DC Genesis

"That would probably be a good idea," she replied, strapping in her seat belt. "You know this place better than I do, though, obviously, so take me to some place I can fool a whole bunch of idiots." She was actually looking forward to this, in a much better mood she had been a few minutes ago. "No need to hang around with me while I do my thing, either, if you don't want. I only need like a half hour, so if you need to do anything else in the meantime, you should probably go ahead with that."

"Fair enough, I got a spot in mind already," Neal said before turning and heading down a few roads. It was about a ten minute drive, but it would be smooth enough at the very least. There weren't any crazies on the road tonight which was at least a little relief. He continued until he arrived at a small building. "I've been here before, there's a lot of guys in there that think they're great at pool...it's usually the booze talking though. Should be easy for you to wipe them out," Neal said as he unlocked the car door.

"Guess I'll see you in thirty. I'll be waiting right here."

"See you in thirty," Rose said, stepping out of the car with a smirk. When she pushed her way into the bar, which was filled with a lot of musclebound biker guys and sleazy women dressed like sluts, all eyes turned towards her. She just shoved her hands into her jacket pockets and and gave them all a long look. "So, anyone in the mood for some pool?"

In thirty minute's time, she had cleaned out five different guys of about three hundred dollars each, each one more eager than the last to take her down. Of course, she started off as only mildly talented, baiting them into thinking that she could easily be taken down. Then, she turned of the heat and smoked the last few guys.

"Twelve hundred, thirteen hundred, fourteen hundred..." she counted, as she walked back outside into the darkened parking lot. "Now that's how to start off a night."

As Rose earned money, Neal decided to rewards himself of his earlier efforts by enjoying his labors. After Rose had gone inside Neal decided to pull out his phone and admire the view of the pictures that he had taken of Rose earlier. There were some that weren't that great, but there were many that had great views of everything. "I love my life," Neal said simply as he looked at image after image.

Eventually he saw Rose making his way out, so he put his phone away and unlocked the doors before waiting for her to step inside. "So, I take it that it went pretty well?" he asked as he looked at Rose.

"About as well as ever," Rose responded, as she opened the door to get in. When she closed the door behind her, she pulled out the entire roll of hundreds and waved it at him. "Plenty to treat those two nice tonight. I can put the rest aside for my rent, too. All in all, a great way to start the night." She stuffed the money into her pocket, then put her seat belt back on and looked over at Neal. "So, what did you do?"

"Sounds like you were quite successful," Neal said with a smile as he began to start the car up. That wasn't any small wad of cash, and it was great for thirty minutes of work as well. Once the car started he began to pull out, knowing how to get to the strip club from here. "Oh I really just checked my phone, noticed I had a few texts that I had to respond to. Otherwise it was nothing exciting," he admitted before driving off in the direction of the club.

Rose rolled her eyes a bit, snorting out a laugh. "Well, that sounds riveting... if you were smart, you'd have picked up condoms. But I guess we can't all be smart." She grew a mocking grin on her face, glancing at him out of the corner of her eyes. She was of course just teasing the hell out of him; it was always fun to see what kind of reaction she could pull from someone. "Anyway, off to the strip club. I really want to see that Selina again... she knows how to work it."

"Shows what you know, I already have some on me. Got em while you were getting your clothes," Neal said despite the fact he didn't reach in to his pocket to show any proof that he was telling the truth. They were there though. "And believe me I know, I hope Holly is working tonight," he added as they kept going. "For being new she really knew how to work that body of hers."

Rose immediately turned her head to stare at him, lifting one of her eyebrows. "You already..." She blinked a couple of times, then looked away again, pursing her lips and crossing her arms over her chest. Well, shit... eh, maybe she'd feel differently after being aroused by Selina again. Last night she would have been willing to screw the hell out of Neal, regardless of what she thought of him. Not so much right now, but... hey, she wasn't in the mood yet. "Yeah, Holly was nice, too, but I like my women older. Not so much with guys... but definitely older women."

"Well I can't blame you on that one, that Selina wasn't exactly inexperienced from what I saw of her," Neal admitted as he kept driving. "I like my girls only a little older though, that or right at my age," he commented as they drove. "We all have our own tastes though, but I really hope that those two are working again for both of our sakes."

Eventually they drove up to the parking lot of the strip club, right before Neal stopped the car and hopped out and went for his ID. "Ladies first," he said as he glanced at Rose and motioned to the door.

Rose gave him a curious look before heading up to the front entrance of the club and showing her ID to the doorman. Once again, she got through without a problem. "I'll grab us some drinks," she said over her shoulder. Then, she disappeared inside and went straight to the bar to buy a couple beers for her and Neal. From the looks of it, neither Selina nor Holly was on stage, or over by the lap dance area. It was possible that they were back in the dressing rooms, or already giving dances to someone else. They would just have to be patient for now.

"Sounds like a plan, I'll try to get us some seats," Neal said before Rose went in and got in without a problem. Once again Neal held up his normal idea, but to the man checking the doors it looked completely legitimate and Neal got inside with zero problems. Afterwards he made his way over to the stage area, getting seats right by where they were before. If Selina or Holly were on state, they would hopefully be able to make eye contact well enough.

He waited there, once again putting his coat over another seat in order to save it for Rose.

"No sign of them so far," Rose said, passing him a beer as she sat down next to Neal at the front of the stage. The current dancer wasn't that bad, for sure, with a nice rack and a sexy 'hot teacher' outfit that she was quickly removing. Still, she was no Selina. "Guess we just sit back and enjoy the show for now."

And so they watched, and waited, as new dancers came and went. They were all great, and they did make Rose a little warm, but the growing doubt that Selina or Holly were working tonight slowly started to drag at the back of her mind. She must have gone through five or six beers by the time a tenth dancer finished her act. Of couse, with her metabolism, she barely felt any side effects, but that wasn't the point.

"Hnh... I'm starting to think they might not be here," she muttered. "You see the manager anywhere? Maybe we can ask if they're on shift tonight."

"You'll hear no complaining from me on that point," Neal said as he leaned back and started to drink back his beer. If he was going to be driving than the most he would allow himself would be two, that was what he told himself at least. He laid back in his chair, watching as dancer after dancer went by.

As the night moved on Neal only let Rose by him one more drink before declining any others. He just looked around, wondering where Holly and Selina were. Neal had been glancing around and hadn't seen either of them all night. At Rose's suggestion he got an idea. "Hang on," he said before turning to a nearby waitress and getting her attention.

"Excuse me," he said so that she would come over. "My friends and I here were wondering if Selina and Holly were working tonight. Would you happen to know if they are? Or at least who we could ask that could help us?"

The waitress that Neal stopped gave him a puzzled look for a moment after he asked his question, nervously shifting her weight. "Um... Selina and Holly? No... they're, uh, they're not in today. They... uh, they're... not in." She then quickly hurried off to go take care off to take care of a customer.

Neal just stood there for a moment, surprised at the answer he got. For someone just saying they weren't in, it seemed like quite an uncomfortable answer. Neal slowly moved over and glanced over at Rose. He was quiet for a moment before finally deciding to speak. "Did that whole conversation seem a little strange or was that just me?"

"Um.... yeah," Rose muttered, watching the waitress carefully as she walked away. There was no way that had been a simple 'they weren't in'. So then what was going on? "Either way, doesn't look like they're here... kind of disappointed, but I guess we'll just have to settle for what's here." Looking back towards the lap dance area, she spotted a couple of the better looking strippers. "So, how about a lap dance?"

"How strange," Neal commented as he just continued to sit there and think. He couldn't help but wonder what would cause both of them to be out at the same time. The two weren't sisters were they? They didn't look that much alike after all, but maybe Neal just couldn't see it or something like that. Still though, long as they were here they might as well enjoy themselves.

"Well, I certainly won't say no to that," Neal said as he glanced over at the strippers that Rose was looking at from afar.

"I think I'm gonna go with the Asian, myself," she said, eyeing the Chinese woman near the curtain. "What about you? The blonde looks pretty nice." Rose quickly got up from her seat and started making her way towards the lap dance area. As she was on her way there, however, she just happened to glance towards the back of the club, near the rear exit. It was down a darkened hallway next to the curtains, but she had better than normal eyesight. She caught sight of a man in a suit pushing his way out of the door, revealing a back alleyway beyond. And, farther down that alley... Holly.

"Hold up," she said, putting a hand on Neal's chest to stop him. She stood there for another second, as the exit door closed, and then finally started heading out of the club. "I need to see something."

"I'm thinking so, either the blonde or the one with the long black hair. I can't decide which though," Neal commented as he walked forward. He would just see which one he wanted as he arrived, he didn't have any other real choices after all. He would just go with his gut, once he got closer he would know which one he would want to pay for.

However, before they even got there Rose was quick to hold up a hand and stop Neal from continuing forward at all. He stopped and glanced at Rose just in time to see that she was staring at something intently. He wasn't sure what was going on, but Rose looked concerned. "What is it?" he asked simply as he started to follow her.

Rose didn't answer until they made it outside into the parking lot. It was snowing now, a little more than flurries, and the snowflakes were big and fluffy. It seemed so peaceful, so calm... yet there was something distinctly not right about that night. Tugging on Neal's arm, she started dragging him around the side of the building, towards the alley.

"I saw Holly through the back exit when it opened, "she said. "That strike you as a little odd?"

She crouched behind a dumpster with him, pulling him low and peering slightly over the top. Near the end of the alley, a couple men in suits were talking with Holly herself, who was dressed in a big fluffy coat.

"Do I... do I have to?" the girl questioned, a certain fearfulness in her voice.

"You know the drill," one of the men replied. "It's your turn. You want to keep this job, you'll do what you're told, or we'll send you back to the street corner where we found you."

The man chuckled, a grin spreading across his face. "Yeah, you and that friend of yours. Let's be honest now, good ol' Mac treats you better than that prick pimp of yours did, am I right?"

Holly said nothing, simply looking away from him. "Can we just get this over with, then?"

"Still waiting for the other one," the guy said. Almost on cue, the exit door opened, revealing Selina, in a long black coat and sunglasses, in spite of the fact that it was night and she'd just been inside a dark club. "Ah, there she is. You're looking nice tonight, Selina."

"Shut up, Frankie," she retorted, glaring at him. "It's bad enough Mac wants us both tonight, I don't need you patronizing me, too."

"Eh, whatever," he muttered, leading them farther down the alley, towards a set of steps that led downward below street level. They all disappeared soon after through a heavy metal door.

Rose looked back to Neal and narrowed her eyes. "Okay, so that's... weird."

"Holly? But if she doesn't work tonight than what would she be doing here?" Neal asked rhetorically. Obviously Rose didn't know and thus he didn't expect any sort of an answer. He just moved out with her, moving behind the dumpster before watching the whole exchange take place.

He watched curiously, wondering just what exactly was going on. He got out a bit of the information, like the fact that Holly and Selina used to be prostitutes apparently. This was crazy, was what Neal thought was going on actually going on? "Weird? How about completely wrong and illegal?" Neal questioned as he looked over at Rose. "It sounds like the owner of this place forces his strippers to have sex with them in exchange for their job....at least, I think that's what's going on here."

"Well... yeah, that, too," Rose muttered with a small shrug. She started moving out from behind the dumpster and walking down the alley. " And I'd say that sounds pretty spot on, Sherlock. Question is, what do we do about it? We could call the cops, but we don't have any proof of anything. We could do nothing and go back inside, forget all about it... but I like those two. Which leaves the only logical choice." She stopped at the top of the steps that led downwards, eyeing the door carefully. With a small grin, she cracked her knuckles and added, "We kick some ass."

"Yeah you're right, we don't have any proof to show that anything is going on here. Until tonight you and I thought that this place was a legitimate business after all," Neal mentioned as he looked down the area where Rose was heading and soon followed her. He stood at the top of the steps before listening to what Rose said about going in. He looked at her in surprise, questioning if he had heard her right.

"Rose, I'm not sure that's a particularly good idea. We don't even know how many guys are in there. Besides, there's no telling what they might do to us if they get their hands on us."

Rose lifted an eyebrow at him, shaking her head slightly as she reached into her pocket. She pulled out one of her hundreds and stuffed it into Neal's pocket. "Well then fine, you go buy yourself a lap dance and forget all about this. Meanwhile, I'm gonna go knock a few skulls in." She then hurried down the stairs towards the door, pausing only briefly to look back up at him. "Or, you could quit being such a girl and put whatever special talent that is of yours to use."

It couldn't really come as a shock that she had figured out he had something special about him, considering their confrontation at the bar that had left her all kinds of confused. She didn't know what he had done, but if not for her precog it might have fooled her. To you average, everyday mooks, however, it should be cake. Taking in a deep breath, she kicked the door open with a astounding force, considering it was about half a foot thick and made of steel. She even left behind a serious dent in it.

Rose moved inside the small room beyond, a room that looked sort of like a lounge area, although no one else was there. She spotted a few hallways leading away from the room, so she picked one and started to make her way towards it. Almost as soon as she did, one of the guys in a suit walked out of a side door. He froze for a moment when he saw her, just staring dumbly. Then, he started to run back the way he came, holding a hand up to his mouth to call out... when Rose lunged over a couch, drove a flying kick directly into the back of his skull, and sent him crashing face first into the wall. The man crumpled to the ground a second later, out cold.

"Keep looking for them," she said, continuing down the hallway as if she hadn't just pulled a move out of a Jet Li film.