Hostage Situation

Jamie tilted her head and gave Mercy a look like the was the dumbest person in the world. She picked up her backpack from the desk and unzipped it. She reached into the bottom and pulled out Mercy's coat, which had been flattened out on the bottom of the bag and was rather wrinkly and dirty from having all of her stuff sitting on top of it.

"Here's your stupid coat." She said and threw it at Mercy. "And the contract is, um... it's in a safe place. Okay? It's safe. I'm going to take my stuff and go get it right now." Of course she wasn't, she didn't know exactly where it was. She began packing her things back into her backpack, except for her roller blades.

"Hey, if you're such a lawyery-chick, why were you in that dumpster dressed like a retard in the first place? I thought all you drove Mercedeseses and had people that did all your work for you. You don't seem to have anyone doing your work for you. And this isn't even your office." There was no name plate on the desk, not that Jamie knew her name, no personal effects of any kind, just Jamie's stuff and the ficus tree and some bad art. This was an empty office. Mercy was just trying to scare her.

She smirked and cracked a smile at Mercy. She just needed her contract back, and she had nothing on Jamie. If she tried to stop her, she could just spray paint her in the face and run, and that would be that. Maybe she'd try to get the contract back and see if she could leverage it to get Mercy to give her money too. That seemed plausible.

She sat down on the floor and began to strap on her roller blades. She put her sneakers in her bag. "You had me going for a while there. You want your contract back? It's gonna cost you. I could just beat you up and take my stuff back, but I wouldn't beat you up and take your money. I don't even know your bank account stuff. Tell me now, because in a second I'm outta here for good." Even if she was wrong, maybe she could throw Mercy off enough to get the upper hand.

Mercy watched as Jamie pulled out her coat. Her eyes gleamed and then when she threw it on the ground, she gasped. "That's not how you treat a coat like that!" She exclaimed and narrowed her eyes at Jamie. She then wrinkled her brow. "W-Why would you keep it in a safe place? It's just a piece of paper and look how you treat an expensive jacket and a mp3 player! I don't believe you! I don't believe that you have it at all!"

She paused and rubbed her temples then adjusted her glasses. "It's not any of your business, but I guess I can tell you. I was fired that day and I threw out a bunch of papers in a fit of anger. Well, it turned out that one of those papers was my contract for AFW, which will have to make due as my only means of employment until I can find a real job here in Japan or get a ticket back to the states." Mercy's eyes then twitched. "I WILL drive those and have people I can make do my work and who I can fire for not putting enough sweetener in my coffee! I'm just... I'm running a ten year plan, ok!? A street urchin like you wouldn't understand how difficult it is to climb the ladder off success. You can't even climb a dumpster right!"

Mercy huffed. She hated this girl. "And... the reason why I don't want to ust ask for a new one is because my old boss works for our CURRENT boss. I might as well just beg for my old job back. Mercedes Wrenn only begs when she's on the clock, do you hear me!?" She clenched her fists and then listened to Jamie's veiled threats.

Mecry smirked and looked at the door. Jamie wasn't getting out of here until Mercy said so. "Assault and battery. I'll make sure they lock you in jail and I'll sue you so hard that prison will sound like a vacation in comparison. Though." She let out a laugh and waved a dismissive hand. "All things considered it would probably be an upgrade for you. How can anyone even be as wretched and worthless to society as you are?" Mercy was feeling suddenly emboldened. "Three square meals a day, lots of exercise and someone who will love that 'purdy little face' all night long." Mercy crossed her arms under her chest. "Go on. Take a swing. You'll be doing yourself a favor."

"Who's Mercedes Wrenn?" Jamie asked, slightly confused.

She narrowed her eyes at Mercy and took one step toward her. She slung her backpack onto her back and picked up her other can of spray paint from the floor. She tucked it into her satchel and brandished the black can in front of her.

"There's probably a law against locking someone in a room they don't wanna be in." She said. "And I already get lots of exercise. Maybe you need to go to prison, so you can stay out of dumpsters and stop losing things. Now I'm going to leave, and if you want your contract back you'll come with me. And bring money. We can find an ATM or something."

She took another stop toward the door and tightened her grip on her spray paint. There were two ways she was getting out of there. Mercy would either let her out, or she would paint her into submission and get out herself.

"I am!" Mercy spat out. "What the hell..." Man, Jamie really was an idiot. "But only my friends call me Mercedes. You call me Mercy and actually, I'd prefer it if you never actually addressed me."

Mercy leaped back and let out a girlish squeal when Jamie stepped towards her. She clenched her fists and pretended like she wasn't scared. She then narrowed her eyes again when Jamie said she should go to jail. "There's not a law against losing things!"

She then glared at Jamie as she was trying to extort the girl. "Extortion! You are just piling up a list of crimes! You aren't leaving until I say so! And I want my contract! Give me Batman as collateral and then we'll go to where it's at and you can have Batman back. If you say no, then I'll call security! They've already been informed to take you away when I say so. I just told them that I wanted a chance to settle it peacefully. Here's your chance! Otherwise, I'll call them and you'll be thrown in jail forever!" She held out her hand, expecting Batman to be placed there.

"Now's your chance to do the right thing for once in your life."

"M-my Batman?" Jamie gasped. The suggestion quieted down her bravado and made her think.

It was just a stupid plastic Batman. There was no reason why she couldn't just give it to her. But... it was her Batman. He was born out of a need for a safe place when sleeping on the streets. Since she couldn't go somewhere safe, she made whatever place she had safe by having Batman stand guard while she slept. It was stupid, but she'd been doing it for so long she couldn't sleep without him.

But then if she stayed broke she couldn't eat, so... It was a risk she had to take. She unzipped a pocket on the front of her backpack and pulled out Batman, a small, plastic, 6" action figure. She begrudgingly held him out halfway to Mercy and then stopped. She put her spray paint down and extended her hand to Mercy.

"Shake on it. You promise you'll give him back. We'll go and get your thingy and then you'll give him back and pay me. Otherwise, no contract and no Batman and I beat you up and run away."

Mercy stepped forward when it looked like she was about to receive collateral. He offered her hand and looked at Jamie. She adjusted her glasses and smiled. "Finally, you're listening to reason. I suppose a handshake serves as a binding contract between us. But then she stopped and pulled her hand away.

"What!? I'm not paying you!" She said. "You give me the Batman and when the contract is returned to me, I give you back the Batman. The, we part ways and never see each other again and I take a long shower to wash away your memory! Those are the terms and conditions! It's non-negotiable! You don't have any leverage! I am giving you the chance to do the right thing without pressing charges! Agree to this or I'll have you thrown in jail!"

Mercy held out her hand again. "You give me the Batman and I return him to you when we get the contract. That is the deal. Take it or leave it."

Jamie threw up her hands. "Fine. Throw me in jail, see what I care. You said it'd be better for me anyway. It'd be fine. Call the cops, have them lock me up. Have fun looking for a new job." She said, frustrated.

Her only interest in this situation was getting paid. Granted, she could try to steal money from Mercy, but since she looked like she didn't carry cash, it'd be pretty hard. She didn't really look like she had much money at all, really, but more than enough for Jamie. She had low standards.

"Do you have a phone to call the cops, or is that in the dumpster too?"

Mercy shrugged and slid past Jamie. She lifted up the phone on the desk and let it buzz. "Such a shame that you have to do things the hard way, Ms. Valentine." She said, suddenly going into paralegal mode. She'd won the day. She'd have to go grovel to Lukretia, but in the end, she'd won the day.

"If you had been nice to me in the dumpster, instead of trying to rob and assault me, I might have actually helped you out a bit. If you would have just cooperated a bit, then there wouldn't be any unpleasantness. But you chose to mess with a paralegal when she was having a bad day and worse yet, exacerbated the situation worse than it needed to be. You only have yourself to blame for all of this."

Mercy then began to dial the number for AFW security.

As she punched in the numbers, suddenly something hit her and she hung up the phone. She eyed Jamie. "Wait a second." She said. "No one WANTS to go to jail. You think I'm bluffing, don't you!?" Her voice got excited once again. "No... You know I'm not. You..." Her voice became low and she clutched the phone tightly. "You don't even HAVE the contract, DO YOU!?" She yelled.

"Of course I have the contract!" Jamie exclaimed. "Like I have anything else. Maybe you noticed, but I don't have a house, so I don't really have anywhere to keep anything. Someone else may have the contract right now, if they haven't thrown it out, but I can go get it, I think. I think you know how people like to take advantage of me and steal my stuff, so if someone stole your contract then you only have people like yourself to blame!"

She glided over to the door. "I guess I'll go get the contract now, and if you don't want it I'll just burn it tonight. Since you don't have it or anything, should you even be in here? This place is pretty much for AFW personnel. Like me."

She paused before she put her hand on the door handle only to find it locked. With no way to unlock it without a key, she turned to look back at Mercy, her face now a predatory mask that hardly resembled her. Now that she was a cornered rat, she had no choice but to come after Mercy. Violent flashes passed through her mind, and she bent her knees, keeping the brake of her roller blades jammed into the floor, as she prepared to launch herself at the girl. This was probably going to get very ugly for Mercy.

"Someone else?! Thrown it away!?" Mercy regurgitated the words that Jamie spat back her in shock. She couldn't believe this woman! She was the absolute worst! She was even blaming Mercy for Jamie being a rotten little urchin!

"I.. want... collateral..." She said as she watched Jamie go to the door. She knew it was locked. She couldn't take any chances but in hindsight, this whole set up seemed a little bit on the ill conceived side. She had gotten 2 of the three things she wanted back but without the contract she might have to pawn those things.

She watched as Jamie went to grab the door and smirked. "That's right! Give me collateral and I'll open the door." She adjusted her glasses, not realizing that Jamie was coming at her. "You always make things more difficult than they need be. You must be some sort of glutton for-"

Her face went paler than it was and she began to slowly back up. She began stuttering. "D-don't you look at me like that!" She looked around for the ficus but it was out of reach. "Y-you better not add murder tot he long list of crimes you have accrued! B-Besides! I.. I'd taste awful! I'm all gamey and have no muscle! My gristly body will be an eternal r-reminder of.. something..."

She didn't know where the cannibalism came from, but she wouldn't put it past Jamie. She fumbled through her suit coat as she bumped into the wall. She had a small can of pepper spray at her disposal if she could fish it out before Jamie eviscerated her.