#i think im gonna change pretty much all of jackie's lore. because i hate it

[florenceisfalling]

"please don't leave me here" with jackie and anyone? 👀

i wish i had a record of when you sent this ask but im pretty sure it was over a year ago. anyway now that you have like zero investment in this fandom anymore, here's saidi/mantodea again

i literally watched like 15 videos abt electric locks for this but i didn't want to try to describe "bridging contact points" and shit in a tense scene so u got,, an attempt here. also i barely talk about jackie so to those who dont know: he's in a long fight against an ex-friend of his named daniel who owns a really shitty corrupt company. anyway

Jackie's heart is beating like a drum, like a hammer, like the hand he hears slamming against the door in front of him.

"Hoodie!" Mantodea's muffled voice screams, "I know you're there! Don't leave me in here, asshole!"

Smoke is rising all around him, knocked over shelves spilling out their contents on the grey concrete floor. It smells acrid in here, and it's getting hard to breathe; the heat presses as a vice on Jackie's face. Yet he hesitates, his gloved hand not quite grabbing the door handle. This could be a trick, couldn't it?

As if on cue, there's another bang from the other side of the door, followed by a yelp - it must be hot to the touch. The voice returns, most the rage sapped from it and replaced by panic, "Please don't leave me here!"

That settles it. JB reaches out, trying the door handle and being stopped by the metal click of the lock. Shit. It's electric, now-melting rubber buttons sticking out of it, and he doesn't have a code. He doesn't have time to get a code.

He decides on the age-old method of bashing the crap out of it with his baton.

The metal dents and bends under the pressure until a seam eventually splits and he can jam his fingers inside. He rips off the lock's cover plate and lets it clatter to the ground. The flames that dance across the book shelves and walls are licking at his back now, drawing closer on the floor and making it hard to see past the blurry tears in his eyes. He fumbles around in the maze of metal and wires for a minute until he manages to pull back the spring of the lock, yanking the door open before the metal pin can slide back in place to crush his fingers.

Mantodea stumbles forward, gasping in relief and grabbing his shoulders to keep herself stable. Cursing and shaking, she waves around an unmarked folder before she drops one side of it, letting every page fall out. "Blank! They're all fucking blank, it was a trap!"

She coughs and the folder is shoved into Jackie's chest, where it, too, slides to the ground. To keep her up, he wraps his arm around her and starts to move towards the exit; he feels a sudden burst of gratefulness for the masks they both wear over their mouths and noses.

While JB has his eyes set on getting out, Mantodea looks ready to kick and scream and snap someone's neck. "I - I can't believe I thought it'd be that easy- th-they nearly killed me! And it's all for nothing, the stupid pages are blank!"

The duo scrambles over broken pieces of furniture covered in flames, barely breathing through the smoke and barely keeping themselves from the scalding heat. Jackie swears he can feel blisters forming on the few exposed parts of his body, but finally they reach the door with the glowing EXIT sign, and they tumble into the street with raspy coughs and wheezes.

After a few minutes of catching their breath and dialing the fire and rescue service, Jackie finally and exhaustedly pipes up, "Why did you care about the pages? Wouldn't you... wouldn't you want those company files destroyed?"

Mantodea glares at him, some of her now-singed hair hanging in her eyes. "You... you think I'm on Daniel's side? Jesus, no. Whoever baited you here lied to me, too."

Jackie sighs with relief despite himself at the confirmation that she's on his side. She doesn't stand on enemy lines like he thought, oh, there's hope in the world.

But that leaves other problems.

"We have to get out of here," she says, a snarl marring her face.

"Wait, wh-why? The fire brigade will be here, and then-"

She shakes her head and raises her hand to stop him. "No, no, you don't understand. Daniel's been trying to smear you and me both, remember? Who do you think he's going to blame this arson on?"

A few moments of silence, followed by a short and simple "...Oh."

They leave the street in quite a hurry after that.

#i fucking hate this #this was my original idea for this prompt a year ago and it sucks as much now as it did then #i think im gonna change pretty much all of jackie's lore. because i hate it #and i dont like how i wrote this but FUCK IT i did not watch all those lockpicking videos for nothing #lmao anyway. yeah just wanted to get some of these old prompts out of my inbox #fic requests #my writing #my fics #my ego posts #my ego hcs #jackieboyman #jse egos