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 Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2022 8:16 pm
Dorian— Jasper. Jasper gave it thirty minutes, then went in search of Ilian Jones.
Carnallite took her drink and left, said she had work the next day and wasn’t interested in watching Jasper make a fool of himself. Roselite needed time to recover. Jasper did, too, but he ignored it, making his way down the halls, following the path Bloodstone sent him on. The hour was late. Jasper didn’t even know if Ilian Jones would still be there. Bloodstone claimed he was, said he could feel it.
Jasper felt a lot of things. His senses seemed to be going haywire. Everywhere he turned there was a new sensation along the edges of his awareness. Some were weak, others less so. Auras, Bloodstone called them. He said Jasper would know a General King by their aura. It was dark and immense, like nothing he would have ever felt before.
He was right.
The more prudent part of Jasper — the one very much aware that he was in a strange place among strange people, dealing with things he didn’t entirely understand — thought perhaps he should proceed with caution.
Unfortunately, it was almost entirely drowned out by the part of him fuming about the amount of s**t his younger brother had been drawn into. Now that he was here, now that he’d seen it, now that he knew, he could say with certainty that this was no place for a fifteen year old. (Nevermind that Ilian would have been even younger, if the suspected timeline was correct. Clearly, all of this was Ilian’s fault to begin with.)
He found the correct door, and the heavy, terrible aura behind it. Instead of knocking to announce himself or request an audience with the General King, Jasper burst through the door.
“Ilian Jones,” he said.
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Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2022 8:25 pm
“You can call me General King Jet,” he said in response to the sudden burst through his door by a Lieutenant that he’d never met before. If this was someone he was supposed to know, he had no knowledge of them. He didn’t even know who this person was -- and he’d spent a lot of time reviewing the information in the databases to make sure he recognized their agents.
Eyes narrowed on the man. He had given his identity to only a select few -- primarily his recruits so they knew how to get in touch with him as civilians, or simply because he met them as a civilian. For this man to come in with his name ready to be thrown at him, well… he obviously wanted something.
“I seem to be at a disadvantage. I don’t know who you are,” he frowned as he remained seated at his desk, but he pushed the reports he’d been working on to the side.
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Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2022 8:29 pm
“I’ll call you whatever I damn well please,” Jasper said.
The last time he’d seen Ilian Jones, Ilian had been a boy of sixteen. He came to the house covered in cuts and bruises — sometimes through the front door, when the hour seemed to warrant it, sometimes through Leigh’s window, when they were trying to be more secretive. (That they assumed Dorian had no clue served to prove their immaturity. Of course he heard them, even if he couldn’t interpret their whispers.)
Ilian at sixteen had been similar to Leigh in weight and stature. He’d been short and underfed, certainly not the type who could hold his own in a fight, if his injuries had been any indication. His Hillworth uniform used to stand out in an unpleasant way. Jasper never went through the Destiny City school system, but he knew Hillworth by its reputation. The kind of boys who went there were not the type he would have chosen for Leigh to make friends with.
At twenty-two, Ilian Jones was not that boy any longer. He was taller, a bit broader, not nearly so malnourished. Except for the scar that cut down one side of his face, he looked healthy, and comfortable, like his life with Leigh had brought him some stability. (It certainly brought him money.)
Jasper hated the sight of him.
He let Ilian Jones get a good look at him, let him see his face, even if he knew his own identity to be protected. Jasper wouldn’t have known this man was Ilian if he hadn’t been told, if the magic concealing him hadn’t already had holes poked through it.
After a moment of silence that stretched on uncomfortably, Jasper snapped. He lunged forward, grabbed Ilian Jones — General King Jet — by the collar of his jacket, hauled him to his feet, and threw a fist toward his face over the wide expanse of the desk between them.
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Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2022 8:36 pm
The lunging across his desk had already prompted Jet to start to rise to his feet, so whatever help he had in standing was minimal.
He was tired, and already irritated by this random Lieutenant not only barging into his office, but physically assaulting him as well. Jet didn’t let the man hit him. He grabbed the fist that was thrown and twisted it backwards and over to pin against the desk.
It was then that he threw his own punch squarely into the Lieutenant’s face.
Jet was done with trying to give the benefit of the doubt. He couldn’t imagine anyone trying to attack Axinite and finding themselves escaping unscathed. Jet could only assume it was because he wasn’t respected. He didn’t expect that to be handed to him, anyway. But he had been around for years. He had lead missions, assisted in missions, and worked to better the Negaverse.
But for whatever reason, other agents treated him worse than when he was a General.
Maybe they felt threatened by him. Jealous. Not that this Lieutenant had any reason to feel jealous, and he clearly didn’t feel threatened.
Except Jet wouldn’t release his fist he tried to hit him with, and pinned it against the Lieutenant's back as he pressed him against the desk.
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Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2022 8:42 pm
Clearly, Jasper overestimated his own abilities.
By the same token, he underestimated Illian Jones.
Jasper was not a fighter. He never had been. He didn’t enjoy the sort of exercise August and Celeste partook in. He was just active enough to keep himself in some semblance of shape, but nothing beyond that. A walk around the block to clear his head was his preferred method of exercise. Maybe a jog when he was feeling particularly energetic. He was fit enough that he was only rarely encouraged to change some of his habits when he consulted with a doctor. Anything more seemed like a waste of time.
Ilian Jones was stronger than Jasper’s memory of him would have indicated. Some of that was due to his rank, Jasper was sure. The aura was even more terrible in such close proximity. It spoke of power, and authority. Someone who’d been given that power surely knew how to use it. But time changed people; time offered growth, and Jasper was sure that had something to do with it, too.
Perhaps Ilian Jones had joined the Negaverse without much thought for what would be required of him, without much concern with what skills it would benefit him to have. At fourteen, he couldn’t have known.
He obviously knew now, eight years and several promotions later.
Jasper found himself pinned to the desk with his arm behind his back. He struggled once, but quickly realized he would not be able to break free. The side of his face throbbed where Jet’s fist made contact. Blood oozed from a split lip. Jasper felt fortunate he hadn’t had any of his teeth knocked out.
He wheezed and struggled again, but had no better luck a second time.
“You dragged Leigh into this life,” Jasper snarled into the polished wood against his face. It was a nice desk. Expensive. Jasper let out a bitter laugh. “Does the Negaverse fund your lavish lifestyle, or does Leigh?”
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Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2022 8:48 pm
Jet was annoyed, especially now that he had to deal with this Lieutenant, and whoever his superior officer was. But more than that, he was annoyed that he had a pretty good idea who this was. One might have actually landed a punch, and was taller anyway. Which meant this one was the middle.
“Is that why you joined, Dorian? To harass me? You’re pathetic,” he snarled and shoved at Dorian’s shoulder as he finally released his fist, with every intention of getting him off his desk. If he bashed his face against the wood in the process then oh well.
“Who the ******** brought you into the Negaverse?”
Because they were going to pay for not keeping track of their subordinates.
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Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2022 8:52 pm
“I figured I didn’t have much choice in the matter, once they cornered me,” Jasper said. He straightened himself up but, wisely, chose not to throw another punch. The dark glare on his face more than made up for it, “Figuring out what you and Leigh used to be so secretive about was just a bonus.”
He let his gaze trail over Ilian’s frame. Jet. Jasper would have to get used to calling him that, he supposed, if he planned to live with this arrangement (which he expected also wasn’t much of a choice, at this point), though there were always the more colorful terms of b*****d and a*****e.
Jasper dragged a forearm over his face, wiping up some of the blood with the sleeve of his jacket.
“Maybe if you were still secretive about it, Bloodstone and Roselite wouldn’t have been able to gather the information Bloodstone needed to persuade me,” he continued, jaw tight, hands still curled into fists.
Jasper didn’t expect the lack of information would have made a difference, in the end. Bloodstone seemed intent on bringing him in, one way or the other.
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Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2022 8:56 pm
The glare was unnecessary, in Jet’s opinion. He hadn’t done anything to Dorian, and yet he hated him so much? Just because he and Lovely were in the Negaverse?
“Oh, it was Bloodstone?” he gritted his teeth, although he was frustrated that Roselite was involved as well.
“Let’s bring them in and figure out what we’re going to do about all this.”
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