GTA: The Ballad of Rainbow Dash
Chapter 10: The Bad Touch
(Hove beach – Lloyd’s Adult Emporium)
Niko looked at the address. Well over six years ago he had been here making sure that the men who ran this place were paying Mr. Faustin as they agreed to. Now, now he was here again, but this time it was for a complaint one of the girls that worked at the Triangle Club had given Dwayne. Niko knew that the girl was smart enough to go ahead and contact Dwayne personally.
He walked down the stairs to the store and could hear rhythmic thumping coming from behind the closed door. That was part of the complaint. The new owners were still making porn, but they were getting some of the family of the girls who worked at the club. He wasn’t sure what it was they were doing exactly, but the girls didn’t want the police called in on it. They didn’t want their family dragged through the mud in order to fix this, and the police would do that. They would drag everything out into the light of day. That’s when Dwayne asked him for a favor.
He took a breath and then kicked the door in. It swung open and he could see a shaggy blonde haired guy standing near the door.
“Hey man, look this is a closed set. The Emporium is closed, and you’re going to fucking owe us a brand new door asshole,” he said.
Niko kicked his leg forward and caught him in the stomach. The shaggy guy bent over and the next kick landed on his chin. He watched as the shaggy blonde crumpled to the floor and walked past him. He pulled his pistol and looked at two middle aged men with a girl dressed up in a cheer leader’s uniform between them. They stopped what they were doing for a moment.
“Hey, what the hell do you think that you are doing?!” someone yelled.
“I’m closing down your porn making business,” he replied.
The man walked closer and Niko pointed the gun at him.
“Woah fella, look, I’m sure we could work something out. I mean, have you ever thought about being in the movies? We could do a stranger in a strange land kind of movie with you,” the same man said.
“I don’t like being filmed,” he said, “You,” he pointed to the girl, “Get out and rethink your life.”
“Amber sweetie don’t leave!” one of the men said.
She turned and looked back at him.
“Go now,” Niko said.
She took off up the stairs and he looked at them.
“This is closed as of today. If I hear a single word of it being open again I will come back here and I will end you,” he said.
The obvious director, a balding man with a grunge fetish, stepped toward him. Niko didn’t wait another second. He pulled the trigger on the pistol and shot him through the kneecap. The other two looked dumbfounded for a moment. One of them started to move, and found himself looking down a barrel.
“Man, I swear I won’t work here again,” he said.
Niko studied them for a moment.
“Just one word about this still happening, and I will return,” he said.
He turned and walked out the door and up the steps. Once he got up there he saw the girl sitting on the curb.
“My big sister sent you huh?” she asked.
“Possibly, but to be honest I am not sure. A friend asked me to handle this,” he said.
“Yeah, it was Monique. Well, that’s her stage name. I still call her Candice,” Amber replied.
“Why were you doing this?” he asked.
“We need the money, and I knew that they would pay me something. Besides, it’s kind of hard to find a job around here,” she answered.
“If you’re old enough to do porn there are other jobs,” he replied.
“Yeah, I kind of lied about my age,” she said.
He turned and looked at her. She shrugged her shoulders and looked across the road.
“Just how old are you?” he asked.
“Old enough,” she answered.
“Seriously, you should go home. This is not the kind of life for anyone,” he said standing up.
“What like you’re a saint or something?” she asked.
“No, but I know that you don’t need this,” he replied.
“Yeah? That’s great except that I’m the only one who can work. Sis works, but she’s says that she’s putting herself through school, and mom… All she does is pop a lot of pain pills and have uncle Hank through Frank come around and do whatever so she can get more of them. If I don’t work then we don’t have food, water, or anything else,” Amber said.
He shook his head and looked up at the sky for a moment.
“Where do you live?” he asked.
“Bohan, the Valentine Apartments on Alcatraz Avenue, that’s where I live. It’s the only place that’s cheap enough,” she said.
Niko knew the street. He had lived in Bohan with Roman for a while, and where she was talking about was about as bad as that shitty neighborhood.
“Are you able to get to Xenotime Street?” he asked.
“Sure, why?” she asked.
“Have you waited tables?” he asked.
“What are you going on about?” she asked.
“I own a business there, a pancake house, they are needing a waitress. It has to be better than doing this,” he answered.
“You’re offering me a job? You just saw me taking it in the…” she started before he glared at her.
“Okay, you saw me doing what I was doing and you’re going to offer me a job?” she asked.
“Yes, I’m going to offer you a job. You want to work, I have work, and it is a job,” he said.
“Not to be insulting, but what does it pay?” she asked.
“Enough so you won’t have to do this anymore,” he answered.
She got up and looked toward the steps leading down into the makeshift porn studio.
“Yeah, my ride was down there and I don’t think that I’m going to get it back home… Actually, I don’t think that I’m going to be able to get one to this job either… Well, Monique might let me stay with her. She lives on Algonquin… would you mind to give a ride to my sis’ place?” she asked.
“Sure, why not,” he said.
He got up and walked to his Dukes. She looked at the large muscle car and got inside of it. It rumbled to life and he dropped it into gear. The tires squealed as they took off. He turned around, barely missing a parked, and rusting, purple Uranus. Amber quickly buckled her seatbelt as he headed toward the bridge connecting Broker to Algonquin.
“Where does your sister live?” he asked.
“She lives in the blocks. Like I said she’s paying her way through school,” Amber said.
“Fair enough,” Niko replied.
The moment they crossed the bridge he took a right toward North Algonquin. He knew the blocks pretty well. Dwayne had lived there for a while, but finally he decided to go ahead and move into a small house instead. It was an improvement over the dingy apartment, but from what the girl said the blocks was an improvement over where she had lived.
It didn’t take too long before he pulled up beside the huge apartment complex. She sat there for a moment and then smiled at him.
“Ummm… Do you mind if I borrow your phone? I kind of forgot mine back at that place,” she said.
He handed her the phone and leaned back as she dialed.
“Come on, come on pick up, pick up,” she said as she drummed her fingers on the dashboard, “Candice? Okay, okay, Monique. Yeah, this is Amber. No, no I’m fine. Yeah, I wanted to know if I could stay with you for a while.”
She waited and then another smile broke out across her face.
“You’re the best sis. Oh, I got a job, no, not that kind. Well, it’s a pancake house. No, I don’t know about mom. I haven’t been home in a week. I… I don’t know what she’s doing, but I guess that she’s strung out on pills again,” Amber said as she looked down at her knees, “I know. I want to feel bad about it too, but she’s done this a thousand times before. It’s just gotten worse after Dad died. Look, I’m heading up there,” she hung up the phone and looked at him, “Thanks.”
She gave him a hug and he sat surprised that she had. After all he had busted in earlier with a gun, but then again what did he know about women and girls. One of the few things Roman had ever said that made any kind of sense was that there was no making any sense of a woman. There was just loving them.
He waited to make sure that she made it to the building and then began to speed off. A moment later his phone rang and he answered it.
“ljubavi,” he said, “What is it?”
He listened as she told him about the adventure at the spa, and the suggestion of working security. He thought for a moment and then smiled.
“It would not be that hard to do this job. I have worked security before, for different people, and we could include Little Jacob. He could help make sure that you have what you need,” he suggested.
She paused a moment and then agreed.
“Do you need me to pick you up? No? Okay. What playground are you talking about?” he asked.
(Bohan – Valentine Apartments – Alcatraz Avenue – Apartment 406B)
“Please… Please don’t,” a voice begged in the dark.
“My boss said we had to keep you, but he didn’t say that we had to treat you nice… Pinkie,” a tall gangly Eastern European man said.
He walked toward her and lifted her up. Like herself he wasn’t from here. He had been from that other world, from Equestria, or at least a kingdom near it. It had been easy to find her, after he was hired of course, and even easier to fool her. Being a changeling gave him all kinds of advantages. The fact that she had a crush on somepony called Big Macintosh had only made his job easier.
Telling her that he was interested in her, that he wanted to date her, and then having her show him all over until finally they entered the basement, but that had almost ended it. The clone was already there. He had been told about it, but she started to get confused. He turned into his natural state and her hair deflated. She tried to run, but he was far too quick for her. A little nip and he drained some of her energy out of her.
He loved her fear. It was so sweet. It tasted like cake frosting, and it only made him want her to feel it more. He followed his job, crossing over into this world, finding those who had been approached as well, and getting the apartment. It was perfect.
All he had to do now was break her down. He walked toward her and saw her twisting her pink hair into tight strands.
“Please, please don’t…” she begged again.
He slapped her hard.
“You don’t even know do you? Your friends are never going to find you, and even if they could… they wouldn’t want to. That other you has made sure it. You are all alone, with me, Pinkie Pie, and I’m going to enjoy every, last, minute of this,” he said as he grabbed her and pulled her up to him
He pushed her hard against the wall, and the next thing he heard was the wonderful screams coming from her to stop.