The punches weren't delivered with grace or style, but they certainly had a great deal of force. She hammered the punching bag, hands carefully wrapped in bandages, jerking the heavy object back and forth as she struck. First right then left, forming a graceful rhythym that seemed to soothe her even as the sweat flew. As Jess Drake powerfully punched away she tried not to think at all, blanking her mind to everything that was going on in her life... or any recent complications. 'Like the fact I'm being followed,' Jess thought, her wet black hair falling in front of her eyes. Over the past week Jess had caught sight of tails twice, a young man and a classy sort of woman and she suspected there were more. With care they had sdhadowed her to and from work, over to the Daughters and a few other places, too. That annoyed her, especially since it limited what Jess could do... for instance she had deliberately avoided the Sisterhood bookstore. As much as she wanted to try to talk to Alice, she was not leading a unknown enemy right to her. A final blow and Jess stopped, pantig softly as she tried to fight back the slight quiver in her arms. She was out of shape, at least a little, and it showed in the burning of her arms and shoulders. Walking over to where she left her towel she mopped up the sweat, not really caring how her sweat soaked top clung to her flesh along with her matching shorts. The old gym had seen better days, in fact it could even be called a dive, but it suited Jess nicely. It wasn't far from her work or home, it wasn't too pricey and most of the staff minded their own business. Even better most of the customers didn't mind sparing with her, especially when she wanted to work off some steam. "Hey, Drake," Matt said with a grin the younger man looking at her with a smile... and pointedly trying not to look at the body revealed by her tight clothes. 'He's trying to be a gentleman,' Jess thought with amusement, 'how cute.' Aloud she asked, "Still stayig out of trouble, Matt?" "Trying, anyway," Matt conceded, his red hair a little messy from his own work out. His ow muscle shirt was damp with sweat, along with the boxing trunks he normally wore, At nealy six foot tall he looked down at her a little, but not by much. Jess gave him a look, "If you're looking for me, you're already in trouble." Matt laughed quietly, "No, not this time... I just wanted to tell you that a strange woman was asking around here about you." Jess felt a flash of interest, "Oh?" Matt passed a card over, "She even left this." Jess turned the card over, frowning slightly as she read it. "Yamazaki Investigations?" she blinked, "What does a private investigator want with me?" "Been getting into trouble lately?" Matt asked. 'Well, yes,' Jess thought, 'but I spotted the first tail a bit before I hit the drug house.' Instead she said, "Thaks Matt, stop by the shop and I'll give you a break on a tattioo." "I'll think about it," Matt laughed. Carrying the card Jess headed for the change room, considering what she was going to do about this. 'Other than paying our friends at Yamazaki Investigations a little visit,' she thought as she stripped, dropping clothes into her gym bag and walking to the shower. Clean, changed and with a bounce to her step Jess headed out, glad to be doing something active rather than reactive. She headed home first, dropping her gear off before heading out again, this time back to the shop. she reluctantly put a notice up that she was going to be closed for the dat, then headed into the back to get ready... Over at the offices of Yamazaki Investigations there was a long moment of silence, then Lucy Yamazaki repeated, "What do you mean, we've dead ended?" Tom looked glum, but the younger man still was willing to meet her eyes directly. "I mean exactly that," he answered her, "I can't find anything on the woman called Jess Drake before five years ago, when we found out she first turned up in the city." "And we know Drake is probably a assumed name," Lucy noted, the gorgeous asian woman rubbing at her eyes tiredly. "No luck with the facial recognition software, either?" she asked. "I ran Drake's pic through the department of motor vehicles, police databases and even the FBI," Tom answered promptly, "no dice." He smiled grimly, "I even thought she might have had plastic surgery, but nothing came up there too." "Damn," Lucy murmured. Rose didn't wait for a prompt, instead the brown haired young woman handed over a set of papers. "I'm much the same," she said firmly, "I can give chapter and verse on what she's done in the city, but nothing before that, I'm sorry to say." "No one's talking?" Lucy asked. "No," Rose shook her head, "it's more like no one really knows anything. They'll happily talk about what Jess had done either for or to them, but her background... is a blank." "Hmm," Lucy looked up at the ceiling for a moment then asked, "Give me the Readers Digest version of what we have so far, then." "For the first few months after Jess arrived at the city she was a street magician and tattoo artist, not too powerful but skilled," Tom said, "when she came to the attention of the Lady Diana. She made some kind of deal to have Jess' help exclusively and kept her on for two years, until they had a falling out." "Wonder how she got clear of the Lady?" Lucy mused. "There's a couple different stories on the street," Rose took up the story, "but they all have some elements in common. Apparently Diana asked Jess to do something so repugnant that she balked, and was brutally punished by the Lady. Jess struck back at the Lady, how no one's quite sure, but whatever it was scared the Lady badly enough that she leaves Drake alone." "Damn," Lucy murmured. "For the next few months Jess goes on a legendary drinling spree," Tom said with some amusement, "busting up bars and picking fights. She even ended up painting a mural at the Daughters of Artemis when she couldn't pay up for the damages." "She did the archer painting?" Rose blinked in surprise, having not heard that story before. "She must be a good artist..." "It was sometime after that period that she first went back to tattooing, first in a shop with another artist the in her own business," Tom continued. "She also begins what I'd call her crusader phase, working over the last two years to drive organized crime out of her area as well as protecting the citizens from any kinds of supernatural badness," he said. "And her personal life?" Lucy asked thoughtfully. "Drake was a bit of a cad," Rose said to them honestly, "I've talked with more than one of her one-night stands, and she often didn't even call them back or anything else." She frowned in memory, "Jess didn't seem to favor a certain type, either, she's dated people in both the butch and femme end of the spectrum. However, that mostly stopped a few months ago." "About the time she started to see Ms. Sinclaire?" Lucy asked and Rose nodded. "The only other woman Jess saw during that time was Elizabeth," Rose fished a photo of the blonde from the report and passed it over, "and that was on an irregular basis." Delicately she continued, "It seems she was seeing her purely for the sake of erotic relief." Lucy flipped through the papers, nodding to herself thoughtfully. "I think this'll do for a preliminary report to Ms. Sinclaire, but I still wish we had more of her past...." The bell out in the office rang, announcing that someone had come inside. "I thought I locked that," Tom hopped to his feet, "I'll get it." He hurried out into the front office as he put his best 'professional' face on. "Welcome to Yamazaki Investigations, how can I...." he trailed off in surprise. "I understand you've been asking about me?" Jess Drake asked him casually, standing there dressed in her usual jeans and t-shirt. "Uh, boss?" Tom called, looking nervously at the woman they had been following. Lucy Yamasaki and Rose strode out off the inner office, even as Drake looked at them with a thoughtful look. "So," Jess said coldly, "why were you following me?" "I'm sorry," Lucy said calmly, "I can't name my client." Drake smiled back, studying the three of them, "Why did I know you were going to say that?"
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