Hostage Situation

It had been a pretty good week for Jamie. She had a few more matches under her belt in Friction, and that meant more money, and that meant food and a warm bed and new toys. The money in her pocket had a way of not sticking around for long, she spent it liberally, especially on food. She liked eating at restaurants and ordering way more than she could eat. By the end of the week, she was broke again.

She checked out of her hotel and strolled out onto the sidewalk in her brand new sneakers that she actually paid money for. Her old ones got left behind somewhere, and she had kicked herself for that, but it turned out to be a good thing. Now she had new sneakers, and she couldn't remember if she'd ever had new ones before. She usually stole them, though it was hard to find her size back home in Boston. She had small feet, but luckily so did most of Japan. It was like one big used shoe store.

Broke or not, she was in a good mood, and there was spring in her step as she made her way back to the alley where she stashed her belongings. She slipped her earbuds into her ears and turned on her mp3 player. She'd stolen it a week earlier, and couldn't bring herself to sell it. It wasn't worth as much as she thought it would be, and so from the computer in the hotel she'd [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfypPAnodTE:3906fq7r]bought some music[/url:3906fq7r] to put on it.

She turned the corner into her alley, from the back end of it after circling around behind a row of buildings, made sure no one was around and no one could see her, and knelt down in the corner next to the dumpster. There was a long, flat brick in the wall that was loose, and after nicking her fingernails a few times trying to get a grip on it she pulled it out. She smiled just thinking about getting her stuff out to practice or go perform on the sidewalk somewhere to make some money, really it was her favorite thing to do. She reached into the hole, and nothing was there.

A wave of panic washed over her. She frantically pawed around for her backpack, maybe it had fallen back farther but it didn't feel like there was anywhere for it to go... All she found was a slip of paper. It was fancy, heavy stationary that read "Margaret Roderick Sinclair, Attorney-at-law" and some other stuff at the top. There was a brief note penned in English with immaculate handwriting.

Jamie's eyes widened, and her hands shook, her heart raced, her breathing accelerated. She panicked and dropped the note. Her stuff was gone. Who would do such a thing? Her roller blades, all of her yo-yo's, her jump ropes, all of her decks of cards, Batman, the fancy suit coat she'd stolen from the mp3 player girl, they were all gone. What a world to live in where people just stole people's stuff like that. It was all Jamie had. She fell onto her elbows and knees and began to cry. She sobbed loudly for a long time, attracting the attention of a couple passing people, but of course they just kept walking. Nobody cared about Jamie, especially that she had nothing left to steal.

Eventually, she picked herself up. She wiped her cheeks and her nose with the end of her sleeve and pushed the brick back into place, though she could never use that hiding place again. She didn't even have money left to buy new stuff, and without her stuff she had no way to make it beyond picking wallets, but that was really hard and she could get caught.

She had no choice. She'd wait until the time listen in the note and go to meet this person at the specified place, though first she'd have to figure out where it was and how to get there. She began asking random people on the street, none of whom spoke English or even bothered trying. Everyone was such a jerk.

Mercedes Wrenn had had the worst day of her life. fired, sifting through garbage, mugged and raped by a dead woman and her brick. forced to wear clown pants. She even skinned her knee a bit. After her debacle with that wretched woman, who put the final nail in that horrible day's coffin, she spent the next day sleeping, showering and crying, not necessarily int hat order and multiple helpings of all three things.

On the day after the day after the worst day of her life, however, Mercy was up at 7 am and had the fire of vengeance burning in her heart. That woman would pay for what she did if it killed Mercy.The problem was, she didn't ACTUALLY know who she was but the idiot had given her enough clues. She remembered that ugly, laughing face. It was burned into her memory. And, Jamie herself had told her she was a professional wrestler. Obviously not a very good one either since she seemed to live like a street bum. She started first with her own league, the AFW. going back from newest to oldest int he employee records, she was able to quickly find out the perpetrator's name.

Jamie Valentine.

That was all she needed. A face to go with the name. After that, she set her plan into motion. She was going to get her things back and punish this girl. Throw her in jail for the rest of her life and teach her to threaten Mercy Wrenn with a brick!

She started by collecting everything she needed to prove her case to the authorities. It'd be hearsay until they could confiscate Jamie's belongings, but she still had an idea. Once she'd felt confident, she went back to Jamie's brick and took everything there. it was all useless crap but she held onto it. Once she had it, she replaced it with a note that told Jamie to meet at a certain place at a certain time in the AFW complex. Mercy knew all the places she could set this up and chose an unused office.

She set it up to look all normal;, brought in a desk and a couch and a plant. Hooked up a telephone and put up some bad art. It was perfect. Now, as the time approached. She checked her broken watch. Jamie had stepped on it when she was rummaging around in the dumpster. It told no more time but reminded Mercy of what she had went through and what she'd do to Jamie. She'd set Jamie's things up neatly on the desk and was now hiding behind her perfectly placed Ficus, awaiting Jamie's entry so she could strike. The usually dour looking paralegal had an almost giddy smile on as the anticipation swept over her.

Jamie didn't have too much time before she had to be at the AFW complex, but she had a couple stops to make on the way. She still had her satchel and her new shoes and her mp3 player, that was something, but she needed a few more supplies. Luckily shoplifting was super easy.

She ran the rest of the way to her destination. She was always uneasy whenever she walked into the AFW building, because she felt like at any moment someone was going to notice her and ask her to leave. She sneaked around the halls until she found her way to the office named in the note. She approached it as if someone was going to jump out and attack her the moment she walked through the door.

She adjusted her overstuffed satchel on her hip and peeked around the corner. There was no one at the desk. Maybe she beat them there? She took another peek and saw all of her stuff laid out on the desk. She looked up and down the hall to see if anyone was coming, and then darted into the room while reaching into her satchel with one hand.

When Mercy saw Jamie dart into the room, she sprung from her perfectly laid trap. Rushing out from behind the ficus, she ran towards the door and gave it a swift kick so it closed with a loud slam! She then pressed against it and looked at Jamie, panting from the sudden rush of adrenaline.

"J-Jamie Valentine!"

She brazenly spoke the girls name, that would get her attention even if the site of Mercy somehow didn't. "Y-You're not leaving this room unless it's slapped in irons and drug off to prison, do you hear me!?" Her cheeks were bright red.

"Negotiations for the release of the hostages begins NOW!" She pointed at Jame with one hand and adjusted her glasses with the other. "Give me back my stuff!" She then shouted childishly.

Jamie shrieked and nearly jumped out of her skin. She spun to face Mercy, clutching a can of spray paint from her satchel in both hands. She pointed it at her like a gun to keep her back.

"Y-y-y-you! YOU!" She stuttered. It took her a second to recognize the girl from last week, but the pink hair and her lawyeriness was hard to forget. "You stole my stuff! YOU STOLE MY STUFF!" She tried narrowing her eyes at Mercy but they were kept wide with fright, and after a moment of grappling with her facial muscles she snapped.

She aimed her spray paint at Mercy's pants and gave her a couple quick blasts, turning some of her lower body bright red. She hesitated, somewhat surprised that she'd just done that, stared at Mercy for a moment and quivered, and then tried to look defiant.

"YOU gimme back MY stuff!"

"Nyaaah!"

Mercy turned her body and lifted up her leg, showing off her pleated pants covered thigh to Jamie as it was brandished with mark that seemed like it belonged to Zorro's retarded cousin. With one hand she tried to protect herself from Jamie's horrible mangling. With the other hand, she snaked it through her own defenses and tried to bat the can to the ground.

"huuuuh!"

She growled a fierce exhale of determination at her foe. "RAPE! RAPE!" She screamed and then reached for her keys and fumbled with them to blow the small little whistle attached to them to send a shrill screech through the air.

She dashed away from Jamie and went to hide behind her Ficus Fortress. "G-Get back you monster!" She screamed and then looked at Jamie.

She was panting heavily and when she thought she was safe from the maniac, she adjusted her glasses and scowled at Jamie. "I didn't steal anything! I.. I procured them temporarily to be returned to their proper owner upon the release of items burgled from my person on the evening of March 5th at approximately... grrr. Last week you cretin!" She barked. "Give me my stuff back or I'll call the cops!"

The can of spray paint clattered to the floor. Jamie reached into her satchel and pulled out her other one.

"Nice whistle stupid there's no dogs in here!" Jamie shouted indignantly while she fumbled to fit the straw into the nozzle of the can. She began to shake it, making an arrhythmic clacking sound, and she took a step away from Mercy while the girl cowered behind her ficus.

"I don't even HAVE any of your stuff! Or are you just too stupid to look in the bag yourself? You stole my stuff and I want it back and I'm NOT a monster, YOU'RE a monster! Lookit what you did!" She said, gesturing wildly at nothing at all.

She stopped and stared daggers at Mercy for a moment, and then resumed shaking her can. She shot another couple puffs of paint at Mercy, black this time, but was too far away for it to reach. She succeeded only in slightly discoloring the ficus.

"I thought lawyers were supposed to know that the cops don't come when you steal someone ELSE'S stuff. You're not a lawyer, you're just a stupid jerk! STUPID JERK! GIMME BACK MY STUFF! I NEEEEEEED IT!" She shouted, though she was much closer to her things than Mercy was.

"You're a dog!" Mercy shouted back as Jamie shook her spray paint can and tainted her ficus with a puff of black spray paint. Mercy was sure that Jamie could snap at any moment. This girl was even crazier than she had thought. She needed to fight back and decided that her ficus fortress might make a good sword. She lifted it up, and shook it at Jamie.

"G-get away from me! I know how to use this!"

She didn't really, even as dirt fell at her feet. Jamie would buy it though. She was that stupid. She let out a huff at Jamie. Whay an intolerable woman.

"My jacket! My mp3 Player! MY CONTRACT! GIVE THEM BACK!" She screamed, her face tuning red.

Jamie leapt back again when Mercy came at her with the ficus, and by this point she'd backed up all the way to the desk. Her leap took her into the desk, and she toppled haphazardly over it and landed embarrassingly on the floor behind it. She quickly got to her feet.

Oh, right, the contract. "I didn't BRING your stupid CONTRACT, I didn't even know who you WERE! How was I supposed to know? Your jacket was in the bag, unless YOU lost it, and... and..." She pulled the mp3 player out of her pocket and threw it at Mercy. "I don't even want your stupid mp3 player! It sucks! By the way, I deleted all your whiny stupid music. I hope you like rap." She was sad. Having that mp3 player had made her week.

Jamie had to stop to think for a moment. The contract... It would've been in her bag with the rest of her stuff, but... she lost it.

She had an idea of where it was though. She could get it back.

"Okay, what do we need to do here to get my stuff back and get out of here before the cops come?"

"Haha!" Mercy laughed at Jamie as she tumbled over the desk. What an idiot. The fact that Jamie managed to give Mercy any kind of trouble in ANYTHING made the paralegal feel a little ashamed of herself. Mercy furrowed her brow at Jamie's remarks about the contract.

"You had a pocket full of my business cards..." She said plainly. "And you certainly saw fit to SNATCH IT OUT OF MY HANDS even though you were halfway out of the dumpster!" She watched as Jamie pulled out the mp3 player. Her eyes lit up but then they widened in fear. Jamie could use it against her! but then she threw it at her and Mercy cringed. The ficus provided no cover as the device smacked weakly against her boob and plopped tot he ground. "Myeeeeh" She whined, crouching slowly and not taking her eyes off of Jamie. She picked it up and slipped it into her coat pocket and angrily looked at the girl.

"I just reformatted my computer! I have to read all my music!" By reformatted, she meant stomped on her laptop in a fit of rage upon receiving her termination notice and her new one hadn't arrived yet. "Rap isn't music!" She then blurted out suddenly. "It's just people talking! Are we rap stars right now!?Where's my royalty check for this "wicked beat" ?! She raised her hands up and made air quotes as she said wicked beat. She didn't have a clue on the lingo but she suspected she wasn't too far off the mark.

"And I'm suing you for mental anguish!" She added before she thought about what Jamie had said. "The cops won't come until I call them. I told them I would call them if negotiations soured and you were being belligerent, WHICH YOU ARE, and that I wanted to see if we could settle things peacefully first. Now you've made me use the ficus. We might be at an impasse..." The ficus WAS a bridge to far, but Mercy was cool. She'd pull them back. She adjusted her glasses. "I just want my coat and contract back. After that, you can keep your stuff. I hate the fact that I have to work int he same building as you but you seem to dislike being here as much as I do, so that's a plus."

Mercy let out an exasperated sigh. "Just... tell me where they are. I'll.. go find them myself, or something. I know who you are now so it's not like I couldn't just have you arrested anyway. Otherwise..." Mercy gulped hard. "I'll have to go see Lukretia Von Creuzfeldt and... beg for a new contract..." She said the last bit as quietly as possible as her head hung a bit. She'd rather deal with Jamie than Lukretia.