Cold Fury, Chapter Four

Okay, on with the show!  I told Refaal yesterday that if I didn't get the story posted then, he ought to blame Joss Whedon and Serenity.  I will say only that they are only in part to blame- I do love me a good fight scene ;D- but my ADD is probably the bigger culprit.  I spent quite a bit of time today deciding exactly how the last roughly a page was going to play out.

This story, incidentally, marks the prologue for what I think is going to be a three-chapter arc, so be ready.  Once again, because I know that it's bloody easy to lose track of what's gone on in a serial story of this nature, I'm including links to all the previous chapters.  Exjoy!

Chapter One: http://amaz0ns.com/option,com_smf/Itemid,135/topic,5697.0/
Chapter Two: http://amaz0ns.com/option,com_smf/Itemid,135/topic,5705.0/
Chapter Three: http://amaz0ns.com/option,com_smf/Itemid,135/topic,5731.0/

Cold Fury
by: stmercy2020
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

Chapter Four
Tris and Bethany go to a costume party and chaos ensues…

October, 2000
It was like a ballet.  Tris leapt, pirouetted, rolled and dove amongst her assailants- her partners- bouncing from one to another without so much as a loss of momentum.  She had long ago abandoned any style and was now completely at home within the grace and power of her own superbly conditioned body.  She wasn’t thinking or planning so much as feeling, knowing precisely where each body would be, knowing how to strike or twist or grab to maximum effect.  A gray-clad form swung a pole in a whistling arc and she limboed under it, popping back up in time to nail him with a stunning jab to the cluster of nerves under his exposed shoulder.  Before he could fully straighten, she grabbed him by the head and flipped him over her back, giving his neck a cruel twist as she went.  The body fell limply in front of her, but she was already moving on.  She plucked the staff out of the air before it could finish falling to the floor and brought it up just in time to spear another man as he tried to get within range to grapple with her.  Someone grabbed the staff and pulled and she came with it, jumping high at the last instant and flipping over the new challenger, dropping into a low sweep on the far side.  Her feet collided and the momentum transferred from the collision was enough for her to spin completely the other way around, bringing her foot high and dropping it in a vicious axe kick to the man’s head.

She glanced around.  Bodies lay in heaps, unconscious or incapacitated, some gruesomely injured.  A few, she was sure, were either dead or dying.  She tried to clear her head.  It had never been like this, this total letting go, this wanton carnage.  Her hands were slick with blood and bile, the unspeakable fluids virtually bathing her entire body as she stood, victorious at last.

Clap!…Clap!…Clap!…Clap!

The sound was thunderous is the still, moist air.  Tris turned slowly and saw a huge beast of a man, fully seven feet tall.  His face was hidden by his wide-brimmed hat, his huge form covered by an expensive, well-tailored pinstripe suit that looked somehow familiar.  “Well done,” he growled, “now it’s time to pay the piper.”

He reached out and his arm was impossibly long.  Tris was paralyzed.  Her body simply refused to respond to her desires as the hand closed with bone crushing force on her left arm.  She screamed, but he seemed not to notice or care.  “Stupid girl, who sent you?  Why have you come here?”

He drew her close to him and, suddenly, Tris could move again.  She lunged forward against the protesting of her shoulder and bit, her teeth crushing through the tough gristle and cartilage of the man’s nose, the salty, tinny flavor of blood splashing against the back of her throat.  He howled and flung her aside like a rag doll.  She rolled over broken and helpless bodies, eventually landing on her feet.  A gun was in her hand and she raised it calmly, methodically, and shot the giant as he charged her.  Two shots, one in the heart, one in the throat.

He stumbled, his momentum carrying him a few steps further before he finally collapsed at her feet, face down.  Tris couldn’t help herself.  She had to know.  She reached down and, with effort, rolled the man over.  The face that stared up at her from behind sightless eyes was familiar.  She had seen him once before, far from here in a forgotten life.  It was the face of a man she’d never actually known by name until after she’d killed him- Romeo Lopez.

Tris woke with the pain in her left arm still fresh.  O-Sensei had told her that the body didn’t actually remember the sensation of individual pains, but Tris could swear that she knew the exact feel of every injury she’d ever sustained.  It gave her something of a unique advantage in combat- pain was never the shock or the surprise to her that it was to others- but at other times, like now, it was enough to make her want to weep.  Rolling over on her cot, she saw Bethany sitting up in her bed, eyes open and looking at her.

“Are you okay?” Bethany asked quietly, real concern in her voice.

“I’m fine,” Tris whispered, “old shoulder injury.”

Bethany had that weird, vacant look she sometimes got.  “Yes,” she said apologetically, “I can’t do anything for it, anymore.”

Tris shook her head.  This was too surreal.  “It’s okay.  It’ll go away in a little bit.”  She looked at the glowing display of the alarm clock.  “It’s almost time to get up, anyway.  You still want to workout with me?”

Bethany smiled, then.  “I’ll try not to slow you down too much,” she said.

It had been over a year since Tris had rescued Bethany from a crazed smuggler named Jesse Brooks.  Since then, neither of them had spoken of the event or even acknowledged Tris’s part in it.  Tris was certain that Bethany had recognized her, somehow, and she had spoken to her handlers about it, but nothing much had resulted.  She had made a special point to get to know Bethany at school, though, and found that she actually liked the girl.

Bethany had been slightly malnourished when Tris met her, partly because her diet before her captivity had been less than ideal, partly because she had been essentially starved after she was kidnapped.  She was in poor physical condition and Tris had made a point of putting herself in a position to help boost her confidence whenever possible.

Bethany had responded well and, although she wasn’t close to Tris’s level of athleticism, they trained together frequently.  Tris was arguably the single best athlete at Stockwell Park- there were a few boys who could out lift her, it was true, but not many, and nobody even came close to her level of conditioning.  Even before being recruited by the National Clandestine Service, Tris had been a distance runner and an endurance athlete, and she hadn’t lost any of that drive.  She was, she thought with pride, one of the few athletes who could actually run a marathon.

Tris got up and stretched, enjoying the feeling of blood returning to her long, lithe frame.  Bethany joined her and they went through a moderately thorough routine before getting up and putting on their trainers.  Tris let Bethany set the pace as they jogged around the block, just fast enough to get the blood pumping, then they stopped back at Bethany’s parents rather stately home and went down into the basement.  Over the last six months, they’d cleared most of the furniture out and laid down a wrestling mat over the floor.  Tris and Bethany met here most days to practice basic self-defense.  Bethany was a quick student, and Tris enjoyed being a part of Bethany’s progression from a victim to a strong, confident young woman.  Most of what Bethany was learning was common sense avoidance techniques, although Tris also made sure that she included a variety of physical skills as well- open-end escapes, basic strikes and blocks, simple throws and locks.  The one thing they never did, and it was a source of constant frustration for Bethany, was spar or grapple in any way.

Finally, seeing that Bethany was getting tired, Tris called a stop and the two of them cooled down and then went up to breakfast.  The Kazmir’s pretty much always had a full breakfast laid on, complete with hot cakes, bacon, juice, fresh milk, toast, and sliced fruit.  This morning was no exception, and Tris helped herself to a grapefruit and some toast.  Bethany sat opposite her and nibbled on some bacon.

“Hey, Tris,” Bethany began.

“Hm?”

“I know you usually have things you do on Tuesdays, but Neils is having a Halloween party…”

Neils was a boy that Tris had been interested in since the summer of last year.  He was tall, funny, a basketball player.  She was fairly certain that he didn’t even know she existed, but Bethany had obviously picked up on her attraction.  Tris reddened slightly.  “Um, yeah?”

“Well, I was kind of thinking of going, but I didn’t want to go alone.  You think I could talk you into skipping whatever it is you usually do so that you could keep me company?”

Tris normally went to The Academy on Tuesdays and Thursdays for training.  It wasn’t the sort of thing she could easily blow off.  “Ah- I don’t know.  I’ll have to check with Mum and Dad.”

“Okay.  Just so long as they say you can go…”

“Sir,” Susan saluted crisply.  Andersen acknowledged the salute, than gestured for her to be seated.

“I have an assignment for our girl,” he said mildly, “it’ll be an extraction, and the person being extracted will probably not wish to go.”

“I thought Tris was off the active duty roster after her botch with the last mission,” Susan said archly.

“Oh, she was.  Not that any of us thought it was her fault, mind you, but it was decided that she needed a bit more…seasoning…before being sent out in the field again.”

In truth, given the clusterfuck that mission had turned into, Andersen’s boss had been quite pleased with the results.  It was Andersen’s decision not to risk Tris again right away.  And it was the right decision, he was fairly certain.  He’d spoken with O-Sensei.  Tris’s combat prowess had been difficult to overstate a year ago.  Now she was virtually a force of nature.

“Seasoning.  I see.  And you think she’s got that now?”  Susan’s attitude was very nearly hostile.  Mr. Andersen decided to reel her in.

“Ms. Kalen, if she isn’t ready by now, then what have we been doing here the past year?  Either she’s ready, or we’ve wasted over a billion dollars with nothing to show for it.”

“I see.”

“Do you?  I’ve been given two sets of orders.  One set details the mission I’ve just described to you.  The other, if Tris should prove incapable of handling this mission for any reason, is a termination order.”

“Isn’t that a bit extreme?”

“Frankly, she knows too much to be permitted freedom at this point, and our employers do not wish to spend any more money on making her mission-ready.  Neither do I.

“I’m not going to ask for your honest opinion, this time, Ms. Kalen.  I’m telling you- have Tris ready to go.  She’ll need to take a week away from school for this one, so make sure she’s caught up- we don’t want her falling behind in her studies.”

“Oh, you have got to be joking,” Tris protested as Bethany, grinning wider that a crocodile, held out her costume to her.  “There is no way you are getting me into that!”

Bethany, realizing that Tris wasn’t going to remember to purchase a costume on her own, had taken the initiative and found a sexy little black cat costume, complete with ears and tail.  “Oh, come on,” she cajoled, “if you don’t wear it, you’ll be the only one in plainclothes.  Besides, you may be the only person at Stockwell Park who could honestly get away with wearing it- just think what Kathy and her friends will do…”

Kathy was the leader of a small group of obnoxious, haughty, distinctly anti-Tris girls at Stockwell.  They were never physically hostile, of course- they were smart enough to realize that Tris could break any of them in half- but they were petty and snide and seemed to go out of their way to make Tris’s life at school as miserable as possible.  To their unending annoyance, Tris mostly just ignored them.

“That might almost be worth it,” Tris admitted, rolling her eyes.  “Oh, all right.  Gimme!”

Bethany grinned and shoved the package into her friend’s arms.  Scampering back to her closet, she pulled out her witch costume and started getting changed.  Tris shook her head and peeled off her jeans and blouse.  Looking at the fabric of the costume uncertainly, Tris sighed and started to pull the sheer material up over her legs.  “I sure hope this stretches,” she grunted as she got to her thighs.  The material fortunately, whatever it was, did stretch to fit snugly over her thighs and butt.  Thank God black is slimming, Tris thought ruefully as she laced up the top.  At least the top part was styled more like a vest, allowing her shoulders and arms a little room to breathe.

Slipping on the headband and the glovelettes,  Tris turned to Bethany and took a deep breath.  “Well,” she asked, “how do I look?”

Bethany finished adjusting her own wide-brimmed hat before turning to look at Tris.  “Meow,” she cooed, “now there’s a pretty kitty!”

“I dunno,” Tris admitted, “I feel a little, um, exposed…”

“Honey, you are a little exposed- that’s the point!  If you’ve got it, flaunt it!”

“Ha,” Tris said dryly, “I think you’ve got rather more to flaunt than me.”

Bethany smiled and raised a hand to her breast in mock-deprecation.  “Who me?” she giggled.

Tris rolled her eyes.

The two of them left the Kazmir home and got into the taxi Bethany had hired for the event.  Tris was still surprised at how easily Ms. Kalen had capitulated to her request for a night off- she hadn’t even asked why, merely nodded and said that she thought it was about time Tris took a day for herself.

Neils’ house was on St. John’s Wood Terrace, just North of Regent’s Park.  The building itself had originally been intended as an inn, but Neils’ ancestors had purchased the building for a ridiculously small sum of money in the early fifties and had it converted to a single family home of sorts.  It was large enough that Tris could imagine people entering the house, spending a week there, and getting thoroughly lost.  There were four floors above the basement as well as a basement and a subbasement.  Tris had heard that in addition to Neils’ family, they also had two families of servants that lived on the premises.

The party was already in full swing by the time Tris and Bethany arrived, so they let themselves in through the front door and started mingling.  As they made their way over to the table with the appetizers- hors d’oeuvres, Tris corrected herself with a wry smile- Tris started to pay attention to just who was present.  It looked as if most of the senior class from Stockwell Park had been invited, and only a few had declined to come.  Kathy and her clique were sequestered near the punch bowl and looking just a bit tipsy- Tris suspected the punch had been hardened considerably- while a number of young men were making the rounds and attempting to chat up various partygoers of the opposite or, very occasionally, same sex.  Tris smiled as she saw DC, one of the single most eligible young men at school, turning down a flirtatious Ian with a gentle smile and a graceful redirection.

Tris watched as Bethany was whirled away by a passing cloud of laughing kids from her English class.  She envied Bethany, a bit- she seemed very natural in this environment, able to shed her day-to-day persona and become flighty and carefree without the slightest inhibition.  Tris had practiced for countless hours to attain the same grace and apparent free-spirited amiability, but it still felt strained to her.

She sensed Kathy moving up behind her even before the smaller girl made her move, a lurching step that, had it connected, would have made Tris spray her drink all over herself.  With a bare half-turn, Tris spun and deposited her water on Kathy’s ample bosom.  “Oh my God,” she said with feigned shock, “I am so sorry.  Here let me get you a towel…”

“You bitch!” Kathy screamed, drawing the attention of everyone in the room.  She lunged at Tris, trying to slap her, but Tris was far too quick.  Her hands shot up and caught Kathy’s arms at the wrist.

“I said I was sorry,” Tris warned, tightening her grip slightly, “now back off.”

The color drained slightly from Kathy’s face slightly as she felt the pressure increase to nearly the point of pain.  She got ahold of herself and stepped back.  Tris let her go.  “This isn’t over,” Kathy hissed.

“Oh, yes it is,” Tris growled menacingly.  Kathy seemed suddenly to realize just how overmatched she was, because she turned and left without saying another word.  Tris watched her go, a slight smile of satisfaction playing across her lips.

Bethany sidled up next to her.  “That,” she said, “was mean.”

Tris looked at her friend for a moment.  “That,” she countered, “was preemptive payback.”  Bethany let out a short bark of laughter.

Tris looked closely at Bethany- her eyes seemed unusually bright, her face even more sharp and expressive than usual.

“Hey, let’s go talk to DC,” Bethany said and immediately started pushing through the crowd to get to her quarry.  Tris shook her head and was about to follow when a boy she didn’t recognize came up beside her holding a punch glass.

“You lost your drink,” he offered with a smile, “here- have another.”

“Uh, thanks,” Tris said.

“Jon,” he introduced himself.  “Are you enjoying the party?”

Tris sipped her drink.  It tasted like strawberry drink mixed with seven-up, but very sweet and slightly salty.  She didn’t care for it much.  “It’s okay,” she admitted, “pretty good turn-out.”

Jon nodded.  “You seem like the sort of person who doesn’t really like big crowds.”

“Am I that obvious?”

Jon smiled.  “Not at all.  Neils has an entire wing that is pretty much unused, though.  If you want, we could slip off back there and get a little quiet,” he suggested.

Tris thought this sounded like a remarkably good idea and wondered why it hadn’t already occurred to her.  She smiled up at Jon, having a little difficulty focusing clearly on his face.  He seemed so tall, for some reason.  “Sure.  Let’s go.”

Jon took her hand and pulled her through the crowd, jostling a couple other partygoers out of the way.  Tris finished her drink on the way and looked for a place to put the cup down.  She noticed, vaguely, that the glass in her hand was different from the ones most everybody else was holding, and she giggled.

Jon led her into a hallway off the main room and to a flight of stairs.  Tris realized she was beginning to feel a little warm.  “Hey-” she said, “I just realized I haven’t seen Neils tonight.  Do you know where he is?”

“Um, yeah- he had to take care of some business with his dad.  He asked a couple of us guys to keep the party going until he could get back,” Jon explained.  He ran his hands over a couple of doorknobs at the top of the stairs before finally opening one onto a spacious bedroom.

The light was dim, but somehow very crisp.  Tris was happy to step inside, as it allowed her to get out of the hallway which had begun to feel almost unbearably stuffy.  She realized she was sweating.

Jon was still talking, keeping up a steady line of dialogue that Tris barely had to pay any attention to in order to answer.  She wasn’t paying a whole lot of attention to him anymore.  She started to unlace her top.  “Jon,” she interrupted, “it’s kind of hot in here, you know?”

Jon smiled a little.  “You think so?”

“Yeah,” she said coyly, “I’m hot.  Do you…know anything we could do about that?”

“I might be able to come up with something,” he grinned, helping her pull her arms out of the holes of her vest.  His hands brushed lightly against her breasts and she gasped.  He stood behind her, his hands on her hips, his hot breath against her neck.

She turned and attacked his mouth, her tongue parting his lips as she pulled him wantonly towards her.  She grabbed him and threw him bodily onto the bed, pouncing on him before he could recover.  She tore at his shirt while he fumbled with his jeans.

“Hey, Tris!” Bethany’s voice called out from the hallway.  Tris ignored her, entirely lost in the moment.

The door slammed open.  “Oh my God,” Bethany said, disgusted.

Tris bolted upright, shocked out of her carnal lust.  Bethany’s face was pale with rage.  “Put some clothes on, Tris.  We’re leaving.”

Jon lay on the bed, still mostly naked as Tris slowly raised herself off of him.  Bethany went into the bathroom and filled a glass with water.  “Drink this,” she ordered, thrusting the glass into Tris’s hands.

“What are you doing?” Jon asked, bewildered and frustrated.  Bethany stared daggers at him.

“Neils is on his way home now,” she said acidly, “I would suggest you get gone before he gets here.”

Without another word, Jon pulled up his trousers, grabbed his shirt, and bolted out the door.

“Tris, listen up,” Bethany ordered.  Tris tried to focus on Bethany’s face.  “You’re going to have to carry me out of here in a minute or two.  Get me home, then you need to make a phone call.  Have you got that?”

Tris nodded.  “What’s going on, Bethany?”

“You’ve been drugged.  It took me awhile to figure it out, but someone spiked the punch.  I’m guessing MDMA and, maybe, GBH- at least, that’s what it felt like.”

Tris stared uncomprehendingly.  “Never mind.  I’m going to take care of it, now, but it’s going to knock me out of it for awhile.”

Bethany raised her arms and took Tris’s face in her hands.  Her body went rigid and Tris felt it as the temperature in the room seemed to drop suddenly, the lights dimmed to a soft glow.  Her racing heartbeat slowed, her breathing became more normal, and Bethany’s face came rapidly into focus.

“Oh God,” she groaned.  Bethany was sweating profusely.  Tris grabbed her and helped guide her out of the house.  It took some work, but Tris finally managed to procure a taxi and they drove back to Bethany’s house.

Once there, Tris told Mr. Kazmir that she thought Bethany had been exposed to drugs and he called an ambulance.  Tris went over to her friend.  “Thanks for that,” she said simply.

“Phone,” Bethany reminded her.  She seemed to be coming down off the high already- much more rapidly than Tris would have expected.

“Oh yeah- you said I needed to make a call.  Who to?”

“Ms. Kalen,” Bethany whispered.