The Investigator and The Smuggler

Started by Sloane Breene, May 14, 2020, 06:36:57 PM

Sloane Breene

May 14, 2020, 06:36:57 PM Last Edit: May 21, 2020, 07:16:59 AM by Sloane Breene
Sloane's family always babied her because she was the youngest and the only sister. She felt like a china doll locked in a glass case for all the world to see, but no one could touch. Her brothers made it absolutely impossible to have any sort of a dating life growing up. She would have to sneak away, tell a lie several times out the door, one after another until she was able to leave. Whenever her date brought her home, they usually had to drop her off a couple yards away to make sure they weren't seen. Then, even if she liked the guy enough to attempt to bring him around, they usually had him successfully scared off by the end of whatever meal her mother had prepared. Sly knew the only way to actually get the *different* male attention she craved growing up, she had to do it in secret. Luckily, she was smarter than most of her family and was actually able to have a personal life without her big family mucking it up all. She was goddamn adult now and she should be treated like one. She wasn't the little girl all her brothers still keep an image of in their minds.

It wasn't supposed to go down like this. In all the scenarios Sly had played out in that big head of hers, this was the farthest she ever thought was even possible. But she hadn't taken into her calculations an outside factor that wasn't even in her original assessment of the situation. Her damn destructive smuggling older brother, Willy. Even she couldn't calculate the chances of that one, too unbelievable to even formulate. Either way, she was pissed. Months of tracking, stakeouts, threats, phone calls, office visits to just for the entire case to blow up in her face. Quite literally. Was it Willy's fault that his smuggling job just happened to intertwine with her stolen museum artifact case? Not really. Did she blame him anyway? Absolutely. Although he didn't initially start shooting first, but her brother returning fire on the thugs did ultimately escalate the situation to the crapshoot that lead to Sloane getting hit in the calf of her right leg. Did she blame Willy for that? You're goddamn right she did and she was fuming. Luckily it appeared to be just a nasty graze, but it was too painful to walk on and resulting in her older brother having to carry her out of danger. Sloane immediately had flashbacks of her four-year-old self being cradled in young Willy's arms, crying of a twisted ankle because she had tripped playing near the river near where their ship had docked temporarily. She hated it.

"Ouch! Fēngzi!" Sly swore loudly in pain in Chinese as she felt her brother shift her slightly as he hastily carried her and her wounded leg towards a shady motel down the street from the ship docks where their own little O.K Corral that took place. She instinctively (and unintentionally) elbowed him in the side of his ribs in the process, "Gāisǐ de, Jade elephants, Willy really?"

William Breene

May 21, 2020, 06:53:24 PM #1 Last Edit: May 21, 2020, 07:17:50 PM by William Breene
Willy huffed, running as fast as he could whilst carrying his sister. His team from the Atkinson had bugged out, he could hear a rolling gun-battle between them and the crooks they'd met to exchange goods. Gunshots got slowly more distant as they led a sloppy tactical retreat back towards the ship's berth. As he rounded the corner and plowed through the doors of the motel, he could hear the distant but telltale sound of engines firing up hastily. The captain was flying, which meant it was going to be a rough takeoff.

The sound of a metal scraping, then a loud crash, the ground lightly reverberating.

"Phew... I thought my ride just left...

He said addressing the proprietor of the motel, bleeding sister still in his arms, gun battle and space-ship crash happening nearby.

"What is... this?!"

The crooked cargo hauler rolled his eyes.

"My sister who got shot in a gunfight when she ran into me and my crew in the midst of being.... robbed. Yes. Robbed. Anyway I guess that whole extra hundred for not asking questions is off the table. You want the place to get shut down by the feds as a crime-scene for a week that is YOUR decision buddy..."

The desk clerk groaned and pointed at a fingerprint reader on the clear plastic divider between them. A text appeared on the glass next to the reader just barely visible under all the finger-print smudges, as he was charged for the room fee, plus the extra hundred credit "processing fee".

THANKS FOR STAYING WITH US AT ROOM.... 203, PLEASE DEPOSIT YOUR LUGGAGE IN THE CONVEYOR

"Thaaanks huun...."

Looking over at the luggage conveyor system next to the stairs, which was meant to be part of the "automated experience" of the hotel, it was covered in dust and appeared to have been broken roughly the 2450s. The exasperated XO of the Atkinson trudged up the stairs slowly, feeling confident they had lost the baddies. While Willy was carrying Sloane up the stairs he wondered who was truly here to rescue who? And would she have been offended if he plopped her on that conveyor if it actually worked?

Sure he carried her out of there after the bullets started flying and she got tagged, but it was KINDA his fault that he and his crew were the ones using the extra cargo space on their ship to smuggle stolen, precious... elephants? Somehow Sly figured out that the gang he was meeting today weren't actually intention paying them, and it was about to get bloody. Fate being a fickle mistress, the only Breene blood shed so far was hers.

Finally kicking the door shut behind him in the hotel room, he put her down on the bed, then went straight to the room's couch, sliding it over to the door in case anyone tracked them down. Continuing his frantic behavior as he left his sister to apply pressure to her wound on one of the room's two twin beds, the lightly bearded man started frantically pulling up the carpet.

"Okay so before you get to glibly explain why I'm the asshole here... Don't you even TRY it, mei mei..."

He pulled a couple of wood planks to the side and pulled out two metal ammo crates. He popped one open, it had a couple pistols and spare magazines. Then cracking open the other, it was packed full of medical supplies and lastly, at the bottom of the tin, he pulled out a small plastic bag from it along with couple other items from the med kit.

"It is my fault. I'm sorry... You should have called me the second you started running down a smuggling job like this! Especially one so... attractively lucrative like those damn stupid elephants... Damn it. Anyway, still my bad, the people shooting at me hit you so... this one's on me no matter how much I try and wriggle out of it.."

Willy tossed the plastic bag at Sloane before he started checking on her wound, then instructing his sister:

"You spark up those herbal meds in the bag, I'll get work work on your leg..."

He winced looking at the wound, as if it was more grave than it was. But this was his baby sister and she'd gotten herself into mortal danger running down a case he was at the center of. This was not going in the big brother hall of fame. The elder of the Breenes thought back to that night on the shuttle as he flew her home from the frat-house. That was the part he liked to think about, even though he had gotten a great deal of satisfaction plowing through those jokers, un-prepared for six feet and two hundred pounds of fraternal fury.

A baggie of medical grade herbal remedies, neatly pre-wrapped hemp papers were all lined up inside the baggy as Sloane inspected its contents.

Sloane Breene

May 21, 2020, 10:29:28 PM #2 Last Edit: June 04, 2020, 07:31:58 PM by Sloane Breene
If her leg hadn't been throbbing and feeling like it was on fire, Sloane would have probably laughed at her brother's interaction with the absolutely confused and frustrated desk clerk as he very bluntly explained their actual current situation and forced his hand to letting them have a room. It didn't take long for the Breene sister growing up to put together that Willy. Pissed. People. Off. If it wasn't his absence of an actual mental filter that stopped any thoughts that he probably shouldn't say to people, it was his inability to resist being a smart-pi gu and pointing out things that made the general public angry and sometimes shooty towards him. Momma Breene always said he was just acting out to get attention and to stand out which he never grew out of, now he's completely wired this way. Being a smart-pi gu was part of who he was and there was no changing it. Sly honestly wouldn't have it any other way. Out of all the clan of Breene Siblings, her parents really didn't expect the eldest and the youngest to be the closest out of all the kids. They honestly didn't know if it was because he took his role as a big brother seriously once she was almost napped once in a space station on his watch when she was toddler or if it was because little Sloane was Willy's biggest fan growing up. Even as a child, whenever Willy would come home, his baby sister would stick to him like glue, even to the point where she hid in his ship when she knew he was leaving. She loved her big brother and as much as he pissed her off as a full-fledged adult, that love as never wavered.

Once inside of the room, he quickly, yet surprisingly gently, placed her on one of the two beds in the room. She instantly wrapped her hands around the wound, wincing slightly from the touch and pressed her hands as much as she could take. She watched as Willy suddenly started sprinting around the room chaotically like an idiot and ripping up the carpet of the room. Was it the loss of blood or was he actually digging into the floor of their room like he was searching for lost treasure? Has he been to the garbage motel before? Suddenly seeing the metal boxes under the floor, Sloane came to the instant conclusion that her brother spent way too much time in dumpster dives like this. "...You should have called me the second you started running down a smuggling job like this! Especially one so... attractively lucrative like those damn stupid elephants..." If possible Sly's eyes almost stared into the back of her head she rolled her eyes that hard and sighed audibly, almost slamming her head against the wall behind her head in the process. "Well, I didn't *know* it was gonna to be a smuggling job until I ran into the Tā mā de smugglers, Dàgē," she bickered back at him, "Nor that my own damn brother was behind the robbery in the first place!" She finished, each word getting more louder and expressive than the last until she was practically shouting. It was true, all facts she had tracked down so far made it appear to be a theft through and through. But her unknowing of Willy's involvement in the crime was a complete lie. Her investigation led to his band of merry hustlers and the gang in which the elephants were being exchanged to. Her facts showed whoever did dealings with the gang were never seen again. The Investigator pieced it together and her ability to be impartial to job went completely out the window. Decisions that ended up with her being shot in the leg and Willy throwing a bag of contraband in her lap.

"You think trying to bribe me with some blaze is gonna make up for-" her brain suddenly came to a halt when the aroma snuck into her nose, "Oh Shèng shǐ," she swore in surprise, "smells like Christmas." A smirk slithering up across her face and immediately jammed one of the wrapped herb rolls into her mouth and using the lighter in the bag to spark up the other end. She inhaled deeply and let the smoke sit in her lungs for a moment before blowing it out her nose, she could already feel the tingles beginning in her cheeks, whatever anxiety that had started to build completely melted away, puffing away. She watched as her big brother did what he always did: take care of her and begin fusing over her leg. Could have been herbs suddenly blanketing her brain or the blood loss, but Sly's mental file cabinet suddenly dropped a memory in her metaphysical lap she hadn't thought of in years. The Frat Party years ago. The Breene Sister made one of the stupidest mistakes she had ever done and almost paid the price for it, if it wasn't for him. He came to her rescue, like he always did which made her realize she had to tell him. Psst-ing him to look up so she could stick the lit roll in his face after taking one more hit (obviously an action that they had done many times before), Sly flashed a nervous face, "This might not be entirely your fault..." she admitted, exhaling the smoke from her mouth, "I might have knew you were gonna be here..."

William Breene

June 26, 2020, 02:14:20 PM #3 Last Edit: June 26, 2020, 02:33:26 PM by William Breene
As Willy accepted the hand rolled anti-anxiety medication he thought back to another time he'd shared a joint with a member of the family. It was this past Christmas.

"What you doin' witthat skunk in my house?!"

William Breene Sr barked at him suddenly. It was past 1am and everyone else had already gone to bed. The man's son was sneaking some night night tokes on their apartment's patio overlooking the overstuffed streets of New Dublin. The eldest son spun around stuffed the joint behind his back like he'd done so many times back when he was a teenager. But then he relaxed, and smiled at his father. Every William Breene Jr knew that the Sr had been smoking every last bit of that sticky icky he'd confiscated from them all back then.

Willy laughed through his nose and rolled his eyes at the old man, then handed him the lit herbs. That's when he his father said something he'd said a million times:

"Bloody girl is too smart for her own good, swear to Jesus."

Back in the now, the older brother was handing the devil's lettuce back to his sister, who needed it more than him after a quick, and dainty two puffs. Willy couldn't help but be a little more focused on his sister's wound, the fact that she was possibly spying on him to catch crooks, and his timeline for getting them off this stupid planet. In that order. Rather than give her crap about what she'd been up to, or the crappy world she'd wandered into, and he was still trying to scrape his way out of (again), the elder of the two Breenes just kept dressing the wound.

As she pulled on the joint, he was pulling an auto-injector and a combo drug cocktail meant to prevent infection and dull pain. He gave his sister a slightly serious look.

"These shots suck. You ready?"

Willy of course, just immediately hit her with the injection. Because "anticipation is the worst part" he'd always justify. Giving her a beat to recover from the screaming pain that would have shot up her leg for a couple of seconds, he started bandaging the wound. He gave her a look that said "sorry, not sorry". But once he was done bandaging the wound, he stayed uncharacteristically quiet.

Taking the joint from her, he leaned up against the wall by the bed and took a few more indulgent drags now that his doctoring was done. After about thirty seconds of toking he handed the hemp papered remedy back to his sibling and broke his silence.

"I am trying to get out of this mshuge business, but the only way to do that and pay off the arm I lost doing this stupid crap... is to keep doing the lā shǐ... just smarter maybe? "

Her big brother pulled out his cortex unit and pulled up a map.

"Hell with it. I'm going to show you something, you can't tell ANYBODY. We just uhhh... gotta slip through the docks.. no big deal. Its on the way to getting you out of here."

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