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The two men played what felt like the millionth hand of Gin Rummy of the weekend.  "Who's turn is it?"  One asked as the other opened a bottle of water.

"What time is it anyway?"

"Not time to go yet.  Twenty more..."  He would have finished his sentence, but the window exploded inwards.  The black clad form landed on the floor and then sprang upright.  Alicia's form fitting costume did nothing to hide her curves, and everything to protect them.  The men were trained, and armed.  Alicia was trained, and armed.  She was a walking weapon, a flurry of arms and legs, elbows and knees.  The other man had had the benefit of a few seconds, he had moved back from the table and drawn a gun, and Alicia caught the motion from the corner of her eye.  She kicked off the first man and into a backwards flip as the second man fired.  The pistol reports were loud, too loud, So much for covert.

The front door opened, and Sylvia strolled in.  She looked like something out of the Matrix, and her hand came up slowly, "Point that somewhere else."  she said, and the man turned the gun and slipped it into his mouth.  Fear gripped him, and try as he might he couldn't pull the gun from his mouth.  His muscles shaking from the effort.

The two women split up and searched the house.  "Shit.  She's not hear?"  Sylvia said.

"She has been though."  Alicia sniffed at the air, "Maybe an hour ago."

*****

Sylvia grabbed the man Alicia had beaten on and pushed him against the wall.  "Stay there!"  she said, and then she grabbed a chair, seating herself in front the the man with the gun in his mouth.  "You, on your knees."  and he complied, against his every wish and effort.  "Now, since you don't have anything in your mouth, tell us where the girl is."

"Fuck you!"  He spat.

"Fine."  Sylvia turned her gaze the man with the gun in his mouth.  "Your friend is against the wall behind you.  When I tell you to, you'll pull the trigger.  The bullet will pass through the back of your head and into his chest.  It will be labeled as the most bizarre murder suicide of all time.  and, then I will have my friend here open you up and extract your intestines, which I will read like tea leaves to find out where the girl is.  It will be messy, smelly, and altogether unpleasant for both of you."

"You're fucking crazy bitch!"  the man against the wall yelled.  "This shit isn't worth dieing over.  Club Desolation.  He took her to Club Desolation."

Sylvia's gaze comes up slowly.  "He who?"

*****

Both men lay unconscious on the floor, twitching involuntarily.  Sylvia looks up from them to Alicia.  "Club Desolation?"

Alicia looks at the monitor on the inside of her arm, she taps it a few times.  "Fifteen blocks from here."

"We're short on time, can you make it?"

"Where's our air support?"  Alicia says moving towards the window.

"He's at the warehouse looking for the detonators.  Go, I'm right behind you."  and with that Sylvia turned and sprinted from the room as Alicia slipped out the window and up to the roof to begin the trek to Club Desolation.

In the hall Sylvia stopped.  The police and SWAT team poured past her.  Several of them bumped into her, but none of them realized she was there, and that's exactly how she preferred it.

*****

"Alley Cat, do you have eyes on the target?"  The voice is familiar, Sylvia.  It's in Alicia's ear.

"Negative Meme.  Still on the move."  Alicia's voice is barely a whisper.  She launches into the air again, and catches a TV ariel, which snaps with her weight, and smiling she rides the twisting metal in a slow circle, then drops from it to a drain pipe, but only for a moment before she leaps back across the narrow alley for the fire escape, then backflips to land on a dumpster, almost soundlessly.  "I see the car.  No sign of the target."

"If he has the girl."  Sylvia's voice sounds strained.

"I'll ask him nicely to turn her over to me."

"Nicer than you asked the two goons at the safehouse?"

"Much nicer."  Alica purrs.

Then a door opens at the end of the alley, and a man comes out.  He has a girl with him, to the untrained eye she might be drunk.  But Alica is not a creature of mere sight.  She can smell the taint of the drugs, and the gun oil.  His cheap colone, his cheap soap.

With a leap Alicia is on the roof of the car.  A smile curls her lips.  "Poor kid is so doped up she's not going to remember any of what I'm about to do to you."  She lowers into a crouch, "Oh yeah, I almost forgot.  Jake Lowrey, You're under arrest for kidnapping and a laundry list of bad bad things."  That feral smile returns.  "Time for you to resist arrest."

*****

Sylvia strolls into the alley.  Jake Lowrey lay on the pavement in a heap and Alicia was helping the woman walk.  "We have a car just down here, it will take you home."

"Did he mention the detonators?"  Sylvia asks on her way by.

Alicia shakes her head and takes the girl to the end of the alley.  The black sedan rolled up, and Alicia opened the back door and helped the girl in, then climbed in with her.  "Let's get her home."  Alicia says and the driver nods, slipping the car away from the curb and into the night.

*****

Jake Lowrey woke up, and his head was pounding.  The blood was rushing to it, and he looked up only to find that he was looking down, three stories to the pavement.  "What the?"  He flailed around and began to spin.

"I'd stay still.  You could fall."  Sylvia said, sitting on the edge of the building.  "We have the girl.  Now all we need are the detonators."

"What detonators, what the fuck is this all about?  I just picked."

"Shhhh, I read minds.  Even ones as slimy and sick as yours.  I've seen what you did, and when I'm done with you I'm going to erase it from her memory.  Just like I'm going to erase you."

"What kind of hero are you huh?  I want a cop, I want to be arrested.  By the time you get a warrant to legally read my mind it'll be too late."

"I already have what I need."  She taps the device in her ear.  "Janus this is Meme, the detonators are in a truck, pier 6.  Take Alley Cat with you and call in a Strike Ops Team."  She taps the device again and looks at him.  "I'm not looking for a conviction.  I just need to get those detonators before your Viper bosses do.  And the girl is safe and sound, so her daddy wont have to turn belly up to them either."

Jake gives her a narrow threatening gaze.  "I'll get off.  You have no idea who you're fucking with bitch."

"Probably.  Then again."  she stands, and takes the knife from her belt.  She starts to saw at the line that was tied to his ankle and the support post he dangled from.

"Wh..what the hell are you doing?  Stop, I ..you can't!"

The snapping of the line startled her some, she hadn't thought it would make such a sharp sound.  His scream echoed down the alleyway and into the night.  Then stopped short of the pavement.

The young man flew down out of the darkness, holding Jake by the cable that was tied around his ankle.  "That was a close one Meme."

"I knew you were there hero."  she says, putting the knife away.  "You caught him, the girl is home, all is well."

The young man nods, "I'll run this clown to the PD.  Then what"?

"Janus and Alley are on the detonators.  Link up with them and make sure they have that under control."

"What about you?"

"I'm going to go try and wash his thoughts off.  Tell Auntie Sky and Momma CJ I'll be back in a couple of days."

The man nods again and flies off into the night with Jake in tow.