Treading Water {Lani, Team Plotline}

[Lt. Derek DeVoux]

So much for down time.

Lt. Derek DeVoux was in a fine temper by the time he stormed back through the doors of THE PIT and looked around the crowded bar. His normally easy going manner was replaced by a clenched jaw and crows feet of worry at the corner of his dark eyes. The tension radiating out from him should have been enough to warn even the fiercest touch guy but, wouldn't you know it, the biggest bully in the place decided that moment to pick a fight.

Now, Derek knew his lady didn't stand for fighting in her bar but his temper was frayed to darn near to snapping when the idiot stepped into his path. The day had started out fine after waking up next to his sassy little ghost whispered but gone straight hell as soon as he'd walked out the back door. Having gone directly to the Commanders hotel room, he'd discovered that the halfling had never returned to it the former night and nothing had seemed amiss in the room. That alone had been enough to raise an eye brow but when a search of the city had turned up no sign of her, alarm bells had started going off like crazy.

Kat wasn't the sort of soldier to just go AWOL like this so he'd immediately called back to base and reported in. The team even now was on its way and he was still no closer to finding any clues to why the halfling had disappeared than he'd been when he had placed the call.

Hence his black mood when the monster biker stepped into his path and dared to poke a finger in his face. As if that wasn't enough, the asshole went one step further and proceeded to ask him if he was the one screwing the "boss" and if he minded if he "Comforted" her during his absences.

The dude obviously didn't have any sense of self preservation, much less a brain in his head at facing off with a wolf within inches of blood lust.

And so it went that THE PIT got introduced to its first look at the animal lurking just underneath the skin of its owners lover. With a snarl that was very near feral, Derek's lips split to reveal unnaturally sharp canines and his fist knocked the idiot back ten steps and almost flipped him over the bar. With unbelievable speed, the shifter was on his prey and delivering another hard upper cut before the dudes friends could even compute the peril their friend was in. When they belatedly started to act, a decisive kick to one gut by a steal toed boot took one out and gave the other pause right before Derek hurled the body of the first right at him. Everyone else in the bar had paused in mid action and a weird sort of silence had fallen over the normally loud bar.

"Take your piece of shit friend and get the fuck out of here..." growled the dark haired soldier as he looked at the little group with a predators stance. "Be glad I'm leaving you alive to even walk out because the next time you ever dare to come in here.... I won't be so accommodating. You don't speak about my woman like that and live to tell about it...."

Backing up hastily, the biker mopped at the blood trailing down his broken nose and then raised his hands.


"ALL RIGHT! ALL RIGHT! I"M SORRY MAN!! WE"LL LEAVE!! WE DON"T WANT NO TROUBLE!" he said hastily, backing towards the door, still in shock that the man he'd thought harmless had seemingly turned into the big bad boogeyman.

Still growling, Derek snapped his teeth at the group and, had he been in a better mood, would have been amused at the way they scurried like rats out the door. Then, and only then, did he turn his attention back to the rest of the bar and realize that he was the center of attention.

WELL HELL.... Lani was going to have his hide for this, wasn't she?

SIghing wearily, Derek eyed everyone and then snapped.

"What the hell are you all looking at? Did you come here to drink or gawk?"

When everyone hastily went back to what they were doing, the soldier headed for the back stairs and a bottle of Jack for himself, praying his woman didn't break it over his head for that little scene.

[Ilani Moonblood ♬]

"And then I said 'no, Mr. Hodgins, I would never wear a dead animal that looks so much like your tupee!" A peal of laughter echoed in the living room of the hidden apartment above The Pit. It was lost in the dull pounding of the music downstairs, and Ilani was grateful for it. There weren't many who knew of her talents outside of a few poor souls, despite her ability to yammer on like a two year old on a sugar rush, and she aimed to keep it that way. Being called Bohemian by her customers was one thing, but crazy? She already had enough problems with the city zoning comittee.

Wiping at her now runny eyeliner, the psychic shook her head at the woman floating across from her. Supposedly, Mathilda had been quite the courtesan in her day, and loved to pop in every now and again and regail Ilani with stories of her youthful years. Unlike most of the ghosts she'd met so far, Maddy seemed to actually enjoy her situation, even going so far as to claim that she'd never had so much good gossip than when she was dead.

With a mock glare in the ghost's direction, Ilani giggled a few more times before attempting to right her make up. "You do know that you're making it really hard to sex myself up right now," She admonished the ghost. "All this laughing's gonna make me look like some kinda warped ghoul!"

"And you certainly wouldn't want that, with that man of yours showing up at some point," The ghost replied glibly, a teasing look in her eye.

The bar owner could only laugh, chucking a pillow in her dead friend's direction. With one more knowing look, Mathilda disappeared.

Her man...God, but she'd never imagined that she'd ever agree with such a cliche claiming. Hell...if she really wanted to be truthful with herself, she'd never have thought that she'd be sleeping with the same man more than a few times...forget waking up next to him in the morning, cuddling with him at night and planning all kinds of horrible tortures for whoever was calling him away from her of late. Sure, she knew herself well enough to accept the fact that she was a bit possessive and a smidge spoiled...but never in a million years did she imagine this. Ilani Moonblood; Derek DeVoux's woman. Derek DeVoux; Ilani Moonblood's man. God, she'd even gone and gotten the tattoo, not that she'd shown him yet...gah. Talk about times a'changing.

With a little smile on her face, she stood, putting the finishing touches on her outfit before she moved toward the stairs that would lead her to the party below. She glanced at the cameras that showed the bar's interior, and immediatle, whatever fuzzy feelings she'd been having evaporated as she caught sight of a fight near the door. Man, seriously? Hadnt these mooks learned the laws of her jungle yet?

With a curse, she stomped down the stairs, hell bent on knocking in some heads. But what she heard and saw when she reached the bar floor had her pausing. Something in her belly when gooey at the angry possessiveness in Derek's voice, and she raised a brow at him as he stomped toward her. She met him halfway, placing a hand on his chest, while she studied his face and the hot emotions boiling over there.

"Derek? Honey what's wrong? One of these fools say something stupid again? You know you can't take them seriously. Your brain might explode if you do."

[Lt. Derek DeVoux]

The sound of Lani's voice was like valium to a stressed out soul. Immediately, an inner calm descended over the shifters mind and his flashing eyes focused on his woman. Had anyone else approached them at that moment, he'd have torn them apart but Lani's mere presence calmed the savage beast inside.

Taking a deep breath, Derek forced himself to pull it together. Loosing control wouldn't find Kat and it wouldn't rescue her if she was indeed in danger. God, how he freaking hated losing a member of the team in enemy territory.

"We got trouble, babe... Big trouble." he snarled out hoarsely. "Commander Fosters missing and I can't establish communication. The team is on its way but I've got no idea where to even start looking. Stupid, stubborn fucking halfling.... She knew better than to head out with out me.. She was suppose to wait but did she do that? Fuck NO! Thinks herself god damned invincible."

Spinning away from her, Derek slammed a hand against the side of a table and sent it carreening across the room into the wall. Breathing hard, he tried to restrain the turmoil inside, knowing Lani wouldn't appreciate him destroying her place. Around him, patrons scuttled backwards and retreated to safer territory.

"Son of a bitch..... Where the FUCK is she?"

Twisting around, the man felt his wolf glaring out through his eyes but there was nothing he could do to stop it at the moment. What he needed was action.. Something to do while he waited for the others. What he needed was a plan.

"Lani, you know the rumors floating around the city... Have you heard anything about any vampires in town? Any bodies showing up tortured? Anything.... Weird? Or.. at least... Weirder than normal? There has to be something we are missing and Kat stumbled on it..... Its the only reason she'd fall out of radio contact. She ran into trouble somewhere or stumbled across something that she shouldn't of. I need to try to recreate her steps...."

Running a hand through his thick curls, the shifter glanced around and realized that they were in the middle of the bar. Sighing, he let out a low growl and grabbed her hand before heading for the stairs.

"Lets go somewhere I can think...."

[Ilani Moonblood ♬]

Ilani felt something inside uncoil, when she watched some of the wildness fade from Derek’s eyes. When he’d almost tore into the morons at the bar, she’d known that something was wrong. The shifter wasn’t like the others who frequented The Pit; he was quick to give a warning glower, but slow to act. Her man was quiet, observant, the kind of guy who would read every weakness that one had, before chancing a strike. He wasn’t the hothead that had stormed into the bar.

And man, did he storm. With only a few snarled words, he’d cleared out most of the regulars who knew a volatile man when they saw them. With a glance at Bones at the singer up on stage, the rest were ushered toward the door. In less than ten minutes, the room was clear, with only some ‘legal’ poker games continuing upstairs, and a group of laughing kids at the billiards tables in back.

It took most of her willpower not to fall into a defensive pose, even when she noticed him forcing himself to regain control. She wouldn’t say it, but hell if an angry man didn’t dredge up all kinds of unhappy memories…that she wasn’t going to get into.

Man, the government had better cover for tonight’s expenses. Another nod at Dallas had the bouncer closing off the bar to any customers wishing to come inside, and before her instincts could tell her otherwise, she immediately moved closer to her man. She watched the play of emotion cross on and off of his face, and slid her palm over his chest.

When Derek spun around to slam a hand into a table, she immediately went over to him, hoping that her nearness would help to calm him down. “Baby, what do you mean? Kat’s missing? Good Lord…don’t you guys put tracking devices in your guys, or something? Or, do you know where she might have went? If you two were supposed to scout somewhere out, maybe she just went a bit farther than planned.”

Yeah, or maybe she got caught by the enemy and you’re all royally fucked, she thought with an inner growl. With a quick nod as he took her hand, Lani allowed herself to be led, calling out to her bouncers to keep the doors closed.

“Derek, let me send some of my boys out to scour the city. They can do some preliminary looking while we think, okay? LT! You still in there?” When they reached her apartment, she shouldered open the door and went to the kitchen. As usual, her laptop was sitting out on the kitchen table, a slideshow of nudy pictures moving around the screen. The group of Confederate soldiers were camped out on the floor, and before she could see something that would make her regret being born, she slapped a hand over her eyes. “Boys, I need your help, alright? Go search the city for Kat; she’s a half-vampire with red hair and attitude. You’ll know her when you find her. Do it, and I’ll update your picture show.”

The sounds of running and loud whooping could be heard, as the ghosts hurried off. That done, she went back into the living room, where she knew Derek was. She immediately went over to him, and ran a comforting hand over his arm.

“Let’s talk this thing out, alright? Maybe if you go over the mission with me, you could have an idea of where she could have gone…or where someone could have taken her. Maybe her radio broke, or she went back to the Compound earl—“

She broke off, as loud voices came booming from downstairs. With a frown, Lani went to the door that led to the bar and peered down the stairs, only to pull back with a surprised yelp as a voice proceeded to howl up to her.

“YO DEREK, YOU UP THERE?!” Rae bellowed, before Lucien could pull her back. She giggled a bit, as her voice echoed in the wooden hallway. She could see some weird-haired lady peering down at her from upstairs, but hell, that could be the resident cleaning lady, for all she knew.

Lucien sighed from behind her, shoving his fingers through his long hair. “Raven, is not nice to yell like that. We could have called him.”

“Psh, what fun would that be? Curse said that the Commander was missing, dammit, and he tells us to meet him in a bar? Wait…no, actually, I’m not complaining. I really like this guy.”

[Lt. Gabriel "Curse" Jordan]

Why give up, why give in?
It's not enough, it never is.
So I will go on until the end.
We've become desolate.
It's not enough, it never is.
But I will go on until the end.




When shit hits the fan, you drag out the big guns and blow the hell out of anything and everything that gets in the way. That was Curse's theory on how to handle the hellstorm that seemed to follow the team like a big black cloud of doom.

He absolutely HATED this force inactivity that they'd fallen into during the flight from the base and the trip through rush hour traffic in down town New Orleans. None of them said much after the first shock had worn off, except for Rae of course.. shutting that woman up would have taken an act of God.

Curses mind was to busy going through strategy plans and disguarding them just as quickly. None of them knew exactly what had happened or even for sure how long the commander had been missing. From the sounds of it, it had been at least twenty four hours and those were the most vital for picking up clues and tracing leads down.

That thought alone had the former seal mutter curses low under his breath and wanting to put his fist through something.

One of the first things a soldier learned was that you never, EVER, left a man behind during the course of duty. They were the toughest sons of bitchs on the face of the earth and come hell or high water.. Every man came home, dead or alive. It was the one thing they'd all counted on when going into missions and the thing they were sworn to. In his line of service, there had only been one time when he'd failed that and it had been because there hadn't been enough of his team member to place in a box, much less bring home to his grieving widow and child.

And now Kat had gone and gotten herself in a shit load of trouble.

Which explained the normally cheerful Lt. sour disposition as he stalked through an abnormally silent bar looking for his best friend and now acting captain, Lt. Derek DeVoux.

On some level, Curse knew that Lt. Duran was nearby and the others followed but he was having a hard time tamping down on the animal that kept threatening to break through the surface of his calm. It was times like this that the berserker inside screamed his fury and it was only by rigid control that he kept it on lock down.

He could only pray that they found the Commander soon or someone was going to have to knock his ass out. ANy other outcome was to horrific to imagine. His inner "beast" wasn't exactly rational when it came to to play and he didn't want the other any where around when he went into hyperdrive with battle lust.

"DEVOUX!! Tell me you got something, man!"

[Lt. Kalii Duran]

People think they know me,
Say I'm wound a little tight,
Tell me I go looking for trouble,
That I'm always ready for a fight;
But, I'm just an easy-going guy girl,
Not crossing any line,
I'm a caring individual,
Most all the time,
Most all the time...
Quite alot of the time,
Its just that,
Its just that!
ITS JUST THAT!!
OH HELL YEAH!

Sometimes I drink a little beer!
Sometimes I make a little mess!
Sometimes I get a little angry!
Sometimes I kick a little ass!

Whoah...!
You know..?
Sometimes...
I kick a LOT of ass,
Oh hell yeah!

Waiting... Waiting... Waiting...

The waiting was killing her. She sat quietly for most of the trip. Only speaking if someone asked her a direct question she gave a direct terse answer.

A chopper ride and then they piled into some vehicles for the trip through the heart of New Orleans. Her face was set, this was game time. No playing around. She kept doing a check of her weapons. The twin Colt 1911 .45 autos strapped to her thighs, the katana sheathed on her back, multiple knives and throwing stars strategically tucked into various places for easy access. She was ready, but the constant checking and re-checking was a habit.

Finally, the Hummer she was riding in pulled up to a bar called, "The Pit." Kalii gave it an appraising look. She had never been there before, but it looked like her kind of place. When they walked inside she made a mental note to come check it out when they had some down time. After that fleeting thought her mind flipped back to mission mode.

She followed Curse through the bar. Well aware of his raging anger being kept held down just below the surface. It wouldn't take much for him to explode. For that matter, it wouldn't take much at this moment for anyone on the team to snap. The fact that their commander was missing was a major deal. They were all on edge.

What made things worse was that they didn't really know what they were walking into. Devoux and the commander had been on a mission that was hush hush. The Lieutenant had lost contact with Kat and that's about all Kalii knew at the moment. She knew Curse had some basic information in a file that the General had given him right before they took off in the helicopter, but Curse was not exactly in the sharing mood at the moment. She couldn't blame him really, they needed to get briefed by Derek and they might as well get all the information they had dispersed at the same time.

Kalii headed over to the bar, that was devoid of customers or employees for that matter. She leaned against the railing, wincing a little as Curse yelled out for Derek. She could hear the tension in his voice. Taking a deep breath she let it out slowly, keeping a check on her own instincts to want to just jump in and do something... ANYTHING. But, there was nothing for her to do until she knew what was going on. So, that's where she found herself again at the bar.

Waiting...

[Sgt.Willow Harding]

Willow was a tad bit late for the siren telling them to get their butts to the chopper. She was grabbing a few things that might be useful for whatever was going on… Willow caught the tail end of the conversation…Kat had gone missing…

A soldier missing was a horrible situation... especially when Kat was their commander and the only damn one Willow ever wanted again. Sure she had commanders before but not like Kat..
The chopper ride to the where ever was horrid, all the thoughts that consumed her head.

All the scenarios that played in her mind in a continuous motion . Curse looked pissed she knew that him and Commander were close and Willow could tell b y the lack of jokes he was serious. They all entered this biker bar Willow had been before…it wasn’t really her style. In the distance she saw Devoux and did not look to pleasant he too looked really pissed off.

Willow hoped they could find her fast and recover her safe and sound. They were all just waiting for something to pop up but nothing did. It wasn’t till a little while later Willow had this great idea come up. She sat at the bar and sat on her laptop trying to see if her idea would work. It was worth a try. All she needed to do was put the numbers in and viola! Instant global positioning would track her cell.

Willow looked at the others, “ I swear this is mission related…I have a hunch about something that could help big time.”

A few types later, the search became more pin pointed till she got an exac location on Kat’s cell phone.
Willow waved everyone over and showed them the screen, “ I got a hit on her cell. I don’t know whether if will take us to Kat. But it is definitely worth a try.

[Mercedes Rowe]

The ride in was horrible. Mercedes hate to see everyone down in the dumps. They had all worked so hard in trying to locate Kat, but it was a no go. They didn't come across one thing, not even her scent.

It seemed the decision was made that they were going to a bar. She guessed someone owned the place. That was the only explanation she could find with stopping here.

She ran a hand over her brow as she made her way inside behind Willow. The cute little blonde was flagging people over to her. Mercy was still getting to know people, but being out on this mission with everyone let her get one step closer to them all. It was much like working in surgery. They were all focused on the same goal, talking all the time with updates to one another.

Hovering near Willow, she dropped a hand on the back of the woman's chair and leaned in to look at the screen. "So...where is that location? Do we know the building or maybe some sort of landmark?" She asked, trying to pinpoint the exact location by visualizing the area.

Her head shifted and she looked across the bar to where Lucien was standing. He was trying to calm Rae down. She quickly looked away, dropping her hazel eyes back on what Willow was showing them.

She gave a weary sigh as she waited. It was all they were doing - waiting. She had a million things going through her head. Who would want to kidnap Kat? It frustrated her that nobody had answers. She was the type that wanted answers right away.