Crush Hour/Crush Hour's Story

Devil Night's Syndicate HQ

"Crush? You ever been in love?"

The question took her by surprise. This place, these people... it was the last place she had expected to be asked a question like that. She leaned back, letting the water of the hot tub soak and warm her body for a few moments, then answered.

"... Good question. Maybe. Once. Why?"

Lance... Threshold looked her in the eyes.

"I ask things like that out the blue...I think it's like being guided by...something. I do it often. So...have you?"

Crush looked back down into the pool. "Yeah."

He smiled at the short answer. "Don't want to talk about it?"

He could see through it of course, but what it meant was still anyone's guess. Did he seek to open up a puzzle? Exploit a weakness? Crush didn't know, and at the moment, didn't particularly care.

"How old were you?"

Crush looked across the rippling water at Blade. She was a little thing, but then again, who wasn't compared to her?

"Seventeen maybe. Kids when we met."

"And for point of reference, how old are you now?"

"Older."

Blade regarded her for a long moment. "Wild guess, but you don't look a day over twenty-four."

Thresh smiled. "She's a baby-face. It's the eyes and lips."

Crush took a long drink, emptying her glass. "I work out too. Maybe you noticed." Her quiet laugh took any hostility from the statement, and Blade chuckled. Crush was close to eight feet tall and had a body like an amazon goddess. One of the tougher ones.

Thresh brought her back to the subject with another question. "Who courted who?"

Another long moment as Crush gathered her thoughts. She didn't usually do this, but why hold back now?

"It was a little different. Grew up outside of Detroit. Had a couple friends. Guy and another chick... girl. We hung out a lot. Kind of a "forever friends" thing. But I dunno... it just sort of happened. All three of us kind of just started feeling it."

Blade looked up, curious. "Attracted to each other?"

Thresh closed his eyes and smiled, leaning back and letting himself sink lower in the hot water. "Very unconventional, it's lovely."

Crush sighed and stared down into the water, watching the reflection of the soft overhead lights as they rippled and danced.

"Control the pain. Don't let it control you."

Blade's command brought Crush's head up. For a moment the replies warred in her mind; denial, anger, agreement, and even a brief flare of resorting to something more physical and violent. After a moment the storm passed, and Crush simply nodded.

"We had big ideas about how we could all be together. How love wasn't something that should be exclusive. How you could have more than one true love. We had to go separate ways for a while. They stayed together, I stayed in 'lovely' rural Michigan. We lost touch for a little bit. A year or so. We were all trying to find a way for us to stay together, and in all the chaos, we lost track. Nobody's fault. Right?"

Thresh nodded slightly. "Seems like it."

"We had a plan. If we ever lost each other, we'd meet each other in Paragon on my birthday. Steps of City Hall, noon. ... 'Cept they weren't there."

Thresh shifted in the water, pulling himself to a sitting position and focusing totally on the giantess and her story.

"Three hours later I got picked up by the cops on a 'rioting' charge." Crush shrugged, sending ripples through the pool. "I figured I'd get their attention if I did some weightlifting at the Porsche dealership. Get my name in the paper, they'd find me. And it felt good, cutting loose like that. Felt fun... not to give a damn about the rules. I was on a mission, dammit." She laughed at the memory of her first criminal act. "That's about when everything went to shit."

Blade finished her drink and moved closer to Thresh, the two of them giving Crush their full attention.

"Folks came to pick me up the next day. They drove all night to come bail me out of jail. Except they brought a big stack of letters with them. All opened." She winced and splashed water over her shoulders and arms. "Bet you can guess where this is going."

Threshold nodded slowly and spoke very softly, "Yes...tell me anyway."

"My folks thought they were looking out for me. 'Best interests.' 'protecting' me. 'Unnatural lifestyle'. They'd known something was up forever, but never wanted to confront me about it. So they pulled this... whatever you want to call it. My friends... They didn't see me on my birthday because they weren't able to... they'd been trying to find a way for all three of us to be together."

Blade twitched. Whether at the blatant naivete or at the intrusion and manipulation by her parents, Crush didn't know. Thresh's gaze and demeanor had become more and more intense, almost entranced by her story. He shifted again, draping an arm over Blade as they moved closer together.

"She wanted to do things by the book. She never wanted to break the law, right? She really believed that good people didn't have to be afraid of being hurt or persecuted. He was a little more ... pragmatic. He tried to find the loopholes. So there I was, in jail, then in the car, then at home, reading these letters about how they knew they couldn't find a church or a judge in the world..." Crush trailed off and sighed. "She wanted us to be married. Honest to God married... " Another sigh, quiet and resigned. "Stupid, stupid, stupid... I believed in it too. Read the bible. Don't know if I believed it, but I read it. Didn't see any problem with what we wanted. The new covenant was supposed to be all about love. Should've known it wouldn't be so fucking easy..."

Blade watched Thresh's face a moment, studying it closely before letting her gaze settle back on Crush.

"She put her heart into those hopes and dreams. You could see it, even in the letters, and it was killing him to see her frustrated over and over. She thought good people with true love could overcome anything, and here was everyone else stomping all over that idea... so he tried to find someplace where the law wasn't so goddamn puritan."

Thresh blinked, still listening, but obviously lost in thought as well. Blade shifted slightly, changing positions but listening intently.

"So they tried to get somewhere else. Anyplace else. Make it someplace where things were a little more free."

Thresh gave a sound halfway between a cough and a growl. "Free." He made the word sound like a curse.

"Except all their questioning and calling and trying to find a new place to live put them up on somebody's watch list. Pretty soon you've got everyone from the FBI to Longbow knocking on the door. And since I was a registered Meta, and they were associating with me, that brought the FBSA down on them. They were getting a pretty big file just for asking questions, and it started following them around... Land of the free and all that." Crush took a deep breath and pushed on.

"They didn't have much money because suddenly they had a record and nobody was hiring, so they were doing everything on the cheap. Saving up to fly me out when they found a place. First part of the trip was by boat. Booked a couple cots on a tanker. Captain wasn't about to turn down extra money for the cost of some extra meals. Ever heard of the Cairo Queen?"

Blade nodded slightly. "It sounds familiar."

Crush nodded. "It's that wreck off of Port Oakes."

Thresh sighed lightly in sympathy as Blade looked up at Crush. "The oil tanker?"

Crush nodded again. "Yeah. Shitty conditions, but the price was right, and the paperwork was conveniently ignored. Pretty good trip until somebody got his ass punched through the hull. 'All crew accounted for.' Report didn't say shit about any passengers. Funny, right? They paid extra to avoid being on any lists, manifests, you know." She trailed off, working her jaw back and forth.

Thresh gave a disconcerting smile. "Funny how the only thing that makes sense is that nothing makes sense."

Crush ignored him and pushed on, words tumbling out faster. "And it all happened because someone was embarrassed that someone else was living a life they didn't approve of. If I'd known... if I'd gotten the letter sooner... if I knew what was going on..." She paused, gathering herself up and continuing at her more measured pace.

"So I said 'fuck it'. Got a little wild. I'd fight or screw anything or anyone in my way. Got put away for twenty-five to forty at the Zig after one of my playdates got rowdy. That lasted less than a month."

Blade dropped her gaze to the surface of the water, letting the sound of the pump fight the silence in the room. After a moment, she looked back up and nodded.

Crush looked up at the ceiling, letting the words come from somewhere deep inside. "Now..." She shrugged. "Now it's about people. Lose the bullshit. Lose the little status symbols. Fall in love with someone. Live while you can. Don't chain yourself down with meaningless shit." She smiled. "It's like the first time I made it personal... The look... the absolute pain on the face of that Mustang owner... she was ready to cry when I started ripping it up. But the more damage I did... the more..." She trailed off and smiled. "God... I can't describe it. She looked grateful."

Threshold smiled and nodded. "Blade, this Girl is one of us...for real." He turned to face Crush. "Bishop... you'll have your new orders and new toys soon enough." He turned and kissed Blade on the cheek. "She is going to do well here."

Blade smiled and kissed his nose softly. "Yes she will. I just feel it."