Mysteria #2
"Headgames" (Part Two)
by Robert Flynn

"I trust everything went as planned?" The man asked as he walked into the luxurious penthouse apartment. He pulled off his coat and tossed it across the room where it landed in a crumpled heap in a chair.

Nightingale smiled, a cold chilling grin, and answered, "Exactly as planned sir."

"She probably won't make it through tonight." Dunnock said.

"We kicked her ass." Sparrowhawk added chuckling.

"Truly?" The man asked. "Then why, Sparrowhawk is it YOUR face that is so swollen. I saw our dear target and she seems not to have even broken so much as a finger nail...not even a hair out of place and smiling as if she hadn't a care in the world!!!" His voice climbed in volume until he was bellowing the last bit.

Sparrowhawk snarled, "We did exactly what you asked us to do... boss." She hissed the last word in a venomous cursing way that made it seem threatening... like a foriegn word that could be used for any one of a hundred different deaths.

"So you say..." The man responded unfazed, he yawned and stepped up behind Snow Owl and resting his hands on her shoulders. "We're going ahead with the next phase. Be ready to fly out in two hours."

Neil Ashwood looked out the window and finally decided what he was going to do. Ms. Burke had elected not to come into work today and he was NOT going to try to fill her shoes. His own workload had doubled since Eric had died and he wasn't going to give himself a heart attack trying to do hers too.

He lit a ciggerette, he had been trying to quit but what the hell was the point, and got his jacket off the back of his chair, screw Victoria Burke and all of her b.s., he was going to take his wife out for lunch and finally enjoy her company without having to worry about Victoria calling and needing him to run some inane errand. Three hundred and sixty five days a year...even during his holidays and on his anniversery.

"Damn Victoria Burke." He muttered under his breath as he threw his cellphone on his desk and started towards the elevator.

He couldn't help but imagine how happy Angela would be when he showed up for a meal other than breakfast for what felt like the first time in ages.

"Damn her, damn her, damn her!"

Victoria finished suiting up and stepped onto the roof of the tall office building. It was owned wholey by one of her subordinate companies and was currently empty. She had found it to be a good place to change into her costume after using her powers to sneak in undetected, and the high rooftop gave her access to a view of downtown that was hard to beat from anywhere else in town, at least since the Tower had been blown up.

She had spent quite a bit of the morning trying to track down an annoying toad of a man named Jackson Crowley. A quick background check had turned up some little details, he was a private detective... he had been arrested numerous times for extortion,obstruction,withholding evidence, and a host of other such crimes... He advertised himself as the world's only psychic
detective and... and he was reported to be a wizard.

Victoria scoffed inwardly at that, Jack Crowley a magician. She hadn't thought him anything more than aged two bit hood and no amount of rumuors would convince her otherwise.

The one thing she did know about the man from her own experience was that he was scum. Not only had he humiliated her... forced a kiss on her but he had later broken into her house... into her bathroom. Behind the domino mask her eyes narrowed in anger. He would pay. Sooner or later she would turn over the right stone it was just a matter of...

"Looking for me, love?"

She spun startled and there he was on the rooftop behind her, "Crowley! You sadistic sad-sack piece of dog vomit! I sure as hell am looking for you!!!"

"Really, dear?" He asked a salacious grin played out on his face. "Well here I am... and by the way, you left out charming, handsome, and masterfull in the art of love from your description."

"You perverted scum sucking little wretch of a man!" She snarled. "Threatening me with blackmail was one thing but violating my home.. my privacy..."

"What?" He looked genuinely suprised but Victoria didn't buy it.

"You know full well what I am talking about! How dare you come into my home... into my bedroom... into my bathroom!?!" She shouted the last bit as she got into his face and drew her fist back to punch him but when she let the blow fly he wasn't there hacving sidestepped it apparently without even noticing.

"I am afraid, Vicky, that I have no clue what you mean... but if you're inviting me into your bedroom...or your bathroom for that matter I gladly accept."

"In your wildest dreams." She muttered trying a sweepkick that was dodged just as easily. "I'll see you dead long before I'd see you enter my home again!"

"There's no point to that!" Crowley stated stepping back to avoid a kick that might have taken off his head. "When I say that I have no idea what you mean I mean exactly what I say."

He wasn't lying. The young woman's head was such a mess of half-thoughts and impulses at the moment that it was impossible to read anything from her except the same expression shown clearly on her face... anger. He was barely able to tell where she was going to aim her blows before they where already flying. He smiled inwardly, he hadn't had a challenge like this in years not
even her father could have come this close to hitting him.

"This, you bastard!" Victoria answered removing the crumpled Millenium Man photo from her costume.

He took it from her and examined it for a moment grinning at the absurdity of the picture... it was a nice bit of work, for what it was, but it was definantly not his...

"This? I assure you I have much more style than this my dear." He chuckled. "And I tend not to be as subtle. I don't tend to play head games, my dear."

She was so beautifull when she was angry he found his thoughts turning more and more to her mother... maybe he should look her up once all this mess was through with. He cleared that thought from his head he was going soft...Jack Crowley of all people! Besides it wasn't has if Layla was that good in the sack anyway.

"Well someone left that taped to bathroom mirror this morning. And you you bastard are the only likely suspect!"

"I haven't visited the Burke estate in years... by the way do you still have those cool statues at the beginining of the stairway up to the door? Those were very classy."

"Shut up!" Victoria shouted slapping him firmly across the face. "You expect me to believe that after all these years it's coincidence that you show up wanting money to keep from destroying my father's legacy AND someone begins to play on that very same knowledge to mess with my head! You are unbelievable!" She snarled practicly foaming at the mouth.

He stood there aghast and rubbing his jaw and then reached out and grabbed her by the wrist, "Watch it missy you are working really hard at getting on my bad side. AND THAT is one place you do not want to be!"

His grip tightened and he started to say something else when they both heard a loud crashing of glass from below them. Crowley stepped back a bit startled and looked around.

"Expecting friends, darling? I'm not too fond of you costumed types..." He looked down at her chest and the way the costume hugged her curves, all but licking his lips he added... "Not that I don't like yours... you should lose the cape though it hides what has got to be an absolutely stunning rear end."

Victoria pulled her wrist away snarling and ran for the edge of the building. She couldn't see anything out of place but was sure that she had just missed something important...