"Yeah, I was pretty upset but it just makes sense. You two are in charge until I get back" Robin said on her end of the phone while surrounded by Satans Mothers.
"So how is it down there, hows your Mom and Dad?" Mercy asked as Vermin leaned against the side of the phone booth, bashing his head slightly. The phone call was originally his but he soon had the phone taken from him and was ejected to outside the booth.
"Both of them are fine. Mom is loving having me to fuss over but I still can't wait to get home. How's things down there? Have the Riff's arrived yet?" She asked,
"Not yet, Mike is sending them down as soon as he can" Mercy said. Robin smiled, at least things were maybe looking up.
"Well my Dad just sent a load of his boys your way so they should be arriving any hour now" Robin said.
"You know, i'm going to want that back pretty soon" Vermin quipped to the girls who just gave him a short frown and went back to chatting. He sighed and rolled his eyes, recieving a comforting pat on the shoulder from Swan.
"Hey guys can you put Vermin on for a sec? I've spoken to him for a whole 5 minutes from this 40 minute phone call" She said. Melody sighed.
"Okay but you take care" Melody said.
"Yeah we love you!" Mercy joined in before they moved out of the booth and held the phone over for Vermin who grabbed it from them.
"Hey baby" She said, he smiled. It was good to hear her voice.
"Hey, now that I finally got the phone, how you feeling?" He asked.
"Oh, i'm fine. I'm just bored over here, I miss everyone!" She said. Now it was true that she missed everyone but she hadn't been feeling as fine as she had said. For the past week she had been waking up with sharp stabbing pains in her stomach that didn't feel normal in the slightest but she figured that Vermin had enough to think about without her complaining to him. They spoke for another ten minutes before saying their goodbyes and hanging up on either end.
Slowly the group of Warriors and Harlots walked back along the boardwalk towards the hangout, the sun just starting to set. In the distance they could hear shouting, probably some Destroyers wasting some random people in the street on their side of Coney. Swan sighed, the sooner the Riffs and Satans Mothers got there the better.
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Larson pulled a cigarette from the small crumpled Marlboro packet in his pocket and lit up, exhaling quickly and extending the packet to his guest.
"Smoke?" He said. The furies leader sat infront of the desk, with two others on either side of the door frame just to keep watch. The fury sat stone faced staring at the Destroyer, not reacting to the question.
"No of course not, but its only polite to ask" Larson said, putting the packet away and with his own lit cigarette hanging from between his lips. Once the packet was away he once again removed it and exhaled.
"So, is this all part of the fabled Furies intimidation process? Cause I gotta tell ya, it's working man! I like this! I like this whole 'I'm not going to talk i'm just going to kick your ass thing.' It works for you" He said, waffling on and only pausing to take a draw and exhale. "It goes well with the face paint too, which i'm totally loving by the way!" The fury took in a deep inhale and then exhaled, apparently trying to calm himself.
"Get to the point" He suddenly said, taking Larson by surprise.
His voice wasn't exactly deep but it was demanding. It demanded to be listened to and Larson could imagine that he never had to repeat himself. When this man spoke, he only did it the once, so if you weren't listening then that was your problem. No repeat performance.
"Right right, yeah sure. So you've had a run in with the Warriors before right?" He asked. The Fury simply nodded.
"Yeah, right. Man of few words, I like it" He took a draw and exhaled through his nose, "So you know the type of guys we're going up against. I didn't think it would really be this hard but its proving to be a lot more challenging."
The Fury knew exactly what Larson was talking about, the Warriors leveled the Furies that went after them, including him. These men were not to be under valued.
"So basically Chuck, can I call you chuck?" One look from the Fury told him that if he made any more comments like that one he'd end up getting thrown through a window.
"Right course not, cause thats not your name! I want your boys to help take the Warriors out, but I don't want them wiped from the face of Coney. I have a plan for some of the guys. I'll slip you their names later, understand?" The fury nodded.
"What about the women?" He asked. The second sentence he had said since the meeting began.
"What, the harlots? What about them?" Larson finished his cigarette and dropped it to the ground before standing on it, "Are you telling me you won't take out the girls?" The Fury nodded.
"Fcuk man! You could have told me that! Shti!" Larson thought for a moment. "Okay, simple. I just need to get in another gang who will" The Fury nodded and without dismissing himself at all, stood up and walked towards the door and left, the other two Furies in tow.
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It was a nice night as she walked back to her parents place. It wasn't too far from the Satans Mothers hang out which suited Jack just fine. There was a cool breeze in the air that Robin welcomed as it washed over her flushed skin. The pains hadn't stopped and if anything they were getting worse as time went on making her temperature rise.
The pain suddenly wasn't stabbing anymore. It was ripping and tearing, like someone was grabbing and twisting her insides. Her walking had slowled to a staggering pace until she doubled over and fell to her knees.
"Okay...this isn't nomal" she muttered to herself, her arms wrapped around her waist. Suddenly she realised she was very much alone, it was getting dark and no-one knew where she was. Tears began to slide down her cheeks as she fell to the hard ground and gave in to the pain, hoping that a Satans Mother would come across her very soon.
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"So what you're saying to me is that you boys have too much honor to take out that street trash?" Harley asked. In comparison to the Fury leader, Harley was obnoxious and forward, sitting with her feet up on Larsons desk and happilly took a cigarette from him. He sighed in frustration.
"Not at all sweetheart! You see I know, Oh how I know, that burning desire that you have to take down these bitches" he said, lighting the cigarette for her. Harley looked thoughtful and nodded.
"Alright, i'm listening. So if I do this for you? What are you going to do for me?" She asked matter of factly. Larson for a moment didn't know what to say, he hadn't expected that he'd need to pay in some way.
"Sorry?"
"Listen, We're not like those painted freaks. They do it cause they wanna split a few heads. Sure I wanna take out those whores, I know that it'll benefit you and I want something for it" She said. Larson thought for a moment while cursing inside his head. He should have seen this coming.
"Right okay, You'll get 10% of everything we get from the store protection money" He said. Harley smiled.
"It's not exactly ground breaking but alright, we'll do it" Larson smiled, things were coming together nicely.
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3 hours later and Robin was back in her old room, in her old bed, lying flat on her back and staring ahead at the ceiling and not blinking. The tears in her eyes were helping that situation.
She had been found by Spider and another gang member who carried her not home, but to the nearest hospital. Sure it was against her will but even at the time she wasn't objecting. 2 and a half hours in the hospital and one exam later and Robin had gone completely ballistic and had to be sedated. She had woken up in her own bed in fresh clothes.
She could still hear her mother crying in the living room. No, not crying. Wailing. Robin couldn't help the bitter feeling in her chest. Why was her mother so upset? It was HER baby for christ sake. But it wasn't her baby anymore, there was no baby.
All those plans that her and Vermin had, shattered in a matter of seconds and it was all her fault.
"Sweetheart?" Jack called quietly from the door way.
She could just see his dark form backlit from the hall light. There were no details to his face but he knew the look he had. It wasn't pity, it wasn't anger, it wasn't regret. It was that one look that only you're Dad could have when he knew there was nothing that he could do to make things better.
"Is there anything I can do for you? You want me to call Vermin?" He said. She could still hear her mother wailing in the front room.
"Go away Dad" She said in a choked, quiet voice. He sighed.
"Honey," He started, taking a step into the room, " You're going to have..."
"GO AWAY!!" She suddenly shrieked so loud she thought her vocal chords might tear. Jack didn't take offence in the slightest. He just nodded and turned, shuffling his way out of the room and shutting the door behind him, Leaving the small broken Harlot sobbing in complete darkness.
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"Vermin!" Snow shouted to his friend, "The phone was going for you, it's Jack" He shouted. Vermin pulled himself from the poker game he was in. It wasn't like he was going to win anything anyway, he had a lousy hand. Breaking into a light jog he went outside and grabbed the phone across the street, the receiver just swinging there, waiting for him.
"Jack?" He asked, hoping there wasn't somthing wrong.
"Yeah Vermin it's me" The older man said, but there was something strange in his voice. Something strained and tense.
"Is everything alright? Are your guys gonna be here soon?" He asked. Jack nodded on the other end of the line as he spoke, even though Vermin couldn't see him.
"Yeah, they should be there real soon," He sucked in a deep breath desperate to make the news easier that it was ever going to be.
"Listen Son, somethings happened..." He began. Vermin felt his gut tie into a knot.
"What? Is is Robin? Is she okay?"
"Oh yeah, shes fine..she..shes fine but...there isn't an easy way to say this. Son, she lost the baby" Jack couldn't hear anything from the other end of the line. That was because Vermin wasn't holding the phone. He was bracing himself against the booth for fear of falling forward and cracking his face. He felt dizzy, everything was starting to go foggy and he found his knees were starting to give way. Letting go of the booth, he let himself stumble backwards, eventually leaning and sliding down the brick wall behind him. For the first time since the war had started, since Robin had been hurt and since he'd left her in Hells Kitchen. Vermin Sobbed.
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Oh I'm EVIL!!
8)
