[hr][h2][center]Sir Skeleton and [color=hotpink]Laser Girl[/color]
Pearl's Girl, Track 3
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[center][sub][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4mer81nARg]Play While Reading![/url][/sub][/center]

Laser Girl awoke to rays of sunlight painfully stabbing her closed eyelids. The bed felt suspiciously empty. She was disappointingly alone. The young woman grumbled, and rolled across the bed to retrieve the pair of mirrored sunglasses she had left on the nightstand. She hated mornings. She hated the mornings when the ecstasy had faded even more. Dramatically throwing the heavy blanket she'd been wrapped in aside, she strode into the kitchen of the hotel suit she occupied with Sir Skeleton. She didn't bother with clothes. She couldn't get a rise out of Sir Skeleton. No matter what she tried. Matters of the flesh no longer concerned him she'd concluded when biting her lip in a sultry manner failed to rouse him.

Grabbing a box of Fruit Loops from the counter, Laser Girl emptied half of the box into one of the plain white ceramic bowls she'd liberated from room service. She didn't question why a carton of milk appeared next to her, floating peacefully in the air. Nodding a silent thanks to Sir Skeleton, she poured the perfectly chilled substance over her cereal, and sat down, sans pants, on the edge of the kitchen table.

She wasn't sure where Sir Skeleton had wandered off to, but he'd left a note in his own peculiar way. The black, inhumanely perfect, and beautiful runes that covered the fridge meant something, she just wasn't sure what. Not yet. With a satisfied crunch, Laser Girl munched on a spoonful of colorful cereal as she danced across the large kitchen.

Setting her bowl of garishly bright chromatic goodness aside for the moment, she ran a hand gently over the runes. She felt a shiver run down her spine as a voice seemed to whisper in her ear.

[i]No rest for the wicked. You have a new target, Corinne Tritten. Our employer wants to send a message. Make it bright, and make it loud, please.[/i]

Humming loudly to herself, Laser Girl smiled as she rhythmically bobbed her head and shoulders. She could hear the music. She could feel the sweet, sweet one hundred forty beats per minute shuddering through her. Closing her eyes she studied that young woman that appeared in her mind courtesy of Sir Skeleton. Curls of script followed, information, so much information. Eye color, hair color, height, weight, personality assessment, history, CV, and most importantly an address.

Laser Girl felt at peace, she felt full of love. She loved loud jobs. A little bit too much, Sir Skeleton always said.

[hr][h2][center][color=goldenrod][b]Aquila[/b][/color]
Interlude 1
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"Got anything good for me, Kerensky?"

The barrel chested cop shrugged, devouring two donuts in a fell swoop, as he stoically eyed the freshly minted reporter. He closed his eyes in great concentration, and Cassy began to worry that the glacial police officer had fallen asleep before he finally replied in his rumbling voice,"Got some beat up drug dealers. One dead, one in critical condition, two severely injured."

"Gang violence?"

"Nah, doesn't look like it."

"What do you mean?" Cassy asked.

"Someone left us a note."

"A note?"

"Yeah."

"Care to elaborate?"

Kerensky shrugged again, "Said it was justice. Something about saving the Hills from criminal scumbags. "

"Perfect! Thanks Kerensky! That's just the sort of story I need!" Cassandra said, slamming a crisp five dollar bill onto the diner table as she jumped to her feet. Herman had told her to do a human interest piece. He'd said that people were tired of her doom and gloom. He said that some of his friends were complaining about the [i]questions[/i] she was asking and the [i]insinuations[/i]she was making about respected members of the community. She wasn't going to listen. Not this time. Not after yet another week of bullshit feel good stories that she'd help feed, spoon by spoon to the apathetic masses. Herman could fire her if he wanted, but she was back on the beat, the real beat. She was going to turn the mirror on Santa Celia, she was going to show everyone the world of darkness that lurked just beneath the surface. 

She was going to find the truth. She was going to show them the truth, keystroke by keystroke.

She could see the next headlines in her head already: [b][i]Vigilante Strikes Again in the Hills! One dead, three injured. Police Remain Clueless.[/i][/b]