A Bitter Pill To Swallow

ANNESBURG, 2 NOV 2023
Crazy Ronaldo's Used Superbike Emporium

"I am thinking hard about it, honestly I am. This place seems so out of character, but maybe my character is expanding." She wipes her forehead and hands the borrowed helmet back to the salesman. She gives him her contact info and suggests they meet in a few days for some serious shopping and bike fitting.

As they walk out, nerves spiked from liquid cocaine coffee drinks and high speed thrills, Melissa gets them back on topic.

"I'd drop it. He's not going to tell you anything. You confronted him, and pushing him now will just force him to double down. If he did it, then we'll need to catch him unguarded."

She shrugs. "Then again, you must know him better. After all, you're the one he wants back." Her look is serious but the corner of her mouth twitches in amusement.

GRAYBRIDGE, 1 NOV 2023
The Waterfront

Eva wrinkles her face when she's told she might have to be patient, and it's not hard for David to tell that she thinks she has been patient, and that things are in another gear now. There are still some basic connections she doesn't understand, though.

"Where did Tanya come from, anyway? How did you get connected up with her?"

A moment later, she admits something she hasn't told anyone yet.

"Remember when I was feeling shitty? It got really bad in the diner. Like so bad I thought I might pass out. She had something... in the bathroom. A pill. She said it would make me feel better... and it did."

GRAYBRIDGE, 1 NOV 2023
The Waterfront

"Well, Tanya's appearance was something I was investigating this afternoon before the Hop Spot meetup. Dave admitted. "She showed up a couple of weeks ago at the Group Meeting with a court order for volunteer work. That's not too uncommon so I signed off on her volunteer status but once I started looking into the court paperwork it's starting to look faked." He waved the shiny knife around nonchalantly as he explained his initial encounter with Tanya before putting the knife away, "Tanya certainly made an impression her first night at Group given that she was 'mugged' right outside St. Javelina's. That's where Tim came in, too. He was the one that 'mugged' her. Turns out, someone paid him to do it... Someone he met at the Hop Spot when he was there with his sister, Bree, and she works for Brian Floyd." He almost felt like a real detective as he connected all the evidentiary dots. "Still not sure who hired Tim but I feel like it's someone connected to Bree, Floyd or even Tanya herself. Either way, that 'mugging' was intended to put her in our good graces and I think you were the one intended to save her that night, not me and Augusta..." He hadn't thought of Eva as being the one intended to rescue Tanya until he'd said it out loud. He listened to Eva admit to taking the pill offered by Tanya as he mentally reexamined the 'mugging'.

"Wait. You took something that night?" he asked her. That certainly explained her second wind. "What was it? Do you have any left? Maybe we could analyze it and figure out what it was." Since Dave had encountered Eva he knew she occasionally had bouts of extreme fatigue and disregulation of her abilities. Rebecca had been unable to figure out the trigger for it but it made sense that Tanya would have the answers...and that presented problems all on its own. "The first dose is always free... Dave muttered audibly. "I'd be really careful with anything Tanya offers. I wouldn't bet on it being offered entirely out of the goodness of her heart..."

GRAYBRIDGE, 1 NOV 2023
The Waterfront
Eva smirks a touch as Dave plays with the big knife -- the man sure likes the thing -- then she follows his runaway train of thought as best she can.

Faked paperwork. A potentially fake mugging. Eva maybe being the one who was supposed to put herself in the middle of it. She's glassy-eyed and quiet as she processes it all, and then Draven is on another track -- the drug.

The blonde's limp-haired, wet head hangs a little. She knows she shouldn't have taken the pill. But she was desperate and Tanya seemed... so nice. It felt good to have someone interested in her. As preposterously hot as the woman was... she didn't exactly have a scintillating personality, or a lot to talk about with the average person. It wasn't like the shows on TV. Sexy dudes and chicks weren't lining up to ask her out.

She didn't have enough self-awareness to know she was vulnerable to people paying attention to her, but Dave probably hadn't missed that trick.

"Yeah, I did. I don't know what it was. Like I said, I was really pretty out of it, and going downhill fast during the meal. Like I was going to puke and then face-plant on the table, or on the floor." Looking out to the water briefly, she shivers a little and adds, "I've been wondering what it was that made me feel that way. And what was in the medicine. And what I'll do if it happens again."

She's quiet a minute, then she adds, "It's pretty fucked up that Tanya was there at just the right time to offer the drug, right?"

ANNESBURG, 2 NOV 2023
Crazy Ronaldo's Used Superbike Emporium

"You're really going to buy one or are you just hitting on the salesman?" she asks jokingly.

When Augusta answers her question she nods in agreement at her advice. "Probably right. But if not him, who the hell was it and who else are they doing this to?"

Then the dig Augusta slams in only barely lightened by the hint of a smile, is well deserved. Melissa accepts the snipe almost gratefully as punishment for her selfish behavior. She does not deserve Augusta's forgiveness and finds she has nothing left to say.

GRAYBRIDGE, 1 NOV 2023
The Waterfront

"It is awfully convenient how she's been in the right place at the right time on more than one occasion..." he grumbled. "But, to be honest and I think you deserve full honesty, if the shoe were on the other foot I'd fit into the same possibly nefarious mold as Tanya." he shrugged, a 'mea culpa' expression passing over his face. "I've been in enough similar, coincidental situations with you that it'd seem pretty fishy at first glance. So maybe Tanya isn't who I think she is, maybe she's not on the ' up & up' but maybe she is... I ain't trying to take away your hope for a connection to your past, Eva, but I also don't want to see you walk into something you can't walk back out of. Just be careful, alright." Eva was a puzzle with a lot of missing pieces, and more than a few that didn't even match the picture on the box. Dave was no psychologist and in no position to do much more than let her try to connect the pieces of herself in a semblance of a whole. "Let's try this, then. Why don't you try to further your connection with Tanya. No prying for information or pushing the boundaries, just let it develop as naturally as it can in this situation. I'll push to see what I can find out about her and what I can get out of her. I'll let you know what I find out and let you make up your mind about her. Sound good?"

ANNESBURG, 2 NOV 2023
Heading into the City
Once they're done at the Emporium and both women's hands have stopped shaking, they decide to continue their day with the promised shopping spree in the beautiful Annesburg city center. Which credit card to use for this - Brian's or their own - is still up in the air but the day is too nice, at least here on the brighter side of the water, to just let it end already.

Augusta is leading the way, with Melissa following her in her car. There isn't a lot of traffic on the streets right now, so when, still on the outskirts of the city, one car starts behaving strangely, they both notice it almost right away. It's a massive pickup truck, all black and with tinted windows, that easily dwarfs both women's cars and which has been some distance behind but within view of them since the Emporium. On an empty stretch of road, however, it suddenly speeds up, overtaking Melissa's car and pushing itself in between the two vehicles, forcing Melissa to step on the breaks for the pickup to not crush into her car. Now directly behind Augusta, the pickup driver revs his car's engine before bumping into Augusta's car from behind, not hard enough to seriously endanger Augusta, but enough to shake her in her car and make it clear that this vehicle does not have good intentions.

ANNESBURG, 2 NOV 2023
Heading into the City

Her instinct is to bounce, to hit the accelerator and rocket away. The SUV just isn't as responsive as the super bike, and that truck looks modified.

Actually, that's a lie. She lies to herself all the time. It makes life easier. Makes her choices seem considered. Her first instinct is to jump from her car at full speed and tear her way into the truck while both vehicles slam into parked vehicles, over curbs, through fences and into houses, debris raining down around her and the thug in the truck. She can feel the metal tear under her claws, much to the chagrin of the faux leather on her steering wheel.

She looks ahead, and picks her spot. She guns it, the engine responding immediately as she times the next corner at the highest speed she can manage, on the edge of losing control.

"What the fuck?" Melissa is suddenly aware of the huge truck as it squeezes in front of her. Slamming on her brakes she yells at the vehicle, both from the shock of it and the anger.

"What an asshole. Hey ... wait ...what... what the hell are you doing, moron?" She screams at the driver who she knows won't hear her. "Who are you?"

She can't ID the driver through the tinted glass. Or can she? Now afraid for her friend's life, her heart galloping in her chest, she thinks about the store and how she could see clearly through the glass.

GRAYBRIDGE, 1 NOV 2023
The Waterfront

Playing along, just seeing where things go with Tanya if she lets relationship just sort of... evolve...

It wasn't much of a plan. But it was all Eva had, it was better than nothing, and it was definitely better than trying to kick the doors in at Wyvern Lake. And maybe Dave would be able to dig something up in the meantime.

Nodding at Draven, she agrees to give it a shot.

ANNESBURG, 2 NOV 2023
Heading into the City
As the massive pickup keeps messing with Augusta's car, clearly trying to drive it off the road and make it crash, Melissa focuses and, though she doesn't quite understand how she's doing it, her eyes adjust, allowing her to see into the large vehicle despite its tinted windows. There is a man behind the wheel, broad-shouldered and grim-faced. Melissa doesn't recognize him, but she notices that he's wearing a security guard uniform. The company name on it, Athena Security Solutions, doesn't ring a bell, but it is something to maybe look up later. There is also the very distinctive fact that the guy is wearing an eyepatch on his left eye, which should for one help her identify him later and also probably limits his vision range quite a bit, something that could work to his disadvantage.
She also spots his phone, attached to the dashboard. The screen is showing a small collage of pictures. One is a closeup of Augusta's face. She's smiling and Melissa is pretty sure that it's a selfie taken in Augusta's bedroom. The next is a picture of her car, or at least of the model. It looks like it's just taken from the internet. The third is her license plate number, written out on a computer and screenshotted. It's clear that someone hired this guy for this - and apparently specifically to target Augusta.While Melissa is wrestling with her powers and the information that it is revealing to her, Augusta is scrambling not to crash. The pickup keeps ramming into her car, pushing her around and making it difficult to properly steer and control where she is going. She focuses on the next corner, hitting the gas to get there before the pickup, hoping that she can use its worse handling against it as she takes the corner way too fast, trying to escape the person attacking her.

ANNESBURG, 2 NOV 2023
Heading into the City
Augusta leans into the corner at the last moment, trusting her overpriced foreign luxury SUV to respond better than some Detroit rust bucket. She knows that somewhere behind her, Melissa might be in a similar predicament, or be driven off the road next, but first she has to get out from behind the truck.

The tires squeal as she twists the wheel, holding the corner against the momentum of her own body wanting to push her to the side, and then snaps it nearly straight, allowing the tires to lead her out of the skid.

As the truck struggles and gives up on making the same corner, she slams the brakes, bringing the vehicle to a dramatic halt, and then turns around to chase it. It was going too fast however, and seems to be out of her field of view by the time she gets back to the corner.

ANNESBURG, 2 NOV 2023
Heading into the City

Melissa, wide-eyed in disbelief and shock pulls up behind Augusta, beeps her horn, and comes to an abrupt stop signaling for the woman to get out. They probably had a bunch of adrenaline to burn off and then maybe the shakes once it did. Driving wasn't the best thing to be doing.

ANNESBURG, 2 NOV 2023
Heading into the City

Augusta gets out too, and walks behind the car looking at the damage. Cosmetic, likely, but in her way of thinking that was worse somehow. Now she had to choose not to drive it and that made it an admission rather a than a fact.

"Are you alright? Did he get you too?" Her voice is soft, honestly concerned, much to her own surprise.

"No, I'm fine, I was worried about you, scared half to death and then it ... it happened again."

Melissa notes the genuine concern and doesn't understand how Augusta can be so forgiving. She knows she wouldn't be. But she's feeling a little shaky, more so then she would have expected. It must have been the vision thing.

"I saw the driver. That vision thing. It happened. He ... he deliberately targeted you. The stuff he had. Oh hell. Can we sit? I'm going to sit."

She doesn't want to get into any cars after that. Not yet, as rattled as she is.

Sitting on the curb she composes herself. "He wore an eye patch and ... oh god he had a picture of you. It looked like a selfie in .. in .. your bedroom, Augusta, or a bedroom. Your license plate, your car. It was all on his phone! Big guy, security uniform." Meliisa is trying to recall the details, seeing them in her mind's eye.

Then she turns to Augusta. "Do you think Brian hired this creep to kill you because you were an experiment gone wrong? Too powerful or something?"

ANNESBURG, 2 NOV 2023
Heading into the City

"An eyepatch and a security guard uniform. That's really useful. Did you see a name badge or an emblem for the security company? Then we'd really have him. Like today."

She clenches her fist like claws. "Seems like someone is after me, but just trying to send a message. Maybe it is Brian if he figured out I broke his muffler. Payback. Only my payback was payback for what he did, so claiming payback on my payback just starts the cycle over. Are there no rules in this society? How did you conquer the world?"

"No, I'm sorry no. I didn't see." She's shaking her head a little too much, but then she's laughing, almost hysterically. She manages to compose herself once more and takes Augusta's clenched fists in her hands.

I'll help you in any way I can. I owe you that much."

ANNESBURG, 2 NOV 2023
Heading into the City

"Don't feel that way. We're fine. And if we find out Brian is blameless in all this and you get back together with him, then maybe I'll Photoshop pictures of your face onto the bodies of chubby methheads, but I won't show anyone." She holds up fingers like 'scouts honor' but gets it wrong.

Giving Augusta's hands a squeeze, she laughs at the idea of chubby methheads wearing her face.

"Come on. I'll give you a ride home if your car won't start and we can call a tow truck."

ANNESBURG, 2 NOV 2023
Heading into the City

"It's just a bumper. I'll get home just fine, but thank you."