It Ain't Gold that Dazzles

by Gyro Steambass

Thursday Is The Worst Day

Apparently Suri comes by every Monday. She kinda looked forward to hearing how Jack would piss her of. The rest of the day went by without anything particularly exciting customers, aside from an orange girl with red hair that had looked a little familiar, though she didn’t know why.

Tuesday went similar to Monday, except for a clear lack of a certain uptight woman. Same for Wednesday.

And then it was Thursday.

---

The mood that morning felt wrong. Blackjack barely said anything, his face blank. She tried asking what was going on, but one quick look from him shut her up. It felt weird. Sure, he looked intimidating, but he was nice once you got to know him better. Very rough around the edges and sometimes more than a little rude, but nice. But now he was completely emotionless.

Instead of going to the cutting room, he went straight to the counter after turning the sign to open, and stayed there.

Adagio was watching around the corner, very curious as to what on earth was messing with Jack’s head. This kept going for about fifteen minutes. The door opened, and she saw him tense up, his hands seeming to grab the counter so tight, they might just break it into pieces. She heard the sound of high heels slowly approaching, but Jack was in the way, so she couldn’t see who they belonged to.

“Hello, Blackjack.” The voice belonged to a woman, low, sensual, sultry, intimidating, arrogant and confident. It send chills down her spine. But it didn’t scare her because of those things. No. It was because it reminded her of how she used to talk. It sounded... Evil. She took a look at Jack and noticed the veins that were bulging on his neck and arms. She had never seen someone as intimidating as Jack get this scared. It was terrifying.

“Hello, Chrysalis.” Adagio furrowed her brow. Where had she heard that name before? She leaned forward, trying to look around Jack so she could catch a glimpse of the woman in question. What she saw didn’t help matters.

She was gorgeous. She wore a dark green dress that went past her knees and had a slit down the side. She was almost as tall as Jack, her skin was smooth and black as could be, her dark green hair was flowing and went past her shoulders. She wore dark green elbow gloves and emerald earrings.

But she was as terrifying and intimidating as she was beautiful. Her eyes were dark green and filled with a maliciousness that Adagio had never seen before. The expression on her face was one of boredom and annoyance, her dark green lips forming a thin line, and Adagio finally recalled where she had heard the name Chrysalis before.

It belonged to one of the most influential woman Manehattan. Chrysalis Carapace, the leader of Changelings, a gang that was almost the Manehattan equivalent of the mafia. Why was this woman here? What did she want? She then noticed the emblem on Chrysalis’ dress. It said Changeling. And it looked eerily similar to the one the two guys who had attacked her wore on their chests.

“Oh no,” she whispered. She knew exactly why Chrysalis was here.

“So, Blackjack.” Chrysalis walked closer to him, her voice sickeningly sweet. “Can you tell me what has happened to two of my newest drones?” He swallowed, tensing up even more. “Come on, you know who I’m talking about. Plank and Shank?”

“I...” He swallowed again. “I beat them up and brought them to the cops.”

Chrysalis nodded in confirmation and got even closer to him. She brought up a hand to her chin, pretending to think. “Now, I seem to have trouble imagining why you would do something like that, Blackjack.”

“I beat them up because-” Chrysalis grabbed him by the collar and pulled his face towards hers.

“Because they were mugging a homeless girl. I know.” Chrysalis sneered as she basically spat the words into Jack’s face, her tone no longer sweet, but sour. “Now give me one good reason why I shouldn’t have you killed where you stand.”

Adagio’s eyes widened at not just the fact that Chrysalis wasn’t even a little scared of Jack, but also what Chrysalis said. She felt her rage building up. Those punks not only had the indecency to try to... to... have their way with her, but they also had the gal to lie about it?!

“Mugging?” She couldn’t help it. She was too mad.

“Hm?” Chrysalis tried to look past Jack, finally noticing the much shorter Adagio. “And you are?”

“The girl those bastards of you tried to... to...” Adagio stormed forward, getting in Chrysalis’ face for a change. She looked almost surprised at the outburst, only raising an eyebrow.

“Adagio,” Jack whispered. “Don’t do this.”

“Don’t do what?!” She turned to Jack as she yelled at him. “Ignore the fact that those bastards lied?!”

“Lied?” She let go of Jack, giving Adagio her full attention. “They would never lie to me.”

“Hah! Of course they would! They tried to... to...” Adagio stumbled over her words, tears forming in her eyes. She had tried not to think of what could’ve happened, but she couldn’t help it.

Chrysalis just looked at her, studying her. A short look of realization flashed across the tall woman’s face. “Ah. I see.” She turned and walked towards the door, leaving a stunned Blackjack and a confused Adagio behind. “Looks like I have to teach my drones some manners.”

Jack managed to find his voice again. “What do you mean?” Chrysalis stopped.

“I might be a criminal,” she glanced back. “But I will not allow rape. Murder without my consent is also met with heavy punishment.” She continued walking out the shop. “I still have standards you know.” She stopped again.

“Also, have the usual ready next week. But make it double since I’m not in the mood right now.” Jack just nodded. Chrysalis left the shop and snapped her fingers. “Follow me boys.” Two tall black skinned men with short dark green hair and dark green suits suddenly seemed to appear out of thin air. She was gone.

---

Blackjack was glaring heavily at her, his eyes narrowed and his arms crossed. She looked at the floor, knowing exactly why he was mad. She sighed.

“I almost got us killed, didn’t I.” She didn’t ask. She knew she was right.

“Ya sure did.”

“Yeah. That was pretty stupid, wasn’t it.” She still wasn’t asking.

“Yep.”

They just stood there for a few moments, until she couldn’t take it anymore. Her head snapped up, her eyes staring defiantly at his.

“I had to say something!” He didn’t blink as she yelled at him. “She was threatening to kill you because you protected me, and you expect me to do nothing?!” She didn’t notice the tears in her eyes. He did. His expression softened and he calmed down.

“No, you’re right. Ya did the right thing. It’s just...” He sighed. “Ya wanna know why I’m so scared of her?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“She can have anyone be killed at any time, without leaving any evidence of her OR her gang.” He scoffed, a grimace on his face. “Heck, she could have let someone shoot us right now and still make it look like we had an accident or had killed ourselves.”

“Oh.” She couldn’t tell how much of what Jack said was exaggerated, finally realizing the danger they were constantly in.

“I might look like a killer, but she? She’s a legitimate Killer Queen.”

“We’re lucky she has standards, don’t we.” Still not a question.

“We sure do.”

Author's Note:

I hope I pulled of showing how dangerous Chrysalis is, without making it too crazy.

Comments

[MorgothII]

uh-oh

[Putainnn]

My gosh, you sure did.
I love the theme ur going with!

[Putainnn]

Updaaaate

[HellBreaker]

Someone call the Punisher