#dividedbybinaries

⠀⠀⠀The green hedgehog's foot bounced against the solid, cold ground of the agreed meeting point. Arms crossed over his scarred chest, lip pulled down into an impatient, unhappy frown, bright red sunglasses sitting over his eyes. HIs brow sagged beneath them as he huffed, feeling more and more impatient with each passing moment. ⠀⠀⠀He glanced at his phone, the cracked screen illuminating a small amount space and displaying the time - he was early by just over 3 minutes. Eyes rolled beneath his shades as he groaned. ⠀⠀⠀"The hell is takin' her so long?" Scourge huffed once more. If there was one thing that he and Sonic had in common, it's that neither of them had any patience. Scourge slumped back against the nearby wall, brow slumping even further. His boredom and frustration plain to see, though he never did hide how he was feeling. His face was always easy to read. ⠀⠀⠀Ears twitched suddenly. The emerald brow raising, as a hand lifted the shades up onto his forehead. A car pulled up, but he couldn't say he recognised it. He didn't recognise anything here in Gotham, honestly. ⠀⠀⠀Scourge stood up straight, a wicked grin spreading across his muzzle as he watched Binary step out of the vehicle. A long, slow whistle filled the air as he eyed her up and down. ⠀⠀⠀"Well, damn," he couldn't help but flirt, "ya never told me you were a total babe. I figured a computer nerd like you would, well... Look like a nerd." A loud cackle escaped the hedgehog's small frame, the fact that she towered over him like all humans didn't intimidate him one bit.

@twomindedsubject

Serik was in a pub, sitting at the bar, when it happened.

A cyberterrorist, an ex-lawyer with two faces, and his right-hand woman walk into a bar... It could have been the start of a bad joke, but there was nothing funny about it when you were one of the protagonists.

Serik immediately knew something was wrong, because the normally busy and loud place, full of people, suddenly and abruptly went quiet. A gasp went through the crowd, like a wave taking over the whole room, starting closest to the entrance and spreading.

Then it was quiet. A floating moment where everything seemed frozen in place. The only thing breaking the stunned silence was the bar's shitty music, normally drowned out by the conversations.

Serik looked to the door. His eyes met those of Two-Face. He bristled.

Shit--!

He knew he was fucked. He knew, because he could sense it. The danger. The fricking danger. So thick in the air it choked him a little. He knew, also because he'd been out the last few nights, tampering with the radio towers, disrupting communications and scrambling the signal. And with his goddamned shitty luck, he'd probably disrupted some crime lord's operation in passing... Not that it was hard in a city like Gotham, they were everywhere.

Finally, he knew. Because Two-Face's terrifying gaze immediately zeroed in on him.

Then the floating moment passed. One step from Two-Face, and Serik bolted out of his stool. Immediately after, the room exploded into chaos, torrents of people trying to escape the perceived wrath of the crime-boss.

>. Ringing. That's all she could hear. Painful, throbbing ringing. Going straight from the right of her head, streaming out to the left. It did hurt. A lot. But nothing compared to the emotional pain he had put her through.

"N-No! Don't you fucking touch me--," Binary pulled away the second Father Alistair had inched close - who was clearly worried about her incoherent babbling and frantic yelling. "I-I don't even know who you are anymore! S-So you better stay away!" In one hand, her gun. The other - evidence. It had all started out of paranoia. Dreams, in fact. Strange dreams that seemed all to real but had started the second she spent her first night in the church. A tree. A man of death. And those images in her head had urged her to go researching. But when the hacker tried to reassure herself about spending more time with the Father, she had found more than she had bargained for. And then it was all downhill from there. "E-Explain this!," Binary shouted, throwing the pile of papers at him. Photos upon photos of him - dating back years, centuries -- all right up to the camera being invented. "Y-You better start talking. Or I'm gonna shoot you. Do you understand, Alistair?"

Staring down the barrel of a gun was not expected for how tonight was going to go. Not when she was visibly wounded.

Down on the table in front of him, stained with droplets of blood--Bianca's blood, are a variety of old newspaper clippings from decades ago. Then various records of address. Various photos of the church at intervals spanning to the time that photography was first invented. And before that? Sketches. Documentation in writing, of all the signatures from different people with lives that once lived here in the church.

Except, all the signatures matched. All had the same handwriting, the same dot over the i's, the same amount of pressure with each stroke, and the spacing between the letters consistent. A variety of other giveaways were present.

Hands held high to his sides, Alistair watches her, giving a gesture of submission--a physical begging of mercy for no violence. No bullets. No more blood spilled, especially since hers was more than enough for Alistair to bear.

Anxiety sits like a frog in his throat. The man swallows.

His eyes dart from the papers, to the gun, then to Bianca's eyes.

He sees reluctance, and behind that reluctance is fear. It's like looking into a mirror.

Her fear is his own, ricocheting back into him at the mere concept of rejection harming him deeper than any bullet ever could. He lets the silence sit between them for a few seconds, his jaw tight. There's no sign of aggression, but a quiet resignation wraps around him like a blanket eventually.

Quietly, he speaks, voice just as gentle as it's been the entire time that they've known each other. Easy on the ears like velvet.

› BYEnary ›

[TXT -Binary] B. I hear through the Grape Vine that you got caught but are out now.

[TXT - Binary] Where are you? Send me your location and I'll pick you up and take you home for a shower and food and relax before you go back to work xxx