Post by Ryan D'Alteau on Aug 17, 2013 18:32:28 GMT -5
Doubts will try to break you, unleash your heart and soul!
Trouble will surround you, start taking some control!
Stand up and deliver your wildest fantasy!
Do what the fuck you want to, there's no-one to appease!
______________________________Muse - "Panic Station"
"Look, if I didn't distract those guys on th'roof when I did, there's a damn good chance you'd be full of holes."
Although the Zonda didn't come with its own docking station for his cellphone, it hadn't stopped Ryan from using it while in the car. By investing in a set of earbud headphones with a tiny Bluetooth-esque microphone mounted to them, he simply plugged them in and left his phone in one of the recessed alcoves of the car's centre console. They may not have been designed to contend with the background noise emanating from a 7.3-litre V12 engine from the depths of Italy, but nobody who called him while in the car seemed to have any difficulty hearing him. Maurelle Lacroix, his crime boss employer, was the latest in the somewhat short list of people who had done so and, within moments, the conversation had strayed over to the subject of his actions during the previous time they'd met.
Not having enough faith in his employer's combat abilities to believe she would be able to take on a squad of armed soldiers single-handed, equipped with nothing but a strange scythe which doubled as a bolt-action rifle, Ryan had taken the initiative as he often did, utilising his own ability to sow confusion among the men who had landed on the roof of one of Maurelle's office buildings. By forcing one of them to turn on his allies, he'd forced all of them to exchange bullets. Although he had only managed to give two people some serious shotgun wounds before the rest of the squad had put him down, the sudden shock of the fight being brought to them before they were adequately prepared was enough of a diversion to allow his boss to clear the roof of invaders.
As far as he was concerned, he'd helped Maurelle defend one of her assets in Brownsville; pre-emptively saving her life and being instrumental in the safeguarding of two dozen others. Some sort of private military had effectively mounted an invasion on the outskirts of Brownsville and, as opposed to the National Guard or some other law-abiding force, he had been the one to stop them in their tracks before they could knock down a building. There weren't many people who were capable of performing such a feat and there were even fewer who had done it while wearing a navy blue knee-length dress and a pair of heels. Letting out a sigh as his boss issued him a response, he remembered something. This woman was far from what many would have considered mundane. Being a crime boss, she had been forced to learn how to fend for herself, both in the realm of business and those odd moments when someone tried to employ more physical means to dislodge her from the throne she'd worked to reach.
Playing the 'I just saved your life!' card wasn't going to work with her. "Fine." He had to face facts. There was a reason why he had stayed well away from any sort of debate team in school. Although he could bring forth an argument whenever he liked, he was woeful at avoiding his adversary picking the whole thing apart. He might have been an intelligent man, but he was by no means eloquent. "But, if this'd been any sort o'normal situation, th'both of us would've been hailed as heroes." Ryan saw that particular day as one in which Superman would have struggled to do more. Although the military had been targeting Maurelle - and, by extension, him - and they had been doing nothing more than defending their turf, the fact remained that they'd repelled a small-scale invasion. "It just feels a little crappy t'have you chewin' me out for it."
Up to now, Ryan had been operating on instinct. Usually, when Maurelle saw fit to call him, she was asking him to involve himself in something that required him to exchange his Converse shoes, long-sleeved shirt and jeans for a pencil dress and heels. It was an auditory cue for which he'd been listening out ever since answering the call. But, other than a brief request for him to get in his car and start driving towards the centre of Brownsville, he'd heard nothing. Even for Maurelle's standards, she was being unusually vague today.
Regardless of the trouble in which his initiative seemed to land him whenever he made use of it, Ryan had told Maurelle that he would call her back after having a shower. While it wasn't entirely a falsehood, he still used it as an excuse for him to hang up. She may not have told him to present himself before her under the guise of his female alter-ego, but he was definitely going to prepare for the eventuality. After all, Calla McKnight was still one of her employees. Ryan Alcroft wasn't. Having already gone through the transformative motions ten days prior, there was no need for him to shave his body once again and, once he'd cleaned himself up, he set about sticking the breast forms to his chest and squirming his way into his girdle-like prosthetic. Even with a loose-fitting shirt, his chest was noticeably more substantial than usual and, after bundling a dress, some heels and one of his wigs - he'd decided to have Calla be a redhead today - into the passenger seat of his car, he'd thrown the canvas roof up and done as he'd been asked.
"So, uh..." He began again, trailing off for a moment as his concentration shifted to the act of safely driving his car through the intersection. He'd been in downtown Brownsville for the past few minutes, speaking to his boss on the phone. Given the Zonda's legendarily woeful fuel consumption at the best of timers, he was quietly hoping his boss would get to the point. "...where d'ya need me? I ain't really dressed t'impress right now, but I took a change o'clothes with me, just in case." He didn't know why he was being so vague about it. Maurelle was like Adele and Leah. She knew just about everything there was to know about what lay inside his wardrobe. Well, almost, but she certainly knew about the dresses, heels, wigs and swimwear.