[semi-open]

[idkmybffbloodwing]

CHARACTERS: Mordecai, Lilith, Jack, Raven, Edgeworth, Michelle, Soysauce
LOCATION: Lilith's room, then elsewhere
WARNINGS: Language, violence, idk
SUMMARY: Jump 14 brought in Handsome Jack. The Vault Hunters want him dead. Jack wants them dead. There might be a problem here.
NOTES: Backdated to shortly after the jump. See this OOC post if you wish to join in, particularly if your character is a member of SEC.

Jack.

Mordecai had never expected to see that masked bastard again. Not after everything he and Lilith and the others had all gone through to kill him. Sure, he'd heard of the dead turning up alive again onboard the Tranquility, but he hadn't exactly been prepared to see a post from Jack turn up on the network. And trying to play the role of the innocent victim, too - though he couldn't imagine many would fall for that.

Still, it wasn't all bad, Jack's appearance. The man was a tyrant, yes, and profited off the exploitation of Pandora, wanted its residents dead, and to top it off, had personally wronged Mordecai a few times too many. His having turned up here meant one thing, though. It gave him a chance to kill Jack himself. To seek his own revenge. Lilith had had her turn, and she'd deserved her moment of victory, and it was a shame it hadn't lasted. Mordecai would make it stick.

Neither he nor Lilith had replied to Jack's message, of course. Hopefully nobody would blow their cover while they scrambled to organize. He wasn't worried about giving him a fair fight, because Jack had lost that opportunity to play fair a long time ago. If he and Lilith could track him down and kill him before the asshole ever knew they were there, it was all the better.

Mordecai was alone, for the first time in a long time - his bird was too young and too inexperienced to be anything more than another tool for Jack to use against him. He wasn't going to let anything like that happen again. Rather than let the bird bore itself in his room and start shredding things, he'd dropped him off with Jaye before heading to Lilith's room. He tapped a brief knock at her door, and waited.

Comments

[supfirehawk]

Raven wasn't the only one trying to figure out if he was serious. A fire extinguisher? Really? She was torn between laughing and feeling insulted that he was bringing that up as a serious tactic against her. The fact that he was somehow holding her wrists down was leaning her more towards the latter.

"You're joking, right? What makes you think a fire extinguisher is going to work on me?"

[jurisimpudent]

The woman was a criminal; a criminal didn't merit a response. He ignored her question and looked down at her with all cold contempt, his lips curled with sheer venom, and removed from his pocket a set of handcuffs. It would be difficult, of course, to keep her pinned and put the handcuffs on her at the same time, but with any luck she would be cowed by their display of power.

"Don't resist," he said to her shortly. "Or your penalty will be more severe yet." And he glanced behind him, just briefly, to see Raven's status.

[darkholme]

Spoiler: Raven's not actually going to get the fire extinguisher. But she'll back off like she's headed that way, small steps and her body still poised to turn and run if she has to. It's so, so strange to think she's on the same side as someone that has the power do say or your penalty will be more severe. Maybe now isn't the time to have this weird revelation, but she is, and it's enough to make her stop in her tracks, turn again to try and look around. Ugh, it's a mess.

"Tell us what happened. Your friends are being taken care of, so just... talk to us. We can't fix this if we don't know what's going on."

... Oops? All blurted out at once, because she hates acting without not knowing what happened. Who started it, who attacked who, why. It's all important.

[supfirehawk]

Ugh. This would be much easier if they were still on Pandora. Things were easier when they could solve things themselves without having authorities involved. But if they really wanted a list of that bastard's crimes, she'd give it to them. He was the one that deserved to be in cuffs, not her or Mordecai.

"That guy in the mask, he's Jack. He killed my boyfriend among thousands of others, enslaved his daughter for his own greed, and tortured me by stabbing me over and over again for his own amusement. He's a delusional, pathological liar that tried to take over the galaxy. So excuse me if I'm trying to stop him from becoming a problem here."

[jurisimpudent]

Edgeworth's glance at Raven became a glare when the girl spoke. This wasn't the time or place for questioning; that was back at the central office, when they had them in custody and under control and surrounded by other personnel - when weakness and sympathy and sob stories of questionable veracity wouldn't undermine the resolve of certain individuals who were evidently less concerned with maintaining order and stopping gun-wielding psychopaths who shot at security officers without provocation than...getting a good story. Or something.

We need better training.

"A fascinating tale, and one you can tell us from holding," Edgeworth said severely, looking back at the woman. "Here's the thing you need to know: old crimes don't matter here. If we took them into consideration, it all becomes a game of 'he said, she said.' So if you kill that man? It is murder and nothing better."

He manipulated her arms mentally to bring her wrists closer to one another, then approached her with the handcuffs.

"Security keeps order here, ma'am, not vigilantes."

And then Edgeworth glanced over his shoulder at Raven, for just one moment breaking his mask of cool, contemptuous remove to make a face that said Please help me with this?

[darkholme]

Oops. She's learning, okay! His glare is met with a quick wince - sorrysorry, they can talk about it later - but then she's moving right back to his side, because.. he's right, of course he is. She hadn't really meant what happened back home to provoke this, but moreso why it ended up turning into a fight right now, but trying to clarify seems like a useless thing now. Raven's mouth is pressed shut now, only nodding once Edgeworth looks to her again, immediately moving to take the woman's wrists in her hands so she can try and pull them around to the small of her back.

And, oh yeah, silently hoping that she doesn't burst into flames again now that she's standing right next to her because wow there would really be no getting out of that.

[supfirehawk]

A murder she would have been happy being party to, but she could tell reasoning with him wasn't going to get her anywhere. Years ago, it would have been a lot easier to just phase out of this without a second thought. Why had she let Roland give her a conscience again?

"Put those cuffs on me and I won't be going anywhere with you," she warned and glared at Raven. It was one thing to go into holding, it was another entirely to go there in cuffs. "I'm only still here because I'm not after you two. Binding my hands won't do you any good if I want to get out of here, anyway."

[jurisimpudent]

"You make a potent argument for knocking you unconscious," Edgeworth said acidly. "Tell me, if we give you free use of your hands, what will you do? You're quick to fire your weapon; will you be aiming for our backs?"

But the fact did remain that...they couldn't keep her. If she was provoked enough to escape, of course, security could try to hunt her down - but then what? Either they'd find her and then, what, either execute her or deal with her escaping again and again - or, God willing, he could simply have the woman's power stripped from her without Tyke becoming utterly unreasonable...Or whatever it was on the ship would find the woman and destroy her. Neither were palatable choices, even taking into account his sheer anger over her casually murderous tendencies.

"If you make a move to attack anyone - including him - " Edgeworth's chin indicated Jack - "You will be shot. Do you comprehend?"

Please do not call that bluff. Please.

[supfirehawk]

Really? If she had wanted to shoot him, she would have instead of firing off warning shots. She was even waiting for him to stop doing... whatever it was to her wrists. As far as she was concerned, she was being more than courteous either of the strangers deserved.

"Yeah, I can hear your big mouth loud and clear. Now, are you going to let me and my friend go? You should tie up the guy in the mask, though, unless you want a megalomaniac former-CEO causing trouble."

[jurisimpudent]

"Oh, yes, of course; we'll let you two go at once," Edgeworth said, frustration leading him so speak with caustic sarcasm. "Why, it's certainly not like you've done anything wrong. Only tried to murder one of your fellow passengers and assaulted security and offered no defense except that he's a megalomaniac and - what was your most salient point? - ah, yes, that he's a CEO."

He used his telekinesis to tug upwards on her wrists.

"Stand up. And a piece of advice: if you think this man is a monster, you're not going to convince anyone of that fact by acting more monstrous by far."

[darkholme]

Raven's here to help, she knows she's the "backup" in this situation, that she should just listen and wait and observe. But they're bickering, and the other security officers are having difficulty getting their two under control, and it's frustrating, okay? Her impatience knows no bounds. She's not huffing, exactly, but her hands move to her hips and it's taking a lot of control not to cut them off and wave her hands around like that would stop all the commotion.

"Look. All three of you are going to end up coming with us, one way or another. Shooting at us put you in the wrong just as much as that guy, as far as we see things. It makes you dangerous to the people on board. Which, in case you didn't realize, is our job to prevent. That's all we're doing, our jobs." Her eyes widen a little bit - see what I'm saying? "Maybe if you chill out and come with us, your friend will too, and we can focus on getting who you say is the real danger into custody. Can we do that?" Please>!?

[supfirehawk]

This was unbelievable. She had met some stupid people on Pandora before, but this was far beyond that. Her eyes narrowed at Edgeworth and Raven in turn and out of spite, she refused to get up.

"You really want me to play nice with the bastard that killed my boyfriend and stabbed me over and over again? I've already been here for a couple of months and this is the first time you've even noticed I was here." That alone should say she wasn't here to shoot at whoever. If she had wanted that, she would have gone on a shooting spree a long time ago out of boredom. "I already agreed to go with you, so let my wrists go."

[jurisimpudent]

Edgeworth scowled at her - and, peevishly, used his power to lift her to her feet. It was a mistake; to lift even so slender a woman was far and away more effort than simply holding her wrists, and he felt a sudden rush of dizziness as that single act drained his reserves immensely.

So he had to let her go. He didn't have the energy to do otherwise, and cursed his foolishness for acting so rashly and proudly and harming their ability to take her in. He did, however, have the energy to turn away, to hide from the woman his sudden pallor; Raven would see his face, maybe, but that was all right.

And, naturally, he had the energy for an acid comment. "First time we've noticed you because it's the first time you've acted criminally. Keep it up and we'll notice you more." And at least his voice sounded steady enough; hopefully she wouldn't be able to hear his sudden exhaustion in his voice.

[darkholme]

She does notice, of course she does. It's the same kind of exhausted look on her face she gets when she's used her abilities too much, too quickly. It's honestly a little bizarre, seeing it on Edgeworth's face, but not in a bad way, just unexpected. She can't help but worry a little bit, she gets it. It drains you fast, sometimes too quickly to just shake and back off from. But he seems alright, still talking at least, so there's that.

Raven takes a few steps back from the woman, looking down the hallway.

"Maybe we should help the others. We can all head down together."

Like civilized people, maybe?

[supfirehawk]

"About time," she said once he had finally let her go. She rubbed her wrists and glared back at Jack. "You'd both have an easier time if you'd just let us settle this our way."

[jurisimpudent]

Edgeworth's response was sharp and immediate.

"We don't do the things that are easy here; we do the things that are right."

He didn't look around at her as he began marching in the direction of the security office, knowing that if she saw his face and the weariness thereupon she might be encouraged enough to make a break for it.

"Now come along."