Of Gods and Men

Listening as she complained about the idiots that ran the car lock up, James found himself agreeing, although he likely wasn’t as well versed in cars as she was he knew enough to tinker with the ute that he used on hunts. It was a good way to store his various weapons and ammunition although it wasn’t exactly built for speed, still, it had a few ‘upgrades’ that weren’t exactly legal, able to pick up on the annoyance at having her car impounded an idea came to him. About to speak when she commented once more making him laugh, leaning his head back as he did so it was a few moments before the man grew slightly more serious and ceased laughing “I have some influence over them, I could potentially work it so your little car is left virtually untouched” she amused him as she’d said and it’d been a while since he’d had any real fun that wasn’t hunting and she promised to be someone that could provide him with some entertainment. Ever the sociopath he was prone to using people for his own benefit and then dumping them so this woman was no different, once she became boring he’d lose interest and move onto somebody else. Naturally, the offer would come at a price, for now, a favour which meant more fun down the line, taking a step closer so he was just out of reach the blond man quirked a brow waiting to hear if she’d take the bait.

He couldn’t help his smirk “I hate being bored and you seem like a sure fire way to not be bored. In order to create some Chaos for a simple favour I’ll allow you out of your cage, to be cashed in one day at my leisure” it was hard to say whether or not she was going to accept his offer or not. From the paperwork it seemed that she was due to be stuck in jail until she faced charges, plenty of time for her to think about his tempting offer, it was always handy to have another creature owing you even if you hadn’t decided what the favour would be yet. The wind outside started to pick up, finally following up the weather reports that had claimed it was going to rain all day, the noise of rain started to batter the roof of the building they were in, keeping eye contact without flinching away the man slipped his hands into his pockets and glanced up briefly when the light fixed to the cracked ceiling flickered. None of his ‘comrades’ understood what he was doing in such a dump when he could have chosen to be anywhere in the city, there was so much more danger in this area of the city than some of the better districts. They didn’t get that he loved the danger, the risk, it was fun and the confrontations with people, plenty of people in this area didn’t trust the police and that didn’t bother him in the slightest, with the right kind of persuasion anyone could be won over.

He grinned, quite pleased that once again he was being proven right in that she was going to be fun “If they ask you pickpocketed me” pulling a key out of his pocket he reached over and held it out for her to take. Once she had he wandered back to the desk and scribbled a quick note on a notepad and passed it to her “Show it to the greasies and they’ll free your zippy little car from prison as well, off you scoot” he didn’t ask for the key back very aware that she was going to end up in jail again at some point so she might as well keep the key for emergencies if she thought about hiding it in places where they wouldn’t usually search. Watching her trot out he commented “See ya around tiger” he didn’t see her again for several weeks as he’d been too busy to go to any of the race meets and he was fairly certain that she wouldn’t be racing anyway as she’d be rebuilding her car. Walking along the pavement one evening with nothing better to do than make trouble, ugh bored bored bored, he was so sick of being bored, seriously considering breaking into someone's house, stealing and then setting the place on fire he’d also started looking for someone to mug.  

Hearing a car pull up behind him he didn’t have time to do more than just glance at the brightly coloured car when a familiar voice reached his ears, grinning he retorted “Not if I wolf whistle first tiger, taking the girl out for a test drive after rebuilding it? I thought that might be why the streets were so quiet” wondering if she was up for some sort of mischief and that’s why she’d pulled over he turned to peer into the car. Shoving his hands into his pockets and rocking back onto his heels whilst waiting for her reply, with her car back on the roads it seemed that things around here were finally starting to get interesting thank Christ. His ‘fellow’ cops hadn’t been that pleased when they’d found out that she and her car had gone missing and it’d been awfully entertaining to look them in the eye and deduce that she simply must have pickpocketed him and forged some documents, perhaps when he’d gone to get some doughnuts to nibble on.

Snickering quietly when she commented James couldn’t quite help his response “Poor harassed man” at the offer he perked up a little “You don’t have to ask me twice” moving around to get in the passengers side he closed the door and mused to himself for a moment “You’ve made some definite upgrades but you’re missing a few things, I could offer some however I don’t have them on me at the moment. What a shame” the only thing that could make this more fun than it was going to be was naturally some illegally obtained equipment, a police flashing light used on undercover cars of which he had some spare. A radio to listen in on police air ways and a siren were the only two other things that came to his mind, he left it up to her whether or not she wished to hear more, he was just the passenger strapped in for the joy of the ride and she was the driver. It wasn’t often that he’d let someone else take control of where they were going or what they were doing but he was bored, and he did all kinds of things when he was bored, noticing that there was a distinct lack of a roll cage despite the crash he shook his head a little to himself an amused smirk adorning his features. Fairly certain that he had a spare siren that he’d ‘acquired’ rather recently and radios were easy he had several spare, he merely waited despite wanting to go and do it right away to maximise the fun capacity not really giving too much of his thoughts away, ready to go.

His usual smirk remained on his face, instead of answering the question he gave her an address, once they were there he got out and wandered into the storage facility, coming back with the silently promised siren and lights. Getting back in he stuck the lights to the dash and passed her the lights assuming that she knew enough of what she was doing to be able to install that without him having to lift a finger “Lets go then, I’m in dire need of some real fun” it was only a matter of time before he turned dastardly and started unleashing havoc and chaos, with the need to stay entertained all the time it was hardly surprising that some of his reactions to cause fun were illegal. Flicking his gaze from her to the road he appeared quite comfortable there as if he’d spent plenty of time in a small car like hers, so far he liked her, she was fun even if that meant that later on he might get in some trouble but that was nothing new. He didn’t particularly care about her, just the fun she could provide, everything else didn’t matter to him, the fact that he was a cop or that she was doing illegal races and he’d helped her out.

once in the car he appeared perfectly content with a grin plastered over his face particularly when things grew more dangerous. Admittedly he had become more and more of an adrenaline junky after he’d been experimented on and turned into a very minor shadow master, he still bore Ices brand on the back of his shoulder although it was fairly well healed now, he didn’t regret escaping from her life was much more fun free after all. When the radio still on him crackled to life he lifted it and reported a false break in on the other side of the city sending a few units there meaning that the streets they were careering around at top speed. Eventually after a few hours of gleefully skidding around the alleyways of the city the creature he was with seemed to grow tired and slowed down heading back to where she’d picked him up “Well it was better than seeing how high prisoners can jump when I shoot at their feet” not in the mood to walk home instead he continued “my place isn’t far, I have a beer or two to spare” honestly she wasn’t that bad company although it meant some of his enemies would potentially take interest in her and take her in an attempt to manipulate him. That bothered him not, after all he didn’t get attached to people she was a means to have fun and that was it he wasn’t interested in her in any other way apart from perhaps an occasional friends with benefits moment.

Directing her back to his place, a rather modest place that was kept very ordered and somewhat clean, getting out he unlocked the front door and headed in, vanishing into the garage and returning with a couple of beers. Offering her one he popped the top off of his and took a deep drink before meandering into the kitchen intent on finding something to eat, there was left over nacho chips from the night before so he dug the packet out of the pantry and wandered back out and offered her the bag for her to reach into if she was hungry. Not usually one to ask practically strangers back to his place unless he was intent on capturing them he leaned back against the bench, settling the bag down on the bench once she’d taken what she wanted, looking completely relaxed James grinned “That was fun, we should do it again some time” there was nothing like getting the kick of breaking the rules he was paid to uphold, it was fun and gave him the adrenaline rush that he enjoyed so.

He liked keeping people guessing as to what he was, he had no idea what she was but that didn’t really bother him, he hadn’t been paid to find out and capture her. Over the next year he wound up building a sort of friendship with Mia, he was someone who had many acquaintances and very few friends, so it was something that he was enjoying but didn’t expect to last much longer. Good things rarely lasted long when they did come his way, returning home from a careering drive throughout the city with Mia, having already said good night to her when his phone rang, James answered it and listened. Snorting when he was told he was hunting a good, he didn’t bother trying to explain that gods weren’t real, they were just over powered creatures, reassuring the man on the phone that he would capture the creature and bring it to them. Spending the next few days collecting all of the information he could, frowning to himself when he realized that the creature he had been paid to catch was the woman who had become a friend of sorts, there was no question that he was going to capture her but the question was how. It didn’t take him long to put together how he would do it, she owed him a favour so he would cash in on it, what happened to her after that wasn’t any of his business, arranging to meet with Mia later in the week he turned up at the meeting spot with his hands in his pockets leaning against his ute.

Looking a little amused at the swearing at inanimate objects he shrugged at the question, watching her “I’m actually here to cash in on that favour” he had some flame vine with him that he had braided tightly around the metal of some handcuffs. Taking them out of his pocket he held them up “Nothing personal, a jobs a job” he studied her “I’m happy to wait until you’ve finished there” remaining surprisingly pleasant he didn’t say much else. If she asked questions he would likely answer them as he had said there was nothing personal it was just because he was being paid a large sum of money for a ‘god’ sure she was overwhelmingly powerful but he knew her well enough to suspect that she would go along with it for the fact that she owed him a favour. If not well, then he’d misjudged her and he was about to die, however he was no coward, death didn’t frighten him although he would fight to survive as anyone would.

Her response just caused him to smirk “You owe me, this is how you repay the debt” she was quiet for a while which didn’t bother him, he would wait until she’d finished tinkering with the little car, “Carl Swanson, he owns a lovely little place a bit of a drive from here” folding his arms he leaned against the door frame watching her still slightly off from normal which was the only indication that perhaps there was something else going on underneath he was ignoring. He was going to do the job, he was going to be paid a massive amount for her because some idiot thought she was an actual god, she was just a freakishly strong creature to him, gods weren’t real and she certainly was no god. There were so many stories of creation and so many gods that he refused to believe they were anything more than human fantasy, there were so many conflicting stories of how the world was made that he had decided it was just some stupid humans that had come up with ways to explain things they didn’t understand and had decided to use divine gods to explain it all. What she did after he dropped her off wasn’t his concern, she was smart enough that she would probably free herself and then potentially come after him but that didn’t really bother him either.

He didn’t say much more before he turned and headed back to get himself one of the promised beers, returning with it he shrugged and gave up the rest of the information readily “ estate Coleccionista, two days drive north of here. A big open estate where Senor Carlito Perez lives, he comes from a long line of creature hunters that over the centuries turned their hunting into collecting menageries of creatures instead of killing them” she’d been around a long time he assumed that she likely would have heard of the family, they went back several centuries and could trace their history all the way back to Spain before the Spanish had reached what was now known as Mexico. Opening the beer and taking a sip of the cool liquid he sighed contentedly and leaned back against the wall rather comfortable there, the family were well known for being intelligent and very good at keeping their collection from escaping or dying, despite keeping the creatures caged the ones that behaved were very well cared for and wanted for nothing but their freedom. The small part of him that didn’t want to do this was squashed and ignored, he was being offered a substantial amount of money and he had no attachments to anyone, she was just some light entertainment, he didn’t have friends didn’t need them either in no rush to take her now or force her to hurry up with fixing the car he instead slowly went through her stock of beer. Thankfully the small part of himself that was doubting this whole deal was indeed minuscule and almost non-existent which meant he wouldn't have to do some serious self sorting out.