Chapter One: Rumors in Red Light
"We were swamped by Longcoats," Jeb said, ripping off his bandanna and wrapping it around his father's forehead, where a long cut threatened to bleed into his eyes. "Had to hole ourselves up in a whorehouse until it was safe. We heard them talking about you, about what they were planning to do to DG."
To say that Azkadellia was uncomfortable was something of an understatement. Jeb and Glitch had assured her that no one could recognize the princess under the shawl wrapped around her head and over her mouth, as well as the dramatic change in clothing. Truth be told, she was more worried that she'd been separated from her sister--since the eclipse, the furthest apart they had been was the length of the palace. They were each others' shadows, and Az felt DG's absence too powerfully, and it made her empty stomach roll with anxiety. DG was able to take care of herself, and she had that guard-dog of a Tin Man holding her close. It wasn't DG she was worried about.
She squeezed Glitch's hand tightly, and if it caused him any pain, he didn't make a sign or say a word.
Jeb held up his hand, and they stopped on command behind them. He slowly moved them backward into the shadow of the nearest building, where they pressed themselves up against the wall with as little movement as possible. An armed group of five Longcoats stood nearby, bathed in the orange glow of a tall lamppost. Jeb checked his gun, his face drawn, then looked back over his shoulder at his companions.
"What's the plan?" Glitch asked, one arm protective around Az's waist as they held themselves against the wall. His eyes were flicking to the Longcoats almost eagerly.
"Not what you're thinking," Jeb said almost immediately. "If we rush them, we'd have a good chance of taking them out. But I'm not taking the chance that they've got friends hiding where we can't see them. I've made that mistake before." He trailed off into his thoughts, something painful hiding behind the eyes so much like his father's. That same cold regret and steel resolve that Glitch had come to associate with the Tin Man. Seeing it in the eyes of a boy still so young was nearly frightening.
"We'll follow your lead," Az encouraged him. She wasn't sure how close she could put herself without his discomfort, and to test this, she placed a soft hand on his shoulder. "Tell us what to do."
Jeb's eyes lingered on Az's hand, but he didn't flinch from her. He was through with the childish thoughts of revenge long ago. She was a princess, not the foul creature who had imprisoned his father and killed his mother--no, that monster was somewhere in the city. And Jeb planned on finding him as quickly as possible. Even his father would have a hard time convincing him to spare the man's life this time.
"We're looking for an old contact of mine," Jeb said quietly, moving them back further into the shadows. "I'm sure Father has plans of his own, and a couple loyal friends he can get to. I've got my own girl on the inside."
Ambrose was suddenly in Glitch's eyes, and he stared the boy down incredulously, as well as swept their surroundings. Had Jeb been someone else, he might have blushed.
"Put those eyes away," he warned. "It's not like that. She's been working with the resistance for almost as long as I have. It was necessary to have someone like her with an ear to the Longcoat activity in the city. We learned about more raids that way."
"And she's a..." Ambrose flicked his eyes over to Az, and a soft expression came to his normally sharp gaze. He searched for a kinder word, and even whispered it as if that would lessen its effect. "Scarlet woman?"
Jeb nodded tightly, also shooting his eyes to Az.
"Why are you all intent on staring at me?" she asked in reply. "Five minutes in the district isn't going to have me hiking up my skirts and coaxing burly Longcoats to my arms."
"You've got an acidic wit about you, Highness," Ambrose replied, the corners of his mouth turning up pleasantly. "Hopefully, we won't need your feminine wiles." His eyes shot to Jeb questioningly. "Right?"
"Hopefully," Jeb echoed. "All right, we only have our hour. The building's just two down from this one here. Looks like we'll be taking the back street." He shot a look back toward the congregation of Longcoats, down their alley, then nodded to the two of them. The three made their way quietly to the back street, and the smell reached them first. Az most definitely didn't want to think about what was in the cans of garbage outside the whorehouses, and she pinched her nose closed to try to block out the thoughts as well as the stench.
Their progress was thankfully quick, and Jeb ducked his head around corners to check their safety first. When all was clear, he motioned them silently into the back door he was holding open. Ambrose gestured Az in first, and he followed quickly after to keep her at arm's length. Jeb closed the door after he'd stepped inside and checked to make sure that the door was locked.
The back room of the first floor was nearly empty, save for overly-plush furniture and a few risque paintings on the walls. It was a lounge of some sort, and a small bar stood in one corner. The atmosphere was smoky, as if a cigar had been smoked only recently and the smoker had left rather quickly. To prove this, a tiny stub had been snubbed out in an ashtray on the bar. Jeb searched the room first, and came up with nothing--no hiding Longcoats or hidden informants.
"Let's hope your inside girl isn't preoccupied," Ambrose muttered lightly under his breath.
For the first time in their acquaintance, Jeb was glad to see Ambrose instead of Glitch. While he preferred the zipperhead to the stuffy advisor, there were times when Glitch's more innocent nature would be a hinderance. He was sure that Glitch would be a blushing, stuttering mess when faced with the girls of the house. Ambrose would be aloof and would most likely silently judge all of them. But he wouldn't do anything stupid to reveal their position or give away any valuable information. They needed Ambrose, no matter how affable Glitch was.
"Me too," Jeb replied in the same voice. He watched Az for a moment, taking in her pallor and worried expression. "Are you all right, Az?"
Az looked almost surprised at the form of address, and she smiled under the shawl even if he couldn't see it. "Just a little winded. I'm perfectly fine. Let's find your girl."
The hallway outside of the back room was dimly lit and decorated in gold and red. The lampshades over the lights hanging on the walls were tinted a dark red color to fill the hall with ambiance and a dark smoky feel without the smoke. Intimate, warm, just the kind of feelings the girls were trying to evoke. The front room opened up before them, and Jeb urged the two to remain in the hallway while he found his girl's whereabouts. He was well-known, but strangers in his wake was still likely to raise suspicion.
The front lounge was populated by girls and couches, as well as a few customers that had come to ward away the pressure and fear that the sudden reemergence of the Longcoats had brought. The girls didn't seem to mind; a platinum was a platinum. Jeb's eyes darted around for a familiar face, and he was relived to find her alone on a small red loveseat. She was thin but not overly so, and her round face spoke of young innocence that had long been lost. Her wavy blonde hair was pinned back away from her face, where dark brown almond eyes watched a nearby pair wistfully. Jeb made his way quickly to her side.
"Daisy," he said as he knelt beside the small sofa. She retained her calm outward appearance, but her eyes went slightly wide.
"Jeb Cain," she whispered, and her voice spoke her age more than her looks. Ambrose placed her at barely over sixteen annuals. "Fancy seeing you here when Longcoats are shouting your name in the streets. You're a popular fella."
"I was afraid of that," he grumbled, lowering his eyes and pretending to scope Daisy out for a prospective romp. "What are they shouting about?"
"Your head on a platter, I think," she said calmly, tracing her fingers along Jeb's shoulder to keep up the illusion. "Adrian Zero is back in town, apparently, and wants you dead almost as much as he does your father." She tossed a glance over her shoulder to a couple who was suddenly making an awful lot of noise. Daisy leaned in closer, nearly grazing Jeb's ear with her lips. "The usual room. And if those shadows in the hallway are yours, you better sneak them up too. They're resistance?"
"Try a princess and a headcase," Jeb smirked. At Daisy's befuddled look, he simply replied, "Trust me, they're with us. Maybe more than I am."
"I'll see you in five," Daisy said, not yet pulling away. "If I'm not there by then, you know what to do."
"It's good to see you again, too," he returned. With that, he stood to his full height, pressed a heavy coin into her hands and gave her a broad, practiced wink. A smile curled up on her lips like a cat's.
Jeb returned to the hallway to pick up Az and Ambrose, gesturing them quickly away to the nearby, nearly-hidden flight of stairs. Through the shadows, they went up two flights and turned into the hallway. It was still dim and lit with hazy red light. Jeb held Az back, checking the hallway for prowling Longcoats, then quickly ushered them to a room with the brass number "32" tacked onto it. They went in first, and Jeb made sure to lock the door behind him.
He turned up the lights slightly and was glad to see Daisy sitting on a chair across the room. Glitch jumped as she was revealed in the suddenly light, a hand to his chest to catch his breath.
"Don't do that!" he warned, looking winded. Az's hand on his shoulder brought him back.
"Who are your friends, Jeb?" Daisy asked, crossing one leg over the other. For a girl of her age, she exuded maturity from her very pores.
"How thick are these walls?" Jeb asked, all seriousness.
"We've talked about overthrowing oppressive government regimes in this room," Daisy replied with a slight tweak of a smirk.
"This is bigger than that," Jeb returned, and all the jocularity drained out of Daisy's face.
"They're thick enough," she replied, her eyes now on Az. "And the occupants of the surrounding rooms are far more interested in what's going on in their own little worlds, trust me."
Jeb took a sideways glance at Glitch--he was Glitch now, and Jeb winced at the fact--and Az. "Daisy, I'd like to introduce Princess Azkadellia."
At the cue, Az unwound the shawl around her head and mouth to reveal herself to Jeb's informant. Daisy's face didn't register anything for a short moment, her eyes flashing over Az's face, taking it all in. Her eyes flicked at once up to Jeb's, and it was most definitely concern hiding in them.
"You made a mistake bringing her here, Jeb." She was standing suddenly, and Az noticed that even without shoes, Daisy matched Jeb in height exactly. "What the hell were you thinking?"
"It was her idea," Jeb countered. "And I'll tell you something else--she's not the only princess in Central City."
Daisy fixed Jeb with a stare of complete incredulity. "Why?"
"Because Zero's back in town, like you said." Finally, talk was migrating to their purpose. "He kidnapped the Queen and consort and brought them back here. DG and Az just want to get their parents back."
Daisy's pretty face remained stoic, revealing nothing. "I heard a rumor..." she shook her head and looked almost dazed for a moment. "He really has them, then?"
"Have you heard anything? Where he's holed himself up, how many Longcoats he has with him? Any plans?"
"Anything would help," Glitch cut in.
"A rumor," Az said, complimenting Glitch's inquiry. "You spoke of rumors. What do they say about my parents?"
Daisy watched Jeb, searching his eyes and not answering. Jeb nearly rolled his eyes and was all too glad he restrained himself. "If you can't trust the princess, who can you trust?"
The informant pressed her lips thin until they were white. "I've heard several things. Most are ridiculous, but some..." She shivered. "Jeb, they sent chills right through me, and I swear I've never been more afraid."
She regained her composure when Jeb held her shoulder comfortingly. "Zero's gone mad. Something in his brain snapped when he was locked in that tin suit your father was so clever to use. Unfortunately, it's backfired on us. He thinks he's invincible, that he's more powerful because he's lost the need for sanity. Like it was holding him back. Any of the girls he's taken from the houses never come back."
Az felt something turn over in her stomach again, and when she pressed a hand to her mouth to keep the feeling inside, Glitch's hand wound reassuringly around her shoulders.
"When the Longcoats came last night, one of them picked me." A glaze came into her eye, like she was blocking out the feeling that rotted in her gut. "He gloated about the Queen, but I thought he was trying to impress me, or sound big. When he'd finished with me, he was laughing and... He mentioned a theater. I don't know which." She shook again. "We were all so afraid that they would take one of us back to Zero."
"Don't worry about him," Jeb said in as assuring a voice as he could muster against the new information. "I'm prepared to take him down to protect the princess. My father would say the same thing."
Then, Daisy's eyes went scary wide. All of the composure she had was gone. "Your father's in the city?"
"You think I would take on an army by myself?" He looked over his shoulder to Glitch. "No offense."
"Everyone's afraid of offending me," Glitch mumbled with a wide shrug.
"Zero's calling for your father most of all, Jeb," Daisy said quickly. "If he gets his hand on him, he's dead. There's no question."
Jeb shook his head, but cold fear had replaced the stoicism in his eye. "He won't get caught."
Just then, there was a heavy sound against the door. Daisy was quicker than any of them. She quickly grabbed Az by the wrist and threw her into the nearby closet. Glitch and Jeb were quick and silent to follow, both holding protective arms around the princess as Daisy closed them in. Darkness and silence enveloped them.
The door to the hallway opened, and Jeb wished that there was a way to see outside.
"I'd remember your face anywhere, handsome," Daisy said, her voice holding nothing of the fear she'd expressed only moments earlier. She was the sultry being she needed to be.
"Off duty," a gruff voice replied. "Looks like you are too."
"Observant," Daisy replied, the smile evident in her voice. "I like that."
"I only got fifteen minutes," the male voice replied, and the three in the closet could hear them move inside the room and shut the door. "Gotta make this quick."
"Standard Longcoat discount," Daisy said, though Jeb could feel the undercurrent of loathing.
Az was quick to plug her ears, and Glitch copied her motion, screwing his eyes shut. Jeb didn't dare to close his ears. He needed to hear everything this Longcoat said, even if it mean listening to the Longcoat have his way with one of Jeb's closest friends.
AN: Well, plenty of you asked for it, so here it is! I, uh... apologize for the lame-ass title, but I literally could not think of another one. (it took all my strength not to call it "Jeb, Az and Glitch's Whirlwind Adventure in Harlot Land!" or something). Jeb is fun, and I didn't realize how much until I had him on his own. Huzzah! He can grow as a character! This is my first Tin Man work without Cain and DG in it! So, I was thinking I could squeeze three chapters of this length out of this story arc. How does that sound? Are you with me? Should this not even exist? Lemme know, and I'll do what I can! Thanks for reading, y'all are awesome :D (oh, and how d'you like Daisy? HOOKER WITH A HEART OF GOLD!!) Thank you again, and don't forget, even though this is a new(ish) story, I still expect you to STAY AWESOME!!