis glared over his shoulder. "You're Hiro Phantasmagoria, or Thatch Ellard." Franz continued, "And you're Ursa Borealis, or Daniel. Your parents were sorcerers and gave no surname. But Phillipa Schnorhavorian...just woah."
"It's to do with the anti-crocodile thing." He spat before turning to Garnet. He pushed a hand through the bars. "We'll help, I'll make sure of it."
"There's a sigil. You have to get rid of it. Please."
"We will, I promise."
"And us?" The woman asked.
"B-J wants them free..." Garnet groaned. Mortis nodded.
"I'll try arrange it. We'll get you out of here."
"Thank you. If you can't undo the sigil, please...please kill me..."
"No, I-"
He was interrupted by Ricky's call. "Phillipa! Hurry up, we've got the magical prostitute, we can go now!"
He hesitated, pulling his hand out of the bars. "We have to come back later, Rick."
"Why?" He came over and saw Garnet for himself. "Gar! You still haven't kicked it!"
Garnet pulled a confused face and pointed to the large burn scar on Ricky's face. "You're supposed to be dead. There was no way you got out of that alive."
"Well I did, so hah." He leaned against the bars. "Things aren't going too well for you. I can easily arrange for you to be busted out though. My main focus is Jayden though; he's in the Sanctuary gaol."
"I can help in that regard." The woman said. "I'm very influential in the Irish Sanctuary."
Richard arched an eyebrow. "We'll arrange the...evacuation of this cell ASAP." He then grabbed Mort's arm and roughly forced him out the door.

Garnet and Erik laughed. "His name really used to be Phillipa?"
"He has been my best friend for so long...d'you think he'd kill me if I used it as blackmail?"

((Describing what I was doing with Mort in this chapter led my mother to decide The Doctor's name is Phillipa and the real reason he never tells anyone is because he's just really embarrassed. I had a similar theory already, just without a specific name. Also Mortis. The others are only alive right now because he's been promised a way to free Gar. Who do you think he'll kill first?...I keep imagining Mortis wearing glasses even though I don't want to and it's so annoying...and Ricky's RLS is relevant.))

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