Finches: High Voltage

Electric Funeral: Part 2

Glancing back to where he had left Sophie behind the rocks, Richard drummed his fingers on the log, waiting for the men to get closer. From what he could hear, they had slowed from their earlier pace, fanning out to cover more ground in their search. He was hoping the number he had given Sophie was correct as four CORP soldiers, armed or not, stood no chance against him in close quarter combat. Even then, however, it was pushing it, especially given how much he had used to get Sophie away from the compound as quickly as possible. He had originally planned on being able to gain back more energy during the subsequent, chaotic fight with CORP as saving Sophie hadn't even been his job in the first place. That duty had been given to Ekart, though, due to the Irishman going AWOL, the obligation to rescue her had fallen onto his shoulders alone. It wasn't that she was someone special to him, or he had feelings for her of any sort, it was, in fact, entirely because of Jace. The Resistance never left any of their operatives behind, and that most importantly included Sophie. Richard knew that if he left her, the Resistance leader would have done much more than just killed him for it.

Though Sophie adamantly denied any sort of relationship other than a purely physical one between her and Jace, the black-eyed Arcane had made it quite clear what she was to him. Yet, regardless of what she said or how many times she said it, the fact was, it hardly mattered in comparison. Jace had fully staked his claim on Sophie, making sure that any man who so much as looked at her, knew that she was his. Richard wasn't sure if it was love or something more, as his attitude towards her often crossed into being extremely possessive when it wasn't warranted. He could tell just by watching and listening, how Jace's behavior frustrated Sophie, pissing her off whenever they weren't in bed together as his need for dominance went further than her liking.

Richard remembered the time that Jace had actually tried to forbid Sophie from going to her favorite underground rings, all because she had become friends with a man there that he didn't like. It had worked out for him about as well as trying to nail water to a tree. She made it painfully clear to him and everyone in the safe-house at the time, that he didn't own her and if he tried it would only result in her cutting him off entirely. That had been the last time that Jace had openly tried to restrain her. Though, as much as the Arcane liked to think he was in control of the situation, it was obvious to even Richard that Sophie had Jace wrapped around her little finger instead.

Sophie, if she desired, could get Jace to bend over backward for her in a heartbeat, any request she made, he'd jump to fulfill, especially if she promised him that he would end up in her bed in return. There was nothing he wouldn't do for her. Though she never abused her power over him, it was visibly and definitively there. Had she been a different person, perhaps the situation would have changed but for the time being, she was nowhere near as manipulative as the black-eyed Arcane could be.

Yet, even with that devotion to her, Jace was still a man of his needs. It was only recently that Richard had discovered that his boss had been having off-again, on-again nights with one of their newest recruits, Anne Hunt. Despite how stuck on Sophie he was, it hadn't surprised Richard in the slightest to accidentally catch the two in bed together. From day one, Anne had made it clear with her flirtatious advances that she had wanted the Resistance leader in every sense of the word. From suggestive comments to blatant, physical contact, someone would have had to be blind not to notice her overtly sexual manner.

Other than Jace, the only person in the safe-house that she seemed to definitively like, was her twin sister Alice, and even then, the poor girl was pushed aside uncaringly in favor of Jace's affection. She was decently diplomatic to the majority of people she met however Richard owed that to the fact that she was walking on that still-new thin ice, testing the waters before revealing her true nature to anyone. Of course, that included everyone but Sophie. It was no secret that Anne despised the redhead, bitterly jealous of the fact that Jace was so hung up on her. From the way she talked and addressed Sophie, everyone could tell just how much she didn't like the electric Arcane, her rude tone and biting words seeming unnecessary most of the time. However, even with the coldness, her fellow Resistance member regarded her with, Sophie didn't seem to notice or pay any mind. Interestingly enough, she also didn't seem to remotely care that Jace and Anne had slept together on several occasions.

Sophie had once told Richard that she wouldn't mind if the two got together regularly, instead of whenever she was gone for a week or more at a time and Jace got lonely. She had gone on to laugh about how Anne enjoyed bragging to her every time the pair slept together, mocking her as if Sophie would suddenly snap with jealousy and rage. It had been incredibly hilarious to her, feeling as if the whole situation was ridiculously ludicrous. Sophie had explained that even if she cared to have a retort or come back to the woman's behavior, she never needed one as the moment she returned, Jace's eyes were nowhere but hers. When Sophie was around, Anne was dropped like a bad habit, forgotten and cast aside like a toy the Resistance leader had gotten bored of playing with. Anne could be naked and begging for him to fuck her and Jace would treat her as if she were invisible for all that she mattered when the redhead was in the picture.

Yet, no matter how many times Jace left her, ignored her existence, or slept with Sophie, he could always get her to come crawling back to him with one little smile and whisper in her ear. Just as he was wrapped around Sophie's pinky, Anne found herself around his.

It was a complicated situation, despite Sophie not giving much of a shit either way, that Richard hardly cared to get involved in, preferring to keep both women as fellow allies and nothing more. He could see the appeal in them as he wasn't blind, but hardly Anne or Sophie did it for him, not even the other women within the Resistance that he knew, remotely seemed to tip his head in that direction. He guessed it was his situation but hardly cared one way or another. He wasn't in the Resistance to pick up women, he was there to fight, to prove his strength and get back the only thing he cared about. Luckily for him, he wouldn't have to wait long for two of those things to happen.

"They went over here!" a man's rough voice shouted, sounding only feet from the log he was hiding behind. "We're at the edge of the fucking mountain and unless they jumped to their deaths, they've got to be around here!"

"Spread out and sweep the area! Ricardo, Tomlinson you take right! Franklin and Tanner, you follow left. Moore and I will cover middle. Don't overlook anything!" an older male's voice bellowed, speaking with obvious authority over the others. Returning to him were five 'sir, yes sir's, a mix of both male and female voices. "First soldier that spots one of the escapees gets an accommodation from Cross himself and their picture in the paper! Which one of you lazy, sacks of shits is it going to be?" he scoffed.

Listening to the sounds of the soldier's scrambling to find them before their friends could, Richard waited until just two voices remained. He'd have to do this systematically, for as much as he wanted, he knew that taking all six officers on at once was a stupid idea. However, regardless of how quickly he dispatched these two, he'd still have to deal with the other four running to his location the moment that the first gunshot was fired. His only hope was that if he did get shot, it would be enough force to give him the extra boost he would need to finish the job properly. He was already cursing himself for somehow not stocking up more before they had arrived but now, it was too late.