[center] [hr][hr] [img]https://i.pinimg.com/originals/45/4a/fb/454afb4d0581b0baadfa33e02d71f9aa.jpg[/img][/center] [right][h2][color=7ea7d8]Brenda and Paco star in...The Runaway: Issue #7[/color][/h2][url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/4726090]Previous Issue[/url][/right] [hr][hr] [b]Washington, D.C Three Days Later[/b] [i]"♫I see your red door and I want it painted black...♫"[/i] The parking lot for Tito's Pawn Shop was barren, save for a single white van pulled up in front of the store. [i]Paint it Black[/i] blared through the rolled down windows at maximum volume, the voice of Mick Jagger rolling across the street and beyond. A bulky figure with broad shoulders and a chest like a barrel sat in the passengers seat, his meaty fingers stabbing away at the laptop resting against the dashboard. "Dreeessed in their summer cloothes-" He half mumbled, half sung under his breath, his head swaying to the beat of the song. Paco Tejas slipped a hand away from the keyboard just long enough to pluck up the partially cold coffee cup from beside him. There was an obnoxious pressure in the back of his head as he finished gulping down the liquid fuel and tossed the cup to the floor. He had to be on his fourth shot of caffeine by now; it made for a poor substitute for sleep, but neither he nor Brenda had gotten the chance ever since Jaime was abducted. Paco had been an emotional wreck since he learned Reyes hadn't escaped. While the casualty list hadn't included his name, it wasn't like him to not at least try to let Paco know that he was alright. If Jaime wasn't picking up his phone- and he wasn't, Paco had called him a hundred times- then something had truly gone wrong. Three days of radio silence was bad, but just how [i]wrong[/i] it had gone wasn't fully revealed until Paco stumbled across grainy security camera footage on vigilante.net in his search for more information on the incident. It was almost too much for Paco to wrap his head around. Some kinda...monster...had stolen his best friend's skin and used him to murder a bunch of people. He wouldn't have believed it if he hadn't seen it with his own two eyes. Brenda wasn't nearly as phased when he showed it to her. It was her idea to try and find Jaime themselves, rather than relying on the cops- she'd never been one to trust them. Paco had reluctantly agreed to go with her once he realized how serious she was about it. They'd sneaked away from the rest of their school group, rented a van from some guy Brenda swore her aunt knew, and started off on their rescue mission. Or they would have, if they had any idea where Jaime was. Thankfully it seemed like Paco was finally making some headway in his investigation as he clicked away. A number of people had claimed to have seen a creature matching the appearance of the museum monster. Some of them had to be false- like the one about it being in Metropolis- but another looked to have some promise. A portrait video shot on a smartphone showed Jaime's body snatcher holding a terrified man by the neck beside beside a small crater. Though no location was given, it didn't take Paco more than two minutes to find the account's IP address. "Baltimore?" That was maybe a little over an hour from D.C. It wasn't much to go off of, he had to admit, but it wouldn't stop him. Paco pulled up google street view and started combing through some of the areas that matched the backdrop of the phone footage. It was like trying to find a needle in a haystack, except Paco wasn't quite sure what the needle looked like, the haystack was actually massive city, and if he didn't find the needle soon then the needle would be dead. How was he going to explain [i]that[/i] to the needle's parents when they got back to El Paso? Still, he had to try. "Come on, Jaime, where are you?" He sighed, leaning back into his chair. It'd be a thousand times easier to find out where Jaime and his kidnapper had gone if he wasn't on the clock. He had about as much time to find out where they needed to go as it took Brenda to finish buying whatever it was she needed from the pawn shop, plus the hour long drive to actually [i]get[/i] to Baltimore. He had to pray it was enough. Thankfully for him, Brenda didn't appear to be in a rush. Paco brought his hands up to his face, rubbing the sleepfulness from his eyes. A field of patchy stubble stabbed into his palms from his full, rounded cheeks, reminding him once more that he'd forgotten to take a razor when he packed for their trip. Almost as if on cue, the doors to Tito's Pawn Shop flew open, smashing up against the wall with an incredible bang that made him jump. A teenager with fiery hair stepped out, her face contorted in anger and a large case slung over her shoulder. The voice of a man screaming in Spanish coming from behind her managed to rise above the pounding of the music, his words filled with an intense vitriol that was easily recognized even if Paco couldn't understand a bit of it. Brenda Del Vecchio spun around, her crimson locks flinging over her shoulder as she delivered an equally ferocious string of words that made Paco wince. A girl of that size shouldn't have lungs that big nor a voice that terrifying. He slunk back into his seat, trying to pretend he hadn't just witnessed the tail end of whatever that was even as Brenda marched back to the van with a look of utter scorn etched onto her freckled features. The driver's side door was thrown open with even more force than the pawn shop's had suffered under. Climbing into her seat, Brenda unslung the case from over her shoulder and shoved it into Paco's lap. Right when it looked like she was going to tone it down, Brenda suddenly stood, leaning partially out of the door. "Go to hell you limp-dicked bastard!" She screeched, her fist shaking at the man even as the doors of his store glided shut. Finally the girl fell back into her seat, stewing in her anger and frustration in a palpiable silence. After waiting a safe three minutes, Paco reached forward to turn down the music before he cleared his throat and turned his tentative gaze over to his other best friend. "So, uh...what was that all about?" He hazarded to ask, half expecting to get an ear-full. A violent glare was shot in his direction, though thankfully it gave way with a tired, exasperated sigh. "Sorry, Pac." Brenda apologized quietly. "I didn't mean to take that long, but that..." She bit down on her tongue, swallowing the choice words she wanted to spit out. "...Guy..was giving me shit. Boatloads of shit." She reached over, plucking up the weighted case with surprising strength, moving it back into the next row of seats. "Ah." Paco pretended that was somehow a viable explanation of everything that had gone down, but he wisely chose not to pry. Instead, he focused his attention on whatever it was she'd spent so long trying to acquire from 'Tito.' "So what's in the case?" He asked, pointing his eyes back toward the object. She shrugged. "Insurance." Vague and cryptic, two words that fit Brenda like a snug jacket. "Now, please tell me that you know where we're going?" His cheeks flashed red as Paco went to rub the back of his neck. "Well, uh..." "Pac..." "No, no! I know where to go!" He brought his hands up in front of his chest defensively. "Sort of. I got an IP address that leads back to Baltimore, but I gotta find the exact neighborhood manually." She sighed, reaching up to grasp the bridge of her nose. "You're telling me nobody's talking about the [i]alien[/i] they saw land in their backyard?" It was his turn to shrug. "With the guy on the surfboard beating up superheroes in Central City, it's not exactly a slow news day. Who's gonna bother talking to one of the millions of people that [i]totally, definitely[/i] saw a monster." Brenda rolled her eyes. She didn't like it, but she had to concede that he had a point. "Well, at least we've got a direction." The van sputtered and groaned as she turned the key, only roaring to life after the third try. "Just...find me an address, Pac, okay? Jaime's been missing for way too long." Brenda cast her eyes toward her lap, her voice losing it's strength and tapering off as the full weight of it came down on her shoulders. Paco reached over and placed a soft hand on her arm. "We'll find him." He stated confidently. "Jaime's tough. He'll make it through this. Once this is all over, we can go back home and get those burgers he really hates. It'll be just like old times." The two shared a small chuckle, the tension of the moment stolen away by memories of a world before everything was turned on it's head. As they started out of the lot, Paco reached forward to turn the music back up. The fury of [i]Rage Against the Machine[/i] played on full volume, blaring out of the rolled down windows even as they got out onto the road. [i]"♫Killin' in the name of!♫"[/i] The parking lot for Tito's Pawn Shop was barren, save for a single figure draped in black that stood in front of the store.