Veronica Mars

This is probably a bad idea.

Behrooz already knows this much. At least, it seems doubtful that this could be a good idea. But it's been... a while now, and there hasn't been much sign from Veronica either way. And it doesn't really seem like it could be much worse than it already is.

So, Behrooz remembers well enough which room Veronica guided him to that night in November, and he pauses in front of the door. He can easily here shuffling on the other side, and after a slight hesitation, knocks a few times.

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Veronica freezes, mid-crouch, in the middle of stuffing a hoodie into her bag.

"...Who is it?"

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There's a pause.

Then, resignedly, "It's Behrooz."

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"Oh - I - okay, just a minute."

It's more flustered than frustrated, but both are there. She moves awkwardly, kicks the duffel bag behind her partition screen, makes to unlock the door.

It's only when she's already there that she realizes her shoulder bag - the bag containing the gun - is still on the coffee table. Doesn't matter, she'll shoo him out quickly, it won't -

She opens the door.

"Hi."

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Behrooz sort of stares at her at first, not really sure that was the kind of reaction he was expecting.

"Hi..."

He blinks over her shoulder, "Are you - busy or something?"

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"A little."

She's positioned herself between him and the room, blocking the door with all five foot one inch of her frame.

"What's up?"

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He's taller than her, enough so that he can still see into the room, though he looks down again at her now, appearing at least... confused.

"I um -"

Beat. It doesn't seem like he should have to explain this. "I didn't think - the last time we talked - it ended all that well."

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"Yeah, I seem to remember you telling me to go to hell," she says, but her tone is bordering on amused.

Veronica hesitates a moment, then shrugs.

"Come in."

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Given what was said before this, it doesn't make Behrooz any more comfortable.

But he does enter, moving past her, walking idly in the direction of the couches as he says, "Yeah, well, that was the end of it."

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She shuts the door again as soon as he's past, but locking it now would just arouse suspicion, so she leaves it alone.

"So you're... back for round two? Or what?"

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He does look in the direction of the door, briefly, but looks back at her when she speaks.

"No - I guess I - thought you'd still be angry about it."

His tone of voice suggests his uncertainty with the fact that she, apparently, isn't.

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"No, I'm tough enough that while sticks and stones may break my bones... you know the rest."

She crosses her arms, and pushes past Behrooz toward the desk.

"So, I'm good."

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He's following her, looking like he's about to say something in response, when he passes the coffee table -

He stops, looking away from her and appearing visibly confused as he seems to, well, sniff at the air.

And his gaze falls very clearly to the bag on the table.

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She doesn't notice, having already moved past, remembering, it would be pointless to take the camera if I forget the memory cards and the link cable...

She works her way through the drawers, one after another, saying, "What about you?"

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There's no answer.

Probably because he's opening the shoulder bag, not nearly as worried about being wrong as he is about being right.

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The noise is enough to catch her attention, and she spins -

"What -

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

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He doesn't look up, and pulls out the gun, holding it to the side like he'd rather not be touching it at all.

When he does look up, something about him - the way his eyes are still, not trying to wander, how his face is set - it looks very different.

"What do you think you're doing?"

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"Okay, one," Veronica snaps - and it's angry, but perhaps too quick to be properly furious: "Thanks so much for going through my stuff, much appreciated. And two? Indy lent me that. So I could defend myself."

She leans back a little further, against the desk, shifting her weight ever so slightly, putting a hand back to support herself.

"I'm not sure if maybe - just maybe - you got some inkling of it from all of the damn stories I've been telling you for months, but Neptune's not exactly the safest place. Certainly not for me." Her voice is a growl, and her hand moves a little, closer to the lamp. "Come on, B."

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He does visibly hesitate, but looks at the gun again. His eyes don't stay on it for very long.

"Veronica, I've talked to him. I'm not really going to believe he gave you a loaded gun when he knows there's something wrong with you."

The avoidance, pleasantries - they're gone now. He just says it bluntly, his voice angry but also edged with panic.

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"Well maybe," Veronica snarls, "he -"

She chucks the lamp at Behrooz.

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Behrooz drops the gun to the floor, covering his head as he ducks down, managing to avoid it. But the gun's skidded away now, which isn't really comforting as he hears the lamp smash.

There's something mumbled in Turkish, but he almost immediately moves to try to get the gun back.

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This is going to be difficult. Behrooz is between her and the gun, which she needs; however, if they get into a brawl she is well aware that she has no chance in hell of winning: he's bigger, stronger. Her only option is to stay back from him and attack from afar, which is why she turns immediately toward her desk for anything else to throw.

The only thing left is a mostly empty coffee mug - which she tosses, with all her strength, and immediately moves again to find something else.

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He sees that coming, mostly only by virtue that coffee's a pretty distinct scent, but trying to avoid it forces him away from the gun, and it still smacks against his shoulder.

"What - " he gets on the floor, an attempt to avoid her, though getting the gun is harder now - "- the fuck -" and what is he going to do even if he does get it? Shoot her? "- are you doing?"

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If Behrooz was actually expecting an answer he'll have to deal with being disappointed. Veronica takes advantage of the fact that he's down to throw her shoulder into the back of the love seat and give it a good shove, toppling it in his direction.

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And from then on, he just stops thinking. All that matters is getting the gun - maybe she'll stop if he does, if he aims at her, and if she doesn't -

Well. He'll think about that when it comes.

So he narrowly avoids getting a leg crushed by the love seat, and just tries to block her out, instead pushing himself in the direction of the gun, and reaching out for it -

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- which is when she pulls a picture frame from the wall, and lunges, smashing it down on Behrooz's head.

Glass rains down onto the carpet.

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Too late, his hand falls over the gun.

The pain - from the force of the frame against his head, shards of glass scraping against him - only lasts for a moment, really, before he falls against the floor.

And his hand, reaching out in front, goes limp.

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The problem with hitting someone with glass is that it's rarely a one-sided event; slivers cut into Veronica's hands and she curses beneath her breath.

Still, she can't afford to waste time, so she steps over his form and snatches up the gun at once. Smoothly, each movement an extension of the last, she turns and steps back from Behrooz, leveling the revolver at him, watching for any movement. When there's none at first she waits, then gives him a kick; when none then follows she relaxes, a little.

"...You were going to shoot me," she murmurs, voice low and accusing. "You were going to shoot me, I saw you, you reached for the -"

Her grip shifts, tightens, and she thumbs the safety, hands steady.

And she -

- flicks the safety back on.

"Someone would hear it," Veronica decides, and her voice, speaking to no one, is distant. "Today you get to be lucky. I don't want to be caught just yet."

It doesn't take too much longer to pack the rest of her things, though she notes with some sadness that being used as an improvised weapon has ruined her Hokusai print. She'll have to find a new one, in Neptune. Her hands are wrapped in improvised bandages torn from her bed linens, and the gun, meanwhile, goes back into Veronica's shoulder bag.

Careful, she steps through the broken glass once more, and slips out the door, closing it behind her.

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A short while later, Indy and Rachel arrive outside Veronica's room, both looking tense and worried. Indy gives a quiet, tentative knock at first, and when that meets with no reply, there's a louder, more urgent one.

"Veronica. You in there?" he calls out.

Still nothing.

He glances at Rachel searchingly.

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Rachel waited a heartbeat. Two...when there was still no reply she nodded, flame crawling over the hand she lifted to the door. It wasn't a matter of listening so much as allowing herself to see...

...and what she saw was a life, bright and shining. Not the female welter of emotions that they were hunting, but another. "One person, down on the floor, out but not dieing" she noted quietly.

They...shouldn't stop.

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Her report doesn't raise Indy's hopes any. He sighs bleakly.

"Oh Veronica. What're you doing?"

They probably shouldn't stop, it's true. Nevertheless, Indy tries the handle of the door, wanting to quickly identify the (victim) body and establish what happened.

It's locked.

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Behrooz isn't, at this moment, thinking about the sound coming from the door, though it's probably what snapped him awake. But now he feels his head, and one hand blindly goes to his face while the other goes to the glass-covered floor.

The latter is snapped up immediately, and he pushes himself against the wall instead. His eyes blink around a little blearily, almost unconsciously brushing the glass off his hand. He blinks a few more times, then touches his forehead, and carefully pulls out another small piece of glass.

"Orospu," he mumbles, and pulls himself up against the wall.

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Those faint sounds of recovery aren't heard by Indy on the other side of the door. That's a shame for the door's sake, because his next act is to take a step back, and, before Rachel can protest, violently slam the sole of his boot into it.

It doesn't occur to Indy that she could probably melt the lock or use some other super-power to get them inside. And, as it turns out, brute force does the trick just as well. The door splinters around the lock, bursts inwards and bangs loudly against the wall behind it, echoing the WHAM! of the kick.

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The sound of the door smashing opened, combined with sensitive hearing and a rather painful headache isn't much fun for Behrooz at the moment, as he winces at the sound, but stays steady against the wall.

He can already tell it's not Veronica who's at the door, though - he straightens, opening his eyes again and staring briefly down at the mess of shattered glass and small bloodstains over the Japanese print she'd used to smash him over the head.

The gun was gone. That's not really a surprise. Finally, he looks up at the door - or what it looks like now - instead.

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And since they apparently were going in, and her expertise wasn't needed for the door, well..Rachel moved directly to the now-awake victim and eyed the bleeding critically. She wasn't a healer per say, but a warm touch of teke and the bleeding stopped. Mutant field bandaging at it's best. She even stole some of the pain, more for coherent answers than Behrooz's benefit though...

"She hit you" she noted to the boy "Why?"

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"Because she's crazy," is the immediate, grumbled answer.

But with the bit of relief from... whatever this woman has done, Behrooz looks more directly at her, and then at Indy.

So the answer changes to, "Because I - found out she had a gun. And she's crazy."

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"Yeah. That'd be my gun," Indy notes. "She stole it. But we're not quite sure what she's got planned yet."

He's kinda pleased to see the kid up and moving again, and not too badly hurt. He does cast a vaguely rueful glance at the shattered lock on the door though. The Loompas are gonna be crabby about that, 'specially when it could have been avoided.

"Rach. This is Behrooz," he then says, refocusing. "Friend of Vee's. The guy who told me about that strange entrance she made a while back."

"Behrooz. This is Rachel Grey, a mutant X-girl with telekenesis and telepathic powers. She's on Security, and she's a very good friend of mine."

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"Aside from shooting someone" Rachel noted, something like flame moving behind the emerald of her eyes before she stood and offered her hand to Behrooz. "You'll need to see a real doctor after all this..."

That said, she shifted her gaze back to Indy "We head for the Door now? Or does she have someone here she hates?" she could find the woman...reach out easily...but she was controlling herself.

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"Well - I didn't really believe you gave it to her -" he puts a hand through his hair and brushing out a few more bits of glass.

And though his head still hurt a lot, he sort of mumbles, "I'm - ok," and briefly takes her hand briefly to steady himself away from the wall.

Dimly, "There's - a lot of people from Neptune that come here."

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"Yeah, that's true," Indy says, nodding his concurrence. "I've never got the impression that she hated any of 'em though."

Frowning at the uncertainty of where this is going, he switches his attention back to Rachel. "We're losing time here. Can you... feel if she's still on the premises?"

"It'd make things a helluva lot easier."

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Once Behrooz was steady, she nodded and stepped away from the boy. It wasn't always comfortable to be near her when she did odd things...

"Yeah" she sighed simply, the word tasting grimly of flame and blood along the tongue. It was obvious when her shields went down, flame washing over her skin and a high, wild singing just barely unheard rang through the bones...

Distance meant nothing at times, especially when one knew the signature of the mind being sought..."Headed towards the lake" she concluded after a heartbeat.

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"Okay. Thanks, Rach. That doesn't sound too hateful or destructive."

Indy turns and starts to head out of the room.

"Let's go get her."

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