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Shock Factor – Chapter 3

Parker breathed in and out deeply as she entered the room, centering herself as if she was about to leap off a building. Two of the course instructors were standing side by side on a blue gymnastics mat that had been laid out on the floor. A third man was standing several yards back from that next to a card table. He was reloading a new cartridge into his taser.

"You ready, White?"

The man noted Parker's nod and pointed her toward the two instructors on the mat while pointing Eliot toward a wooden bench that was sitting up against the wall. He frowned, but didn't debate the order. He marched across the room and stood, arms crossed, in a rigid posture.

Parker stepped up next to the instructors, raising her hand in a silent greeting as she did so. They smiled widely in response. She didn't think it was because they were happy to see her or even because they were normally emotionally expressive individuals. No, she knew better than that. They'd harped on each individual in her course over the past few weeks and pushed them hard. This wasn't a civilian course, and she accepted their treatment because she wasn't looking for coddling. More often than not a stern, blank face was the only thing she saw when she looked at either one of these men.

But for whatever reason they'd let down those barriers tonight. Maybe it was a small gesture of support for what she and the others were here to do tonight. It was both reassuring and utterly unnerving. She was anxious; her eyes kept darting toward the instructor with the taser in hand. He was checking the cartridge now. She swallowed, the anticipation building in her stomach, and definitely not in a good way. This was worse than the first time Archie had pushed her off a building. She rubbed her arms a little, an unconscious, nervous gesture.

What was it like to be tasered?

That was the question that had brought her here tonight.

You ever been electrocuted? How best to put this? Hmmm….It's like having a rusty knife slowly drawn against every nerve in your body.

She drew in a deep breath as Vector's words grated against any peace of mind she might hope to attain in the moments leading up to the final culmination of her desire to find out what this was all about.

Had she been too lackadaisical in her decisions to use her taser? Eliot thought so. Or at least he had until she professed an earnest interest in filling this gap in her understanding. She knew that he and the others sometimes saw her as the baby of the team. She was the one they had to keep an eye on, the one they had to protect. Of all of them, sometimes she felt that the others felt a need to step between her and any danger that might face her as if she couldn't stomach the exposure to violence or would quiver at the first sign of danger. What they forgot was that she'd been walking on the wrong side of the line between lawful and illegal activities since long before her first growth spurt.

"Ok, White. You remember how this is going to work?"

"Yes." She unzipped her hoodie and threw it to the side.

It skidded across the floor and came to a rest at Eliot's feet. The man looked at the item once before quickly picking it up, depositing it on the bench, and resuming his vigil in a defensive and obviously aggravated stance.

The two instructors stepped up, one on either side of her. She turned around from the instructor holding the taser and faced the opposite wall. She left her back exposed for the taser hit. Left in only a tank top, her arms immediately bristled with goose bumps in the chilly room.

The instructor called out from behind her. "Ok, we're ready. You have any last minute questions?"

She scoffed. There was one big one. What was it like to be tasered? That was the one that had brought her here tonight, to this very moment, to experience pain and fear as she has inflicted on others.

As much as you want to cry out, surrender, do whatever it takes to get the pain to stop, you don't even get that reprieve. No, you're pinned in place like an insect in some exotic bug collector's display case!

The instructor cleared his voice to speak again but Eliot pushed off the wall and took a step forward, matching her bewildered expression with one of concern. "Parker-"

She held up her hand to still his approach and shook her head.

"Parker, are you sure you want to do this? I'm telling you, you don't have something to prove to me here. I know you can be responsible with one of these things. You don't need to put yourself through this."

"Yes, I do," she responded in a whisper. Quiet, perhaps, but absolutely firm. She needed this. She pinned him with a stern expression. "Eliot, I am choosing to do this. And regardless of what happens in the next few minutes, you stay right where you are. No interference, ok?"

He gave a slow nod even though his jaw was locked in stubborn disapproval for what was about to take place.

She threw a glance over her shoulder at the instructor behind her. "I'm ready."

The man responded by dropping into a shooting position and raising the taser. She looked back toward the wall as the instructors each took one of her arms in a tight grip and held her steady.

"Taser, taser, taser!"

The words ended and that dreadfully long second passed in between until she felt the sharp prongs sink into the meat of her back. Then the sharp buzz of the electrical current racing through the wire and spreading through her body.

Her vision went from clear to blurry, interspersed with colored blotches. Every nerve was lit aflame as her muscles clenched. She couldn't move. She might've made a noise; things were fuzzy then. It was all wrong. The world was tilting and she was leaning forward with it. Something was keeping her from falling flat on her face, instead slowly lowering her there as the electrical current flowed along every channel in her body.

Fifty thousand volts.

Five seconds.

Just five seconds. Part of her was awestruck that so much pain could be condensed into so short a time frame. And then she was being pressed into the mat and though her body was no longer on fire but a residual effect remained in the sudden void. Her muscles went lax and flaccid and slight tremors ran through her limbs.

"White, you ok there?"

She made a grunt in response and willed her arm muscles to work so she could get up. The grip on her arms tightened and pressed her back down.

"Easy, we're done. Hold still and let us get the darts out."

She felt a hand lightly brush against the now-sensitive flesh on her back and then a sharp sting as something was pulled out. The process repeated and then the grips on her arms switched from holding her down to helping her sit up.

She breathed heavily for a few moments. Eliot had at some point moved from his position by the wall to crouching in front of her. He pressed her chin upward from its slumped position and prompted her to look at him. "Parker, are you ok?"

She nodded, weakly at first, and then firmer. "I'm ok."

Eliot hadn't moved from where he'd knelt. She sighed deeply, wiped a hand over her face, and rose to her feet quickly so that the men hovering around her didn't have a chance to offer her a hand or try to help her up. She had this.

The two instructors backed up to give her some space to get her bearings. Eliot stepped forward to stand just inches to her side. She scoffed at that. He was expecting her to keel to the side and right into his arms. So protective, the whole lot of them, her adopted family.

She ignored his gesture. She muttered an assurance to the instructors that she was good to go. One of them pulled Eliot aside to give him some tips on just making sure she got home ok. She rolled her eyes at the two of them chatting a few paces away.

Eventually they halted their discussion and Eliot approached, holding out Parker's jacket. "How are you feeling?"

She shrugged, unable to really sum up the experience except in words that seemed to fall too short to give it justice. "It hurt. But I'm fine."

"Was it worth it?" he asked.

She reached a hand over her shoulder to press against the spot where one of the taser prods had dug into her flesh, the memory arcing through her. "I got what I came looking for. Let's go." She led the way out.

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"Parker, try a left at the next corner," Hardison's voice rang in her ear through the comm.

She hooked a tight turn at the next intersection, Eliot sprinting after her tight on her heels. Their steps echoed down the hallway in sync with one another.

Eliot snatched a glance at their pursuers, a pair of guards from the company they were investigating. He cursed low under his breath, they were closing the gap. He pressed forward at a quickened pace, passing Parker with his long strides as he went. "Pick it up, Parker. They're catching up."

She didn't get a chance to formulate a response between her gasping breaths.

Eliot skidded to a stop in front of her. She barely managed to sidestep and slide to a halt next to him instead of crashing into him.

"Damn it, Hardison. There's a wall here!" Eliot snapped at their teammate through the comm.

"What? That's not right. There's nothing in the floor plans for the building about a wall in that hallway."

"Well it didn't appear out of thin air, now did it?" Eliot growled.

"Alright, you two! Turn around, hands in the air. Slowly now," one of the guards barked.

Parker complied first, and upon observing the dangerous expression on Eliot's face, she wondered if the hitter would dart forward and attack. But ultimately, the man realized the futility of their position and complied as well. She didn't miss the fact that he positioned himself directly in front of her and in the line of fire of the guards.

"That's right. Now stay right there," one of them spoke. He addressed his partner next. "Mike, radio up to security and tell them to send us a few more men to help transport these two up to a holding cell. They put down Celeste and Baker on their little chase through the building. That puts them staunchly in the dangerous category."

The second security guard reached for his radio and stepped away to speak softly into it.

In the meantime, Eliot's gaze was focused on the taser in the man's hand. Parker shook her head. As contradictory as it was, Eliot hated tasers. She'd seen him flinch when she used it in his presence. She asked Hardison about it one time. He'd told her that some bad stuff had happened to Eliot when he was held as a captive in Croatia. There were just some things that didn't sit right with Eliot. Like the way he didn't like guns. Parker had assumed that was the reason he'd given the model where you had to actually physically place it against a person's skin. Hardison had told her that what had happened over there, the stuff he never talked about, it also probably explained why he didn't like things that shocked people either.

And yet he had given such an implement to Parker. She'd puzzled about that, but in the end, had chalked it up to sheer practicality. Parker couldn't outmatch someone in hand to hand and there were going to be times she was going to be in a jam and need to protect herself. And as much as Eliot hated the weapon, he'd gifted one upon Parker so she would be safe.

At first she'd used it a little bit, then she'd become very reliant on it. And after the taser course and feeling how much it hurt herself, she had used it a lot less. Only if she was really in a bad place and couldn't figure a way out other than through the person trying to catch her or hurt her. Eliot had actually told her to stop being so conservative with it when a thug had her cornered. She'd hesitated to use it and Eliot had come in and gotten her out of there just seconds before the thug had cocked his gun. There was just no pleasing the man; it was either using it too much or too little.

The taser hurt. The instructors had been right about that. It was just five seconds experienced at five thousand volts. And after those few fleeting moments, all she had was the residual memory. The whole sequence wasn't clear; some pieces of the puzzle were missing. But one thing stood unblurry, and that was the memory of the pain. That was burned into her mind. And every time the taser was seated in her hand and pointed at another individual, she had to weigh whether the person was really evil enough to inflict that kind of suffering upon.

Like the man holding a taser pointed at them now. She didn't know the man's story. She didn't know whether he knew what terrible things his company was doing or whether he was in the dark. Not that she even had her taser with her tonight where she would have to make a decision. No, all Parker and Eliot had were each other.

And Eliot didn't even seem to acknowledge that. He wasn't treating Parker like she could contribute anything in this situation other than to serve as a person for him to protect. She put up with it most of the time. Eliot was big and physically strong. The man had a strong personality that demanded to be acknowledged. It was precisely at the moment that someone underestimated the hitter that they ended up unconscious on the ground.

But strength didn't just come in muscles and demanding such a presence in a room that others couldn't help but stand transfixed, too afraid to move.

Parker stepped up next to Eliot. Her teammate didn't pull his gaze away from attempting to stare down the man aiming the weapon at her.

Strength wasn't just muscle. Sure, it could be displayed in physical dominance, like Eliot's. Or maybe it could be a quieter thing.

She stepped in front of Eliot and advanced further then, purposefully antagonizing the guard. The man stepped back once but then raised his taser and his finger tightened around the trigger. She saw the movement, just barely. She saw the taser darts flying toward her. And then she felt them digging into her belly and felt the electricity web through her. The floor slammed against her body as she dropped. She hoped Eliot could take a cue and use the distraction. That was the one thought that passed through her mind, the one thought that her mind clung to and fought for tooth and nail.

She lay there still for several beats after the electric pulse died out. A hand gripped her own and pulled her to her feet.

"Why'd you do that, Parker? You knew it would hurt. You should've let me handle it," Eliot spoke after a few moments of silence. His voice was soft, gentle, and a little confused.

She rubbed at the spot where she'd accidently bit into her lip in the process. Pulling it away, she saw that a bit of blood coated her finger. She wiped it off on her jeans. "You don't like projectile weapons or weapons that stun," She said simply. "I decided to take care of it."

"But-"

"Strength comes in many forms, Eliot."

He pondered that for a moment, face pensive. His gaze changed after a moment, filled with something that looked every much like awe and a sudden glimmer of understanding. Parker wasn't sure she could assign it a specific meaning, but if she had to pin it down, she would say that Eliot's gaze promised a new respect that she hadn't seen in his eyes before.

He nodded. Together, the two of them ran for the closest exit. She noticed that Eliot didn't plow ahead like he normally did to put down anything that he saw as a threat to Parker's small stature. Side by side, the two of them loped away as equals.

-THE END-

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