Editing Bound Fate (Warhammer High) (section)

===Pretend-Slumming - Sunday, Septembris 18===
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The couple moved with ease and happiness through the near-underhive. Kids were always coming down here, pretend-slumming, using the danger to get their blood moving.

"Oh ''come'' on, you know you want to-oo. Why else would you be here with me?" Green eyes sparkled with mischief, desire. Golden blonde hair tumbled over young, slender shoulders.

"I can think of a ''few'' other reasons." Warm brown eyes looked back under black hair, dismissive and teasing.
Her full lips parted to reveal even white teeth and Glemish, watching from across the street, felt something stir in his blood and lower. He scratched a festering scar idly, the motion setting his enormous paunch asway, and his thin lips parted in a fetid, rotten smile.

The girl pushed the boy into an alley, against a wall. Her eyes were lovers' eyes, her hands sliding freely up his shirt. Her body and mouth moved against his, the tight jeans and cropped shirt only enhancing the lean muscle of her form, the wantonness of her manner.

"Come on, right here, and then we can just leave." The words came out around her tongue, heavy with breath. 
"Forget about everything else." 

"I-I don't know, Sarai." He pulled back from her face, long enough to breathe and look around.

Glemish stopped his motions, freezing instinctively to avoid being seen. ''Like any good scavvie.''

The girl clambered up her lover, hair whipping around as she began suck on his neck.

"Oh, oh wow." The boy's hands moved to her back, sliding down the hem of her pants, kneading.

"Shit yeah, that's what I'm talking about Jay." Sarai panted and leaned back, pulling the cropped top off and dropping it pointedly.

Glemish felt the stirring increase, an almost forgotten feeling after years living amongst filth and mutants. He thought about taking the Spur, letting it ripple through his system as he watched, and then took his due. ''It'd feel good.'' Her body was amazing, a work of art. Lithe and muscular, but full. ''So full.'' Glemish felt the moisture bead up on his patchy-haired head, blotchy and spotted through the grime and scattered working sweat glands.

"Slow-slow down a little bit, hon." Jay tried to pull back, but she was insistent.

"Never." Sarai laughed and grinned fervently, hands and mouth roaming. A hand moved back, an innocuous click! echoed through the alley. The underthing fell softly to the ground, and she pulled Jay's head down onto her bare, rollicking chest. He resisted, settling into her neck instead. "Oh, you fucking ''tease''." A hand raked down his back, hard.

Glemish felt himself pull out the Spur, not even a conscious decision. ''Jes' a little.'' He knew, he'd used it before. Too much would shut him down. But a little would put life into his ravaged nerves while he watched and listened. ''Then take the rest, kill the baser. Take the girl. Mayb' even keep 'er alive.'' The grin grew wider.

"Oh come on, baby, come on." Sarai pulled his hand from her pants, placed it on her chest. She was rolling, gasping.  Glemish could hear every breath, see it as in slow-motion. "Come on, oh." Sarai's hand unbuttoned her fly. The pants broke free and fell slightly, revealing a pink tanga-cut bottom. Her hand moved freely in the front.

"Are you sure?" Jay sounded doubting, questioning. Glemish chuckled a little. The girl gasped and pressed herself against the boy, using him more as a tool than as a lover.

"Alright." His right hand squeezed visibly under the panties' rear, and the girl moaned, shivered.

Glemish felt his blood rise.  ''Now it's my turn.'' The scavvie scooted down the alley, all but invisible, the Spur giving him speed and power at odds with his lumpy, distended body. Glemish saw the trembling girl, her moans like high chirps as she rode herself against the tall boy and climaxed loudly. The knife fell into his hand in an easy, practiced motion. He thought about leaving her alive, hearing her scream, beg. Glemish decided he'd kill her instead, when he was ready. No amount of plump flesh or firm muscle could match the sight of blood. Of watching the life leave wet eyes. Of the power. But he would take his time before he killed her. ''You des'rve it, bitch.''

The girl collapsed limply, whimpering against the object of her desire. ''You know better than to resist'', Sarai thought, ''I love it when you resist''. Sarai moved with purpose now, gyrated against him, slow, steady and sensual. "You sure you don't want me to finish you, baby?" She spoke around his ear, nibbled lightly by her perfect teeth.

"I assure you, I'm quite alright Miss Lidus." The man's hands slid out of her pants, off her breast. They settled lightly, supportingly on her upper back. 

Glemish stumbled a little bit. The man's voice had changed, his eyes were colder, harder. ''Dangerous. Do it fast, kill the man and enjoy the girl instead a enjoyin' it all.''

"Are you sure?" Her voice was low, husky. She heaved against him, a hand threading behind his back, working at his pants.

Glemish almost fell when the man's head turned and stared directly at him, still hidden in the shadows.

"I am quite sure."

The scavvie turned to run, but there was something behind him, something short and powerful. He turned again, but the pouting girl had pulled a small needler out of nowhere and trained it perfectly on the scavvie. She kissed the man again, even as he tried to turn away, biting his lip with a smile.

"That's enough, Callidus."

Glemish barely felt the nick, but he knew the feeling of poison. Fast poison, drawing him down, deep, deep down. He barely saw the one who brought him low, barely heard her shudder with disgust at him. She was shorter than the other, but just as pretty. She had wide, purple eyes and a fuller figure. Glemish felt the Spur burn out and he slept.

Doug deactivated the falsehood once the scavvie finally passed out. Long black hair turned to short brown waves, his chin shrank just slightly, his nose changed from aquiline to roman.

"If you would, Miss Lidus?" He held out a hand to the flexible girl wrapped around him.

"Of course, ''Doug''." Callie snaked the needler back into his pants, but her hand remained down there, rooting around. "Come on, let me show what you a girl can do." Doug clamped onto her arm firmly, his gaze stern, and pulled the hand up. "Well, you ''know'' what that codename does to me."

"Get dressed, Callie. We need to ascertain where else this... individual has been peddling his Slide."
Doug let out a sigh of disgust at the word and Callie slowly disentangled her body from his. She began to pull on her clothes, 'forgetting' to button up her pants first. She drew it out lovingly, but Doug was already at work binding the mark. 

High above them, in a long abandoned room on an inaccessible floor of a condemned industrial storage structure, a scoped stubber pulled neatly inside the window. Vin stripped it down, not pausing to assess or even consider the irony of the term compared to what he'd seen briefly in the alley. He snugged it into the bag, then dropped the ladder. A still blushing and mildly upset Janus Sigitine followed him down, stealing glances at Callie's lithe, progressively more clothed form from across the street when he could.

''Why didn't I get to be the bait? Janus sighed. Aw, she never pulls the YPF con with me. And I'd be good at it too.'' He ran through the list of cons, scams, shams and stings they'd been using while Vin dialed back the cable ladder, which hovered down as a featureless black sphere. YPF, of course, was Callie's idea, and her favorite. ''She's pulled it with Doug, Vin and Violet.'' Janus stopped at that last thought, for a long, long moment, then shook out of his reverie and caught up with Vin. ''Never with Ev, they're like brother and sister, almost twins. They go with the Hustler and Pros routine.''

''And then there's me.'' Janus sighed again. ''I always get the First Date or Thanks-for-Dinner-and-Flake or some other variant, always a fake-out that ends in arguing and her walking away.'' Again Janus stopped, letting his situalem mnemonic arrange and sift through his thoughts. A collage of dozens, maybe hundreds, of short clips of Callie walking away sprung to mind. ''Still works though.''

Vin always preferred to just observe and dart. ''He never baits a target, just track and bag.''

Ev was always playing a weapons, woman or chem dealer, or a merc or 'slaught junkie. ''He's got the build to make it work.'' Janus looked down at his own relatively unimpressive figure, noodle arms and gangly body. ''I haven't even got a real growth spurt yet.''

Violet ran the dealer scam, too, usually involving a 'free sample' of something that turned out to be Tranq, Dream, Torpor or a near overdose of Canna. ''How does she figure out which one to use?'' Inevitably the girl would use the drug to which the target had the least tolerance, in the exact amount necessary. ''Every time.''

Janus relished the rare chance to actually make full use of his psychic power. He'd probe and sneak through someone's mind, tease out their fears or desires, and set them up for one of the others. Suddenly the boy froze, complete terror overcoming him. ''Chuchie, Cu, Cu-Ball.'' He repeated the nicknames, a mantra of calm and control. Chucho unfolded himself from the other end of the alley they'd staged. His presence had to be hidden until absolutely necessary for best effect.

Chucho's cons were the simplest, more a straight interrogation than anything. He'd just sneak into somebody's bedroom or bathroom, wherever Janus found they felt the safest, most comfortable. ''And then he'd just be there, asking questions. Works like a charm. Freakin' sweet too.'' Doug smiled at Janus, and Janus smiled back. ''And then there's Doug.''

The group as a whole was as close as family, but not quite friends. They'd been brought together out of necessity and qualification rather than camaraderie. ''But after all the tests, the indoctrination, putting our lives in each other's hands... and the Appraisals, especially the Appraisals.'' After all that it wasn't a matter of friendship anymore, it was a collective dependency. Janus saw Doug put the falsehood back on, the subtle changes to posture and gait making him look like a new man. Janus and Doug hadn't gone through the indoctrination. He wasn't sure why Doug was exempt, but he knew what he'd been through.

''I've faced my demons.'' Janus was a contradiction, the most naive of the group, but between his psychic powers, background and reading habits he had an unexpected wisdom far beyond his years. He didn't quite have Doug's sharp mind, but he was getting closer every day.






''Ah... Doug.'' Janus looked up to Doug, his big brother in most ways. But he hated him for being the target of most of Callie's taunts and games, for the attention. ''We all hated him at first.'' The group packed up the mutant and waited for the airvan, Doug and Callie left hand-in-hand, looking for all the world like they were in love. ''Are they?'' Janus wasn't sure, Doug's mnemonic had been subject to far more powerful tests than Janus could hope to approach. ''Even then it'd be wrong to... He's my brother, he's always been there for me since he showed up.''

Janus couldn't tell what happened in Callie's head, it was just a blistering riot of sex and calumny, a constant chatter that he couldn't do more than enjoy and feel bad about at the same time. Still, he couldn't help but wonder at whether Doug and Callie were really up to something, despite all his declarations to the contrary. Doug was the second-best liar, only after Callie, even though he called it dissembling. ''With a smirk and quiet pride.'' Still, the way Callie insisted more and more made Janus believe Doug. ''Or maybe I'm just being stupid.'' The airvan backed into the alley, vector wells humming quietly as the military-grade muffled repulsors held it aloft.

''That was Doug's idea.'' Doug liked bait, too. But he did bait cars, bait electronics and weapons. He would rarely interact with the mark face-to-face unless it was absolutely necessary for time or a last resort.

:''"Unnecessary risks, Janus. Avoid unnecessary risks, and you shall know which risks to take."''

Janus laughed a little as they piled into the airvan. Doug had a lot of scams, more than the rest of them. Most were just basic confidence, literally becoming a different person and gaining their confidence with words and nothing else except the occasional drink or lho-stick. ''Then there's the Sur and Black, surveillance and blackmail.''

:''"Suffer the rat to capture the grox, Janus."''

Doug was always pointing out why something worked to Janus, made sure he knew how to do it. ''Fake Bait's probably his favorite.'' A mostly spontaneous operation, whenever somebody important died, or something valuable was lost or broken, Callie or Doug–usually Doug–would contact the 'interested party' and offer to exchange information or the item for cash. Almost inevitably, the mark would try to double-cross them.

:''"An enemy's deception can be beneficial, Janus, so long as you give the mark a clear course of action.'' 
:''Human beings can be detestably predictable in groups, and especially in crisis or urgency." ''

And they would fall right into the trap, every time. ''You just have to let them outsmart themselves.'' Janus grinned at that thought. ''Then there's the Plant and Rescue.'' Place incriminating objects or information in the target's home, workplace or base. ''Usually something worse than they've actually done.''

:''"Almost compulsorily they will seek someone powerful, their immediate criminal superiors or us." Doug'' 
:''smirked. "They will be desperate, willing to take special pains to please that someone and secure their own'' 
:''safety. In cooperating with them we are merely expunging all trace of our presence. Neat, efficient." ''

:''"And, if they don't cooperate, they can be the focal point of an Arbites or Treasury investigation that'll catch'' 
:''the rest of the targets!" Janus blared out the revelation.''

:''"Very good, Janus, very good." Doug smiled proudly.''

Finally there was infiltration, the one Doug took the most relish in, despite its rarity. Depending on the role to be filled it was usually Ev, as a thug or Callie, as a hanger-on or con artist. ''Only Callie would try to pull a con by pretending to be a con artist. And make it work every time.''

Vin, as the cool, methodical killer. Chucho as an interrogator or enforcer, and finally Doug, filling the gaps as usual. ''That's his favorite, the different disguises, creating a character with a unique walk, speech pattern or nervous habit.'' Doug hated falsehoods and only used them on short notice, like today.

Janus laughed as he remembered his own favorite con. ''Atrisangues.''

They'd pretend to be a gang, a rogue's gallery of the worst and darkest Hive Tetra had to offer, the Atrisangues, the Blacksnakes. They'd used that one quite a few times, and the gang had a frankly ridiculous reputation for appearing, causing complete havoc and escaping unscathed, their inscrutable motives achieved.

The others often accused Janus of hero worship for Doug. ''I wouldn't call it that.'' Janus had never had a tightly knit family or a big brother, someone to look up to and aspire to. Doug had shown him a way to keep up with the others without relying solely on his powers and without the hyperspecializing indoctrination they went through. He showed him the power of being a generalist, or 'comprehensively thorough' in a group of specialists.

It wasn't that Doug was more capable than the others, but that, without the indoctrination, he was the glue that held them together, as a group and as a force. He was there to defuse the tension between Ev and Violet whenever it broke into more than just banter. He, Vin and Chucho had a movie night on wednesdays, and it seemed to be the only time the stoic and withdrawn duo really relaxed.

Doug was there to keep Callie from losing sight of herself in the search for approval and validation, even if not in the way she wanted. ''The way I want.'' Janus frowned again. Doug was the leader, but not in the way of authority or wisdom. Each of them had their own outlook: from Vin's precise distance to Ev's up-close physicality, from Callie's easy charisma to Violet's profound quirkiness.

Doug could reconcile all the different points of view, unbound by indoctrination. He led by council, by taking their advice and strategy, as good as any human could boast, and compiling it, balancing it. Doug led by default, because he and Janus were the only ones who could really compromise, and Janus was still too amateur.

Janus thought back to the Omnis Appraisal, when, from a group of hundreds of the best and brightest of the Schola Progenium, only a few dozen passed through the initial grinder still healthy enough to be considered. Of those, only five survived the indoctrination as anything more than deranged monsters, fit only for murder and war. Those five children, kids, were brought into Janus' adoptive family seven years ago. They'd doubted him at first, as each of them had survived so much, and Janus had simply been there.

''But that only lasted until the first Appraisal.'' The less mentioned about it the better, as far as they were concerned. But when they saw how much more often Janus was Appraised, the price of not being indoctrinated, they accepted him. He was teased, but they knew he was held to the same standards as them. And then, just as they entered the final phase of their training seven months ago, their patron brought Doug into the fold. He had no psychic potential, no indoctrination and he seemed so calm, too calm. Not like Chucho, who simply listened and rarely talked. Chucho was a sounding board, letting people talk out their problems.

''And Vin's just... cool.'' Vin didn't have to say much to get his point across. Doug clearly wasn't indoctrinated, but he could keep up with them, and better them, even.

''The worst was how Doug was pitted against each of us in turn.'' Janus had to invade his mind, try to get around the mnemonic. ''I've never even chipped it.'' They competed intellectually, reading books and debating, devising strategies and sifting through information. Callie had to fight him hand-to-hand and lost more than once. But what really struck her was how easily he seemed to pick through her disguises, even with the polymorphine. ''How he resisted her advances effortlessly, no matter how unexpected, especially outside the challenges.''

Doug couldn't outlift Ev, but he could fight him. ''And when it comes to less abstract strength tests, like physical infiltration or staging, he comes out on top.'' Vin hated his strategies, his tactics, always so indirect, hard to predict. Doug could somehow pick out the patterns in Vin's planning and prey on it, take it apart and put it back together better, use it against him.

Doug didn't seem to be perturbed the least by Chucho, something none of them could believe at the time. ''Especially me.'' He was friendly, almost disturbingly so, to the boy. Chucho could never sneak up on him, never beat him in a fight without the aura. Violet was the weirdest. Her best poisons were counteracted as quickly as she could make them. Doug pointed out flaws in her refining, distillation, then devised faster, cleaner lab and field synthesis methods from hers, always an improvement. 

They all hated him at first. But it was Doug who noticed Callie was addicted to polymorphine. He talked to Violet, and they made a batch of De-Tox for her. He researched disguises, went back to Violet and they contrived dyes, pigments, and in-field mask and insert fabrication methods. He brought them together. Doug got Callie off the polymorphine that nearly erased her personality and suggested Violet might like cooking.

''He showed them hobbies. Things that might seem nonessential, but could be helpful to the mission and be fun.'' Doug showed them that they could skirt the edges of the indoctrination, live a semblance of a normal life. He pulled Vin and Chucho out of their shells. ''Even if you can barely tell the difference between now and then.'' He was the one who took Vin into the outside world, up close, and showed Chucho how movies and stories could be useful and relaxing. He'd picked up a lot of his interrogation routine from watching cop shows and horror flicks. Doug was the one who showed Ev how to diet while eating well, how to hold himself back enough to play sports, even ones as violent as scrumball. ''He showed Ev the power of being on a team, that he could rely on us.'' 

''And he's my big brother, showed me I'm more than just a psyker.'' Doug taught Janus to control his body, not just his mind. Doug showed Janus the utility of mnemonic constructs, and that let him relax his powers without worrying about privacy or hurt feelings. ''Not to mention sped up my repetitions.'' Doug brought them that last step together and made a group of people into a unit. ''He made them human again, just by being there.''

The airvan pulled into yet another abandoned industrial storehouse, long cleared and secured, and Janus wondered how they would get the information this time.





"I say we beat it out of him." Ev punctuated the statement by smashing a powerful fist into his meaty palm. The sound echoed around the mostly bare, dirty warehouse.

"Ugh, of course you would, Ev." Violet rolled her gorgeous eyes and Ev felt his retort die on his lips

"I don't know... I don't like the sound of that." Eyes turned to Janus and he blushed mildly, but continued, "I mean, I think we're... better than that. At the very least it should be a last resort."

Vin inhaled, a short preparatory breath, but more than enough to draw everyone's undivided attention, "Battery is inefficient." He produced a small set of tools, used primarily to repair and calibrate guns, sabotage machinery and pick locks. Vin was very skilled with the tools and the implication hung heavily in the air.

"Absolutely not. I agree with, Janus. Physical torture is unreliable and best serves as a final recourse. I would... hmm." Doug's eyes glazed over as he stroked his chin.

Chucho looked pointedly at Violet.

"I don't know, Chucho. He's a scavvie, a ''mutant'' scavvie. He's loaded with drugs, disease. His food and water are pretty much poison already, even the air is bad." Violet put a hand to her delicate chin and thought for a moment. "I have some Obscura. Even a scavvie would do anything for a second shot of that. But it'd take hours for the first one to wear off, until we had any leverage on him."

"I say you just let me have at him. He looked pretty into what me and beastmaster here were doing. " Callie, her eyes now a lustrous blue again, stretched and turned impossibly to emphasize her point. Janus blanched at the idea and searched his suddenly rampaging emotions for a reason not to do it.

"Without Spur I fear it would be a wasted effort, Callie." Doug looked emphatically at her. "As well, you are better than that. A fact you and I are both well aware of."

Callie didn't miss a beat.

"''I'' know it. Maybe I could show you. ''Really'' show you." Her eyes lidded, her voice dropped until it seemed to be made of rasping leaves and honey. "We could put on a show for him. Get the point across."

Doug removed Callie entirely from his attention, focusing instead on Violet. "Violet, I believe you graced us with the answer a moment ago."

Violet's already enormous eyes widened further in confusion. "I just said he's a mutant who...Ohmygod! He's loaded with drugs! Probably uses them morning, noon and night!"

Doug nodded, "And do you have sufficient De-Tox to quickly depurgate him?"

"Uh..." Violet raised herself up, seeming to expand, then deflated just as quickly. "Not by the end of the day."
"Indeed. However," Doug stood up and walked to the front of the group, between them and the staircase to the makeshift holding room. "I believe it will be more than sufficient."