ruined 🕷️ peter parker [4]

7

"I'm the only one who looks like a pimp." Sam looked down at his attire, comparing it to the others. Zemo had given clothes to each one of them according to the role they were going to play in the plan, only him getting to be himself. Sam didn't look as bad as he thought, he was just more eye-catching than the rest. Jessica felt a bit of relief thanks to that, as her outfit was approaching an almost degrading style, which anyone could mistake for something else.

"Only an American would assume a fashion-forward Black man looks like a pimp." Zemo replied "You look exactly like the man you're supposed to be playing. The sophisticated, charming African rake named Conrad Mack, aka the Smiling Tiger."

"He even has a bad nickname." Sam began but then the baron showed him a picture of the so-called Smiling Tiger and his jaw dropped. "Hell, he does look like me, though." 

"Would you rather be the hooker?" Jessica asked ironically while she tried not to trip over her platforms. Yes, Zemo had given her platforms. They were actually pretty comfortable, enough even to run with them. She just wasn't used to them. 

"You're not hookers. You're playing my sister and you, a friend." Zemo said while pointing at Anna and Jessica respectively. The older woman had been put in a similar dress to Jessica's. The only one looking decent was Bucky, dressed in all black and probably would go unnoticed in a crowd. 

"Who looks like a hooker." Jessica added to Zemo's incomplete description of her. 

"You smell this?" The baron ignored her remarks and inhaled the city's ambience. It smelled disgusting.

"Yeah, what is that? Acid?" Bucky asked, frowning at the weird scent.

Zemo shook his head with a smirk. "Madripoor. No matter what happens, we have to stay in character. Our lives depend on it." He explains. "There's no margin for error. High Town's that way. Not a bad place if you wanna visit, but Low Town's the other way."

"Let me guess, we don't have any friends in High Town." Anna questioned him again, and the silence she received in response gave her the answer.

They arrived at a very low class nightclub called the Brass Monkey. Anna was walking holding onto Sam's — the Smiling Tiger for the night — arm. Jessica did the same with Zemo, while Bucky walked behind them without saying a word.

"Here we are." Said Zemo before heading straight for the bar. Both girls let go of their companions and stood next to them while Zemo ordered something in Russian.

They analysed the people in the venue. Some scary looking people drinking strange beverages from shot glasses. Surely not the type they wanted to get in a fight with. Although Jessica had put enough makeup on to look unrecognisable, she felt all eyes on her. It wasn't something she wanted in a place like that.

"People are staring." She said, leaning closer to Anna but keeping her sight on the crowd.

"Don't worry, they're looking at James." She said, not looking back either. "Besides, if anyone recognised you here, they would say anything. This place is full of criminals." 

Suddenly, Zemo's amicable conversation with the bartender turned a bit more conflicting. Another man approached them, not looking very happy and most likely wanting to brawl. "I got word from on high. You ain't welcome here."

"I have no business with the Power Broker, but if he insists, he can either come and talk to me..." Zemo gestured towards Bucky, trying to intimidate the hostile individuals. But that did nothing for the man.

"New haircut?"

"Zemo." Anna said in a warning, not too loud. Things were going to get out of hand pretty quick.