Fission Mailed
Megas is hailed as a City of Sin. A collection barrel of greed, lust, and even crime. It wasn't a place for everyone and it wasn't a place you wanted to wander around in at night. You take risks when you step out of your hotel to explore The Strip at night. But in a city like this you see people exploring the streets past nightfall regardless of those risks, believing the locals would step up to help them. Or maybe they believe they can protect themselves.
For Kris, the city was a cesspool of the rich and greedy snobs of the world. It was a loathsome blemish in his home country and even the government should have seen it as such if they hadn't already turned a deaf ear to the citizens due to the city's constant flow of income for the bureaucrats in the senate. The black panther didn't even want to be here, assumed identity or not. If it wasn't for the CMF ordering him to go with the team to gram one specific fur, he would've told them to blow it out their asses. He hated this city THAT much. And yet here he was on the steps of the hotel looking down the sidewalks beyond.
Tugging on his light blue jacket, the Panther started moving down the step sand onto the sidewalk. There was a restaurant around here and he felt rather hungry. He'd still have to pretend to be some fictional rich snob of course and keep his grooming sharp to pass muster; something that made him more of a target for muggers. Not that they'd gang upon him more than once, after bashing some heads together. They were a minor concern. All he wanted was food anyway, not a fight.
As he walked, Kris listened to the sounds of passing voices in the crowd of people that also wandered The Strip. Topics floated through his ears from losing at the Slots to winning a particularly big Poker tournament from the night before. He was so preoccupied with the conversations and the signs above his head that he failed to see a white tigress in a yellow formal dress walk out of a sushi bar. By the time he looked down, it was too late.
The two collided with a dull thump and stumbled back a few steps, a purse hitting the ground. Mumbled apologies were offered but Kris froze when he heard a voice he thought he'd never have to hear again. It was also with a feeling of chilling dread that he looked at the woman he knocked over while they both got up.
“Hart?!”The tigress was baring her teeth at Kris as she finished grabbing her purse. The fireworks already started. “What the fuck are you doing here, you fucking cheap bastard! I thought places like this were the devil's feeding ground, as you put it. And you left me at the fucking bus station! Not only...” He couldn't keep up with most of the words flying at him. All he caught in her rage was the words hypocrite, bastard, and several varieties of the words 'son of a bitch. Whatever anger she was venting was enough to make his mind reel in its attempt to assimilate the situation he landed in.
Through it all the panther's mind continued trying to grasp what was here. Her name, Morgana, had just popped into his head. Not the best of things to start off with but then he wasn't expecting this whatsoever. This started as a causal outing and he hadn't gone more than a few steps from the hotel before disaster struck. Just his luck. “I don't know what you're talking about, miss?”
Morgana wasn't put off by the nervous tone in Kris' voice. “Don't give me that billy jack bullshit, Hart!” she almost screamed. Her voice could carry and he was certain someone was hearing this on the street. “I know you. I know that unless you were being blackmailed you wouldn't be caught dead in clothes like those! Now what the fuck are you doing here?”
Kris' mind went into Red Alert right then. This was a very bad time to panic. He wanted to just turn and run, but he couldn't. His cover had just been compromised and this was not going to end well. He had to find a way to sneak out of this and stay off Morgana's radar. Or keep her out of the picture for the team's sake. Neither of these options seemed likely. He'd be dodging her until the completion of the mission. Ugh,the Captain wasn't going to like this. “I... I can't tell you. I gotta go, bye!”
He didn't wait for a retort before taking off. Morgana was yelling at his back,unable to chase him in her high heels. “I swear to god I'll find out why you're here you bastard!” He ignored it of course, but this didn't make a hell of a lot of sense. Why was she so interested in him and his presence in the Megas? Was she working for the target, or was she still carrying a vendetta to make his life miserable? He didn't want to know what her motivations were, he just didn't want to see her again for the rest of the mission.
((Art by HollyAnn © 2012 - Colors by Fox/Aerozaine))