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Part 2 : Successful Failure
..."Oh damn," Dani muttered and watched the enraged man stalk forward, hindered slightly by the large crowd. You did not even need to look at his stance or expression, the man simply screamed "angry, overprotective boyfriend." Pushing herself up from her seat, she finished off the last of her glass and then ducked into the crowd, easily bobbing and weaving between the crammed bodies. With her stealth and speed, it did not take long to reach her target.
"C'mon, Lover-Boy, we have a situation to handle." Gripping one dark furred ear with perfectly manicured nails, Dani yanked Zw�lf away from his new posse of people. What had originally started off as two hypnotized girls had somehow matured into what had to qualify as the most crowded corner in the history of Britain. It was not that there were a lot of people, just that they were all pressed so close together, trying to get a glimpse of the werewolf in the center. With a small yelp, Zw�lf twisted around in Dani's grip to offer a sheepish grin and apologetic wave to the startled faces of the crowd behind him, which Dani just now realized was not entirely made up of females.
"You let your guard drop again, didn't you? So what did they think you were this time? Some crazy cosplayer? One of those "Lestat lives" weirdos? Or maybe some of them realized that they
weren't seeing things, and that your tail really
did move... So? Which was it?" Dani hissed once they were a fair distance from the crowd, voice increasing in fury with each new sentence. Zw�lf, who had been whining angrily and trying his best to keep up with the vampire who still held his ear captive, stopped abruptly, a deer-in-the-headlights look crossing his features.
"Oh shit, y'mean they could see...?" he asked, hesitantly bringing up his hand to graze over his free, wolf-like ear at the top of his head. Dani huffed, yanking harder on his other ear to get them to start moving again.
"
Yes they could see... And thanks to you, Toto, we've got to get out of here even sooner than we planned..." Dani's voice was still furious as she tried to maneuver the two of them through the crowd. The man was getting closer to Tomm, and if they did not speed up, trouble was inevitable. Zw�lf, meanwhile, went from apologetic to enraged, jerking himself out of Dani's grasp so quickly and furiously that she did not have time to let go, leaving a small, angry scratch on his ear.
"If you call me Toto
one more fucking time, I swear I am going to bite you," he growled, ears pressed flat into his hair and tail bristling. The scratch was gone; something so small was easily healed, and his red eyes were flashing angrily, albeit drunkenly. Dani stopped again, this time grabbing onto Zw�lf's red tie and pulling him close to her face with it.
"The problem with that, love, is I bite back." She grinned, flashing her own wickedly sharp teeth. "But that isn't the point right now. Tomm's got a problem and we need to fix it, otherwise
we're going to end up with much bigger problems..." Turning again, Dani increased her speed towards Tomm, still using Zw�lf's tie as a makeshift leash. At this rate, the man would reach Tomm at the same time as them. They needed to hurry if they wanted to prevent disaster.
"Tomm's in trouble? Stupid bastard... Though... I always did like him better than you," Zw�lf muttered, increasing his own speed. Dani rolled her eyes, not even bothering to pay attention to Zw�lf's drunken rambling. Now that she had finally gotten his cooperation, they
should probably make it just in time. They would have to make a close dash by David Lionell, but Dani was willing to take the risk. Speeding by the man they should have been keeping an eye on, Zw�lf and Dani came to a stop before their fellow teammate. The girl he had been charming was laughing, sitting on his lap with her arms around his neck and her face pressed to his own cheek. Zw�lf gave a small huff and regarded the two with some jealousy, while Dani went about prying the girl off Tomm and trying to pull the protesting vampire off the bar stool.
"Oi, let's go. Your little snack has a body guard, and he's not too pleased at the moment. Also, we've got to move... Toto slipped up and somebody's bound to start talking about werewolves eventually. The mission's a bust; we've got to get out
now." Dani waved one arm in the direction of the angry boyfriend, who had gotten stuck behind two of David's personal guards, while trying to pull Tomm away with the other. Tomm stopped protesting long enough to look in the direction of Dani's pointing hand, calculate the situation, and spring to his feet, following Dani's lead towards the exit, but not without first turning to the girl and mouthing an "I'll call you" to her. The three beat a hasty retreat towards the door, Dani in the lead, followed by Tomm, with Zw�lf bringing up the rear, using every opportunity he had to poke Tomm in the ribs.
"Oi!" Still not satisfied with the fact his girlfriend was safe; the man who had been coming after Tomm continued to pursue them, violently shoving past anybody in his way. "OI!" he called again, when the trio did not stop. Seeing that shouting was not getting him anywhere, the man grabbed the half-finished bottle of wine Tomm had left behind and threw it at the vanishing forms of the Requiem Renegades. The bottle caught Zw�lf in the lower back, and with a high-pitched smash it sent him sprawling forward, while simultaneously scattering shards of glass in all directions, causing quite a few startled shrieks.
"...Oh I am going to fucking
kill him," Zw�lf growled, pushing himself up from the sticky barroom floor. Pulling off an about-face, he turned back towards the man, who was still pushing forward, shoving people to clear his path. One of the patrons who the man pushed did not react too kindly, and punched him in return. It was not long before the fight involved more than two members, what with how closely packed everyone was. Zw�lf seemed to ignore this though, and continued stalking forward, eyes blazing and fists clenched tight.
"You
moron! Do you know how much trouble we'll be in if you get us involved? Let's get
out of here!" Tomm threw an arm around his companion's waist, kicking his feet out from under him and dragging him backwards. Zw�lf, too startled to react, was pulled out of the bar, with Dani keeping pace alongside Tomm. Just as the three dashed outside, security began the task of breaking apart the fight; it was not long before other patrons were being forced out into the streets as well...
**-------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- **
"Put me down! Put me down
right now, dammit! I can walk on my own!" Zw�lf beat angrily at Tomm's arm as he shouldered open the room's single door. After making sure Dani was in the room with them, he kicked the door closed again with a heavy boom, and then roughly released his teammate. The half-breed experiment staggered dangerously, trying to regain his footing and failing. Zw�lf finally caught the edge of a small table, and shakily sank down into one of the three chairs, the only furniture in the otherwise bare room.
"Really... Doesn't look like it to me," Dani huffed, sitting down in the chair opposite Zw�lf at the small, round table. The two glared daggers at each other while Tomm pushed back the curtains on the sole window, letting some of the pale moon's light illuminate the room. Walking back to the table, Tomm flipped the remaining chair around, sitting in it backwards and resting his chin on the low backrest.
"You've still got pieces of glass in your wounds, haven't you? And either they haven't healed yet or they've healed over it, and the glass keeps keep re-opening them every time you move..." Tomm cast a sidelong glance at his teammate, who pointedly ignored it. Instead, Zw�lf only offered a half-shrug, and kicked his feet up onto the table, slouching further in his seat.
"So'll get Doc to check later," he muttered, crossing his arms, "We've still gotta come up with a damned mission report, don't we...?"
"Yes, but unfortunately the mission was a total failure... And it wasn't just your fault... Every single one of us should have been keeping an eye on that David Lionell, but instead we were all goofing off like a pack of idiots..." Dani sighed, leaning forward so she could rest her elbows on the table.
"Damn, I hate writing up bad reports," Tomm muttered, crossing his arms on the backrest and resting his chin on them instead. Before either could begin the discussion on what to write down, however, the conversation was interrupted by a heavy thud as a full wallet dropped onto the table.
"Well, I wouldn't call it a
complete failure..." Zw�lf grinned, watching the expressions of his two teammates.
"You
didn't," Dani breathed, staring wide eyed at Zw�lf, who only grinned wider in return.
"He
did," Tomm murmured, holding up an ID from the wallet which he had been thumbing through. The picture on it was easily identifiable as David Lionell, the man they had been assigned to follow.
"Unbelievable... You little
klepto..." Dani grinned, getting up from her seat to watch over Tomm's shoulder as he emptied the wallet, pulling out banknotes, receipts, ticket stubs...
"Hey, it's a skill..." Zw�lf's grin widened again, as he watched Tomm root through his findings. "So...
Not a complete failure...?"
Tomm snapped the wallet shut as the last of the items from it were placed onto the table, dropping the deflated wallet onto the top of the pile. He looked up at his companions; a grin to rival Zw�lf's spreading across his features.
"
Definitely not a failure..."
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