The Crossover (closed for such_a_bad_man)

[such_a_bad_man]

Jack pushed himself up to sit on the bed. "No, no... go ahead... I'm up..." He said as he tapped on a tablet beside him. The audio recorder kicked on, listening to the comms channel, starting to transcribe what Vixen was about to say. As he listened and waited, he heard the unmistakable sound of a drawer or two being opened. Instantly, he wondered if she was dressing again as they talked.

In his mind, he could already picture her walking around her place, picking and sliding out clothes for the day. He was mentally redressing her and it was hotter than anything he'd seen so far.

 

[SinisterSpiders]

Scarlett grinned to herself as she hear Jack shuffling about. She could tell by the sound of sheets and blankets rustling that he was in bed, and for a brief sinful moment she wondered whether he wore pyjamas or slept naked. For some reason her mind preferred to imagine the latter.

"Right, well, there isn't much per say, but I did finally bug Goliath and Weasel. Weasel was much harder to track down, but hopefully by tonight we will have something to go over," Scarlet explained as she bent over and slid on her panties. The threaded her arms through her bra as she spoke again. "Also, he had quite a few deals going on last night, I hope it is just standard drug related." Scarlett laughed for a moment. "Wow, never thought I'd hope for that but there you go."

Scarlett pulled on her blouse, buttoning it up as she let out a heavy sigh.

"And the person - the one who's blood I gave you - still no improvement. I'm getting really worried Jack," she said, and it was probably the first time Jack would have ever heard her so concerned.

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Jack sat forward, resting his elbows on his knees as he heard the concern in her voice. "I have some data about that. The team that got the sample has finally gotten some data on this viral treatment, which it is more than a drug, and we can go over it when you come by tonight with the tracker data." He tried to push the sounds of elastic being pulled on from his mind so he could focus on what they were talking about. It wasn't as useful, sadly, as his mind was full of images of a completely naked Vixen now... more so than usual.

 

[SinisterSpiders]

"Oh, I'm glad to hear that," Scarlett said with a sigh of relief. Her mind went back to Jack Abraham and she frowned as she bent over. As she pulled her skirt on it slid and crackled with static. "Is there anything I can do to help him? He's really not well. He'll be okay though, won't he?" She asked as she pulled the zip of her skirt up.

 

[such_a_bad_man]

"If he has medical attention to deal with the side effects, he will be fine. It's just going to be a long process. I wish I had better news regarding a reversal treatment. His or her body has to undo the genetic damage on its own." Jack said, the regret evident in his tone.

"If you need anything to help with that, please let me know." He added, wishing that this conversation didn't have to end yet.

 

[SinisterSpiders]

Scarlett bit her lip, knowing just how much Jack Abraham had on his plate. He may have been able to score his college scholarship with the extra credit work she gave him, but if he was ill and recovering he had almost lost all hope. Scarlett's fists clenched in anger...In pure rage at losing another bright young star to the grip of drugs and gangs.

Then, she thought of something.

"You know... I might just know of a way you can help," she pulled her hair over her shoulder and ran her hands through the wet crimson locks. Then she noticed the time. "But we will have to talk about it tonight. Your place again?" She asked.

 

[such_a_bad_man]

"I'll have the coffee ready for your arrival." Jack said in response to her question. "Good luck at work today, Vixen... whatever that may be." He said, figuring that had to be it. He just had no clue what her day job might be yet.

 

[SinisterSpiders]

"Oooh, you know how to win a woman's heart," Scarlett chuckled as she threw her things into her handbag and slung it over her shoulder. "See you tonight Jack."

With that Scarlett was off. She ended up being five minutes late for her meeting. It earned her a scowl of annoyance from the principal, but other than that she got away with it. Throughout the day she was distracted working out the pros and cons of a plan that she hoped would set Jack Abraham back on the right path.

Scarlett didn't have her senior English class that day, but she saw Jack on the playground with some friends. They were happily kicking a ball around while he watched. She had never seen him looking so drawn out before. She made her way over on her rounds and then stood beside the seat he was lounging on.

"So, feeling any better Mr. Abraham?" She asked. Jack looked up with a frown and shrugged.

"I dunno. Not really?" He said, dejected. "The doctor said I need bed rest, but if I rest then I cant work, and if I can't work then there is no roof over my bed, so what's the point?"

Scarlett's heart ached at Jack's comments. If she had any doubts about her plan before then they were wiped away when she spoke to him. She gave him her best wishes and moved on.

After school that day Scarlett stopped by the bank. She was so utterly tired from the last few nights that the wait in line was agonising, but she had to do it. Finally she got her business there sorted and made for home, deciding to skip dinner and lesson planning in favour of sleep.

~*~

Later that night Vixen put her earpiece in. She scooped up her bag of things and then left. She was sure to call Jack over the comms to give him fair warning of her impending arrival, but she found that she was a little later than expected. Apparently carrying a bag full of things was just as cumbersome as she had always imagined.

Finally she made it to the Towers, heading straight for the one where she met Jack last time and getting into the lift.

"On my way up now," She said, deciding to give Jack one last warning. She almost didn't, hoping she would catch him shirtless again, but she decided to be polite.

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Jack was hard at work in his lab space again. The Infinium absorber was completed, but he needed to test it. Setting it down, the wedges of the pieces rested one in front of the other. Taking hold of the handle at the back, he lifted up and around in a circle until the half cone of metal panels slid past each other into position. When the last segment hit the floor, the contact switch engaged the devices he built into the panels of the absorber, covering the skin of the panels in a pale light like his Infinium blasts.

Walking around to other side of it, he slid on his gauntlets, freshly recharged. "Jeeves set up to record this test. Multi-spectrum analysis tools on all the cameras."

The disembodied voice replied. "Done sir, recording underway."

Jack placed himself on a mark he made 30 feet from the absorber as it sat there humming. "Okay, Test 001. 10% gauntlet output absorption test." He said for the record on this video. Squatting slightly, he raised one gauntlet and aimed carefully. A slightly under-powered beam shot forth from his gauntlets and impacted the field covering the metal panels of the device. Jack watched as the energy spread over the surface before the intensity dipped again to the pale light. "Well, the theory seems to be working..." he muttered before standing up and making an adjustment to the power slider.

"Test 002. 33% power." He reported before aiming the shot again. The beam was more intense now but it was absorbed like the previous one. It did take more time, but it was promising. One more and he would stop.

"Test 003. 50% power." This time, the blast seemed to make the surface skin of energy waver as the systems tried to absorb the energy. As it started to subside, the intensity in the light output ramped up quickly before a pulse of blue Infinium energy burst our radially from the absorber. It slammed into Jack, knocking him off his feet and sending him skidding across the grated floor.

"Ahhhh..... ow...." he groaned, sitting up slowly. Looking around did not give him a lot of confidence. The absorber was shut down. There were cracks in the safety glass walls of the first floor lab spaces. To top it off, his shirt was torn up from the metal floor he landed on. Standing up, he heard the voice of Vixen on his comms unit.

"Shit..." he blurted out as he looked around for a back up shirt. This wasn't the tower that had his wardrobe, but he remembered something he was working on in his body armor lab. Running up the stairs, he found the chemically treated plain white t-shirt in there. He dumped his torn shirt in there and was pulling on the new shirt when he heard the tell tale clack of Vixen's boots on the metal floor.

"Ah... Vixen..." he said, his head emerging from the top of the shirt. "Good... I was jsut..." he glanced at the smoking absorber. "Testing something."

 

[SinisterSpiders]

The first thing Vixen noticed was the smell. She was about to comment on it when her eyes fell on Jack.

Well, part of Jack.

He was there, slipping into a nicely fitted white t-shirt. His face was presently covered, and she knew she had a moment to rake her eyes over the skin that was on show. She shifted a bit, aware of the way her mind was wandering. But then his head popped through his shirt and her eyes snapped up to his face.

Vixen followed Jack's look and she saw the cracked glass and remnants of what he was 'testing'.

"And I take it that it didn't go well?" She asked, stepping a bit closer and crossing her arms under her breasts, her bag hanging from her elbow. "And... do you always work with your shirt off? Is that safe?"

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Jack frowned as Vixen gave him a hard time about the state of his lab. "Well, it was... and then I guess I overloaded it with too much energy." He said regretfully. As bad as he felt about looking bad in front of Vixen, her next question made him smile.

"Well, when I knew you were coming, I knew I had a limited window to show off my body when you arrived." He chuckled, turning back to look at her. He looked down at the bag on her arm, cocking his head to the side. "Are those your spare costumes for the utility belt design?" he asked, gesturing to it.

 

[SinisterSpiders]

Vixen smirked at Jack's reply. She reached into the bag, drawing out one of her spare costumes and holding it out to him.

"It was a very limited window of time," she said. "If you want to show off you need to find a way to widen that window. I may have excellent vision, but I need more processing time to come to an accurate conclusion."

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Jack smiled, taking the costume from her hand. He playfully grabbed the hem of the shirt. "I could just work shirtless for this next part..." he offered, teasing her a little. He looked down at the fabric of her costume and found it was way more breathable than he figured. He thought it might be a ballistic fabric for those "just in case" hits, but it was much more lightweight. It must have been chosen to accommodate her wider range of motion.

"Head for the lift disc room, I need to drop this off in the lab for this sort of work." He said, walking up to the armor room again. Laying it out on the workbench, he left and walked to the corner of the building. "I have the data about the treatment in the other tower," he explained, walking up onto the anti-gravity supported platform and strapping his feet in. He waited for her to join him before he floated across to the other tower again. Again, they were in the tower that had the more sterile living space where they had coffee together the first time. True to his word, coffee was waiting when they walked into the kitchenette.

"White and sweet, right?" he asked, pouring for them both.

 

[SinisterSpiders]

When Jack offered to work shirtless a flush of appreciation accompanied the sparkle of interest in Vixen's eyes. She let her hand fall to her sides as she made for the room Jack mentioned, watching as he tried to assess the fabric of her costume a he walked off with it.

A few minutes later they had floated between the buildings and were back in the apartment area where they had gone after she had first broken in.

"Yes, I like my coffee how I like my men," Vixen said in a fake sleazy tone. Then she bit her lip and shook her head. "Sorry, too much." She said with a look of apology. Seeing him almost-shirtless had been far more distracting than she had anticipated. She couldn't afford to get all jokey and let her guard down.

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Jack looked at her a little disappointed in her coffee comment. Nodding at her assessment of it, he replied "Yeah, little too much..." he said as he prepped things in the kitchenette area. "Anyway, here you go... this way, I have the data queued up on the TV in the lounge."

He walked in and sat on the couch, setting his mug on the coffee table before him. Taking a controller in hand, he brought up the data from the researchers. He'd spent part of the day making it a bit more accessible for this conversation.

He spent the next hour running down what the virus was, what it did, how it did it, everything he had learned yesterday from Marlene and her team. He answered questions as they came up and tried his best to have all the answers, but even so, he didn't have them all.

 

[SinisterSpiders]

Vixen thanked Jack as she took the coffee, thankful for the energy boost. She followed him over to the lounge and settled down onto it. When he had everything hooked up she hummed in approval.

"Wow, you've thought of everything," she said before he launched into his explanation. She followed most of it, and the more he said the more worried she became. The virus wasn't good, and there was still a lot left to learn, but the worst part was that it had the potential to do so much damage in so many ways.

When Jack had finished explaining things Vixen turned to the side a bit, looking at him as she leaned against the back of the couch.

"This morning you said that you hoped you could help if I needed it," she said slowly, looking at him and hoping that he would be on board with her plan. "Well, I have a request."

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Jack finished his explanation and by the end, Vixen looked visibly shaken. Clearly she was worried about her friend that had come under the effect of this virus. He understood; every day, he thought about people that he either couldn't help right away or would fail to see the fruits of his work in the city within their life time. It's hard to see suffering and not help.

He turned and slid closer as Vixen reminded him of his offer. "Of course. How can I help?" He asked, wanting to hear the whole story now.

 

[SinisterSpiders]

The look on Jack's face flew against everything she had thought of Captain Infinium. She had underestimated him. He was in this for the greater good, he genuinely seemed to want to help.

"First and foremost, whether you decide to do this or not, I need you to keep this conversation in strict confidence."

Vixen reached down, taking her bag off the floor and settling in on her lap, covering the exposed skin of her thighs.

"The person who the sample came from. He... He is a student at a school in the slums. He is an amazing student; he's got a brilliant mind and open heart. He is amazing at sports too. But his family isn't well off. He has to work to support them. He took that virus thinking it was a performance enhancing drug. It was totally out of character, but between work, school and sports he was stretched too thin. He was desperate and grasping at for straws. Unfortunately he drew the short one.Now, thanks to the drug, he has lost almost all chance at a scholarship for a good university... And, to add insult to injury, he has to work to keep a roof over his family's head, so he isn't getting the rest he needs that might just save his future."

Vixen took a deep breath, reaching into her bag and taking out a bank cheque. She held it out for Jack to see, and hopefully take.

"I think you need to meet him, to see the effect of the drug up close. I was thinking you could come to the school. Say that he's won a scholarship fund so he can take some time off work... So he has a shot at a future. You could use this. That is, if you are okay with the idea."

Vixen waited, feeling terrible for asking him to use his public persona like this, but not seeing any better way to do it. The cheque that Vixen was holding out had a good amount of money on it, enough to rival any of the prominent scholarship funds in the area.

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Jack looked down at the cheque then up at Vixen's eyes. He could tell that this meant a lot to her. He didn't ask how she came to know this boy; that wasn't what this was about. It was about helping someone that had gotten caught up in all this. Still, something made his heart ache, one thought kept him from saying yes right away.

"This is your money, isn't it? You took it out to give to him, didn't you?"

Jack calmly reached out and pushed the cheque back towards her. "You don't need to make this a ruse or a cover story. I have enough grant programs and college scholarships available that I'm sure I can find a way to help him legitimately. Keep your money; I'm only too happy to help." He said smiling warmly as he looked at her.

 

[SinisterSpiders]

Vixen looked between Jack and the cheque, swallowing a ball of emotion.

"It's money," she said, not bothering to confirm that it was hers. That, in actual fact, it was a good chunk of her life savings or that it was supposed to be going towards a house deposit. "Please, take it. I can't come here and ask you to spend your own money on this... Those funds you have set up, surely you have already given them to deserving people. Please Jack," she said finally holding the cheque out again. Him taking the money was one of the only ways that she had been able to rationalise doing this without feeling like a beggar, like she was asking too much.

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Jack placed his hand on top of hers. "Vixen, this is our case. Your friend got wrapped up in something bigger then themselves rather inadvertently. Just as you've welcomed my help to try and solve this case, won't you accept my help to fix the fallout of it as well?" He asked.

"Please, let me help you; you don't have to fix this city on your own anymore." He added as he waited for her response.

 

[SinisterSpiders]

Vixen blinked as Jack took her hand, looking between that point of contact and the compassion in his eyes. Even through her gloves she could feel the heat of his skin, the pressure of his fingers. It took conscious effort to stop her heart from racing. His words seemed to cement the bond that was forming between them, and for one strange, confusing moment, she felt the urge to kiss him.

"Okay," Vixen said, clearing her throat and leaning back, desperate to get a bit of space between them. "Okay." She nodded her head, her answer more confident now.

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Jack smiled wide as she accepted his help. "I will need to meet with him though; I do agree that part is correct for this plan. Do you know the name of the school?" Jack asked as he picked up his coffee and finishing it.

 

[SinisterSpiders]

Vixen nodded, putting her coffee cup down on the coffee table and sitting up a little straighter. "Yes, the name of the school is Alfred Kennedy High. The boy's name-" she hesitated for a moment, right on the cusp of giving away one of her charge's identity. "His name is Jack Abraham, and you have no idea how much this will mean to him."

 

[such_a_bad_man]

Jack can't help a snort. "Jack? No kidding? Well, at least he has that going for him." He says smiling. "Alfred Kennedy High... oh right... the day that the press ruined what should have been a simple visit..." Jack shook his head at the memory. It still stung that he didn't get the time he was promised with the kids because he left in order to take the press with him rather than put the kids under that sort of scrutiny.

"I think the principal will still take my call; I still owe it to them to make up for my last visit..." he said as he was clearly planning his visit in his head already. "Since you're his friend, do you know any of his teacher's name? I'd like to talk with him or her before I show up and disrupt the class."