Mutants And Mayhem - The Main Thread

"Wah hey, slow down, mate!" Alex said when John 'offered' himself as entertainment. "I'm only into girls, so you're a definitely a no-no, the others might want you, though, I heard being an smart ass fake hobo is arousing for women, and possibly men if you roll that way 'Nutcracker', from the way I heard from Florida's black market."

She then looked to Nicholas. "Also, did I hear that this blue glowy thing is healing? Well, shit, man..." She paused to remove her leather gloves to reveal her bandage ridden hands. "I got this cuts mostly from trying out new spin tricks on my butterfly knives, did not work out as much but hey, practice makes perfect. Would you mind healing it for me, Mister...you still haven't told me your name though."

edited 13th Aug '14 11:26:48 AM by sgtpendulum

"Your tomb." Jon just shrugged at the medic's insistence. "If you get your brains splattered from wasting time out there in unneccesary care and checkups you won't say I didn't warn you. We are not a beneficence."

"ho, and here I thought I was the kinky one." He answered to Alex.

edited 13th Aug '14 11:39:29 AM by AtomicNut

Alex chuckled at Jon's remarks, then she let out a sigh and replied "Oh man, if you think I'm kinky, wait till you see some of the VHS tapes I recovered from my scavenging expeditions because, god dayum, I just took one look at the back of the cover and the 'preview' shots were kinky as hell, made my face as hot as the devil's asshole after a Mexican food buffet. The best part about it is that it fetched a rather high price at black market, sometimes higher than a pistol magazine if it hits the right fetishes."

edited 13th Aug '14 11:57:02 AM by sgtpendulum

Toriar was sure he'd go mad. He'd signed on to this mission to equip these people, fight alongside side them if necessary. But there was no dignity in this. He might as well be fifteen again, he mused, fending off rowdy children on the ride to school.

Between his asinine team and the ill-equipped base for which he was headed - one that lacked the only means by which his unique abilities could even function - Toriar was anticipating the worst.

edited 13th Aug '14 12:07:29 PM by StygianEmperor

Nicolas was going to respond to Alex's question, until the conversation started taking a turn for the weird. Instead, he kept his mouth shut, his expression starting to look apologetic to Lexi.

Well, this has gone downhill in a hurry, Amanda mused. She couldn't wait to play babysitter to these fools. They were heading into enemy territory and all the talk was about sex. No focus whatsoever. If only half of us end up dead by the end of the week, I'll consider it a miracle.

"Sorry, you misunderstood. Carcano isn't here - he's still with my father. Still, he's arranging meetings and making phone calls so you don't have to worry about a black market." Lexi said to Durant.

When Toriar made his complaint about the fireplace, Lexi rolled her eyes and was about to retort when, all of a sudden, Hank stole the words out of her mouth again. She gave him another appreciative nod.

"We are establishing a new base from basically scratch. We'll need you once we do manage to get a forge inside the facility. You just have to be patient until we do. And I'm sure your combat abilities will be able to serve us well until we get that forge." she added. Then she addressed Hank's question.

"Medical facilities. Yeah...here's the thing. We got a first aid kit. And...a table. That's it." Lexi brought up lamely, cursing their lack of resources.

After Sjan started to now flirt with her, Lexi did a truly fantastic Face Palm .

"I'm going to ignore that first comment of yours. But, as for the location of the base, I'm keeping that secret until we get there. There's a slim but still very real chance that we might get captured by NOA patrols en route to our base and I don't want anyone spilling the exact address to them. Besides, you'll all know the exact address, once we get there, whether I chose to tell you or not." Lexi said to the teleporter.

When Doe let out another outburst about Lexi's attractiveness, Dave stepped forward to answer him, leaving Lexi muttering something about wearing trenchcoats from now on. "What did we say about flirting with the boss, you big oaf? And ye'll find out all you need about communications and shit once we get there. So you shut up and sit tight until we do. Got it?" Dave asked, his powerful body, rippling with annoyance.

"Well, it doesn't look like you'll have to shut up for long, bro. We're here." Jimmy the bus driver said, as the purple minibus pulled into a small, deserted parking lot with an even smaller run-down looking garage next to it. The thing looked trashy and way to small to be used for...well, anything really. "Home sweet home everybody. Get out and stretch your legs. Horny bastards probably need it." Lexi called out, muttering that last bit as she followed her own advice and was the first one off the bus. Dave gave everyone one last glare before following suit. Jimmy just sat back and grinned.

"No need to thank me for getting past those patrols. I do what I do." he said, in a not very humble voice.

edited 13th Aug '14 1:23:42 PM by FantasyLiver

Nicolas hummed in amusement. With a thankful smile, he gave Jimmy a pat on the shoulder before absently flicking his hand again, making the blue aura vanish from Doe completely, and following Lexi out.

The sight of the garage they stopped at, though—Nicolas's gait gained a tinge of trepidation.

"Ehm, sorry lieutenant, but my pot..?"

Toriar shook his head as he attached his dagger to his belt and left the bus after them. Did nobody tell his new bosses that his equipment would in all likelihood rust to uselessness before tomorrow morning? He would hardly be serviceable to them in combat naked. He sighed. If the "team" they coerced together was any indication, they were clearly too thickheaded to argue with.

Opening the door to the back of the bus, Toriar withdrew a dark gray metal pole about eight feet in length. At one end was a diamond-shaped blade with a spike jutting from one side and a small hook protruding from the other.◊ This guisarme had been forged early in the morning, along with the rest of the equipment he was currently wearing, partly in case the group came under attack. Though partly, he admitted, to impress any onlookers. His vanity now seemed absurd.

The crossbow. Toriar's heart leapt at the sight of the weapon lying on the floor of the bus. He had forgotten that he'd brought it with him. The weapon was wood, and wonderful, mundane steel. He strapped the weapon to his back, and the small quiver of bolts to his hip. Even through the heads would become unusable, he could possibly find some flint, or failing that, sharpen the wooden shafts.

He swore to himself to make a set of plain steel equipment as soon as he had a forge and a week to spare. At least then he'd have something to fall back upon until he could learn to control his power more adeptly. With his temporary equipment together, Toriar turned to the dilapidated garage, giving it a sullen, but unsurprised look.

edited 13th Aug '14 6:13:46 PM by StygianEmperor

Sjan snickered as Alex, giving more information than was really necessary about her sexuality and the preferences of the local populace, mentioned certain videos popular in these times. "I shudder to think of what lies beyond the previews..." She commented in a droll tone, more amused than embarrassed or titillated - porn was just funny in her opinion, "Remind me to take you to Amsterdam some time - you'd fit right in, Alex." Jimmy announced their arrival, less than modestly flagging his efforts to that end.

Standing Sjan gave a little bow to Jon Doe, "I'm Sjan Haze, also known as Schrodinger." With a wink she disappeared, leaving behind only a faint pull of wind and appearing in front of the dilapidated garage with a similar gust. The teleported turned her body slightly and waved to those still filing out of the bus - her powers had their benefits, even if it did make her tired. It was worth it to get away from the bus of love back there and queuing. She was still a little proud of making Lexi face palm so profoundly.

Amanda was duly impressed by Sjan's little trick. "Oh, another mutant? How interesting. I'm honestly not sure I've ever met another one. I don't spend much time in the safe houses."

She saw a thin patch of grass struggling to survive in a nearby lawn. Not great, but this'll do for a demo. Amanda took a deep breath, stared straight at the plant and concentrated. She could never accurately how her describe her powers worked; the best she could do was say she was "willing vitality" into her target. In several seconds, the plant had grown three feet and looked a healthy green instead of wilting brown.

"Thank you, thank you, I'll be here for the foreseeable future." A wave of exhaustion and nausea swept over Amanda. She had a nasty habit of underestimating the stress of her powers, and cultivated grasses were among the hardest to handle. It would be a good five minutes before she was back to full strength, but it felt damn good to show off.

Hank shrugged as he got off the bus. "Table's better than the ground, at least. Just need to add some rope straps and we can compensate for your lack of medication, too," he chuckled. "Sorry, dentist humor." He paused a brief moment. "But.... That's probably going to be the case soon enough, until we're set up."

"Speaking of which," he added, seeing the girl teleporting and the other one growing some plants. "Come on. You kids ought to hold off on showing off your fancy powers to each other until we've got a run of the place."

Alex was slightly disappointed when Nicholas ignored her request but then again, with all of this discussion, she somewhat understand that the medic does not want to get in knee deep in bullshit, so she just shrugged and put the leather gloves back on. In the corner of her eyes, she saw Lexi doing a facepalm, and goddamn, she's looks seriously adorable doing that, and her smile does not hide that feeling.

Then she heard Sjan's proposal to take her to Amsterdam. "ooh," Alex said, intrigued by the offer. "That sounds romantic, Miss..." she paused for a bit to wait for her to say her name, then Sjan introduced her name to Jon. "Sjan Haze, that's-WOAH!"

It was interrupted when Sjan suddenly teleported from the bus to the outside, surprised Alex a whole lot to say the least, as she jumped back from her seat. Her expression turned from shock to awe as she excitedly closed her knife and grabbed her gym bag from underneath her chair to meet up Sjan on the outside and asked "Sjan? Did you just teleported? Oh man," She giggled in ecstacy, thinking about all the possibilities with her teleportation. "Seriously, we should do a scavenging expedition together, think of all the places we could reach~"

Wordlessly, Toriar put his plumed helmet on and began to walk away. He didn't have a destination in mind, his intent only to put distance between himself and these imbeciles.

edited 13th Aug '14 8:31:24 PM by StygianEmperor

Admittedly, Nicolas didn't give much of an outward response to Sjan's sudden appearance (minus some blinking at the small gust of wind that blew in his face). Amanda making grass grow, on the other hand, had his widened eyes trained on the scene.

"Oh." He made a mental note to ask her more about her capabilities with flora at a later date.

But of course, it was obvious that her little show had quickly left her in an unpleasant state, and he really wanted to help. However, he was hesitant to do much—his healing aura might help alleviate the side effects of the power drainage, but they were now in the open, and Hank had a point about holding off. He just hoped that she could hold out until they finally got indoors.

As the minibus jolted to a stop, a certain young, well-built man splayed in the back row of seats took off his headphones and made to get off the bus through the rear doors, after a brief struggle with his shopping cart.

Wheeling the cart to the garage, Tyler eyed it warily, his expression making it clear that he wasn't impressed, not that anyone would be. Sighing, he complained half-heartedly, "Someone could have told me that this garage looks terrible. I would've brought paint then, to make us look more respectable to new recruits. But I get it, it all has to be very hush hush and non-flashy."

Doe simply shrugged. "So that means I can ask you out?" Doe laughed as he casually dropped down the bus. He took some steps looking right and left, as if wandering. But that was something else. Jonathan Doe was taking mental notes of all possible entry and exit points, the consistence of the building, the equipment and surroundings. Not even paying attention to the flashy displays of powers. Probably the whole glowworm quack had inadvertedly started all. Although well, he would be lying if some of them weren't entertaining.

He adjusted his black beret, looking at the new guy. "Could use some more strippers aswell, pal. Forget the paintjob." He added after finishing the assesment. "Reminds me a certain gutter hole in Colombia. Although as soon as we set up shop, we're distilling moonshine."

Alex was going to make a clever comeback at John's suggestion for strippers and poles when she saw a huge dude with a weirdly shaped helmet, namely Toriar, walking away from the group. Worriedly, she ran half the distance and asked him with mutual concern "Yo, helmet dude! What's wrong, brah, this garage not up to your fancy? Are we too rowdy? We can make it alright for ya!"

Alex was not exactly sure why she care about him since they never actually spoke, she never even hear out his concerns since she's had her eyes on the town and her ears to Lexi and not much else, until John Doe began to make a fuss, they were just sharing the same bus but she never really liked it when someone's seriously mad.

edited 14th Aug '14 2:15:26 AM by sgtpendulum

Sjan scratched the back of her neck, plainly a little embarrassed by the sudden attention of Alex to her trick. Her cheeks blushed slightly as she grinned, "Heh, you'd be surprised by where and what you can get without dancing with quantum physics, but it does come in handy for gate crashing concerts I will admit." She chuckled, wondering exactly what this enthusiastic teenager wanted to scavenge for. The others seemed less impressed, save the one whose grass was always greener so to speak. That made her a little sad, she wasn't an egoist by any measure but she hated to disappoint others.

Alex ran off after the large one in knight's armor, apparently not thrilled by his current company nor the state of their hideout. Sjan couldn't blame him, it was dump but Doe's suggestion for strippers and moonshine was cheering in a crass way, "Booze, bums and boobs - feels like home already." She commented, looking over the guy who'd been hiding at the back - built like a brick shithouse and probably competent. Sjan remembered the beret, currently tucked into the back of her pants, and began twirling it the air around her index finger. "Maybe it's not so bad inside and our tour guide already seems to have everyone's 'attention'." She suggested helpfully to no one in particular.

"Hmmmm? Oh, right. Here." Lexi said absentmindedly to Nicholas, giving the man his pot back. She seemed to be more concerned about the garage. Or, more accurately, the garage's front door - which had just swung open. Dave pointed his rifle at the door, while Lexi drew her revolver with one hand and kept the other on her machete handle. Two men in colorful T-shirts and jeans with black berets stepped out of the building, both carrying metal baseball bats.

"Lucky? Bud? What the hell are you doing here?" Lexi asked the pair as they came forward jovially, apparently recognizing the duo.

"Your old man sent us here yesterday to scope out the place. And to provide a little extra security. He didn't tell y-..." the taller one tried to explain but stopped in fright when he saw Lexi's truly furious expression. Lexi was only 5'2 but she looked like a massive titan when she heard this piece of news.

"Son of a BITCH!" she screamed, kicking a nearby trashcan repeatedly. "It's bad enough that he gives me a personal bodyguard but now you two! Does he not realize I'm not his little girl anymore? Paranoid old fool!" Lexi raged. Lucky and Bud looked scared, while Dave looked confused as to whether or not he should try to restrain Lexi from attacking the poor garbage bin.

But all of them stopped what they were doing when everybody could hear a sound in the distance - like a small train. Lexi and Dave both immediately recognized the noise.

"Tanks! Must be a patrol. Everybody hide!" Lexi screamed for all to hear as she and Dave ran inside the garage. Jimmy, who had helped Tyler getting his shopping cart, let out a choice swear word as he heard the tank.

"Come on man! Let's hide this inside. And somebody might want to get Sir Lancelot over there away before he's spotted." Jimmy said nervously, trying to get the cart inside the garage as fast as possible.

Alex looked back to the group to see if they were willing to convince Toriar to come back but then she saw Sjan scratching her head, blushing all cute and talking about...what she was rambling about. Alex got her head down and her hand over her face to hide her blush and muffled her giggles. After she was done with admiration, Alex ignored some bickering between Lexi and the 2 dudes in gaudy clothing, and replied to Sjan with a flirty smile, combing her fringe in place "Well then, since it's good for concerts, maybe I should take to one then~"

What the girl can't ignore was the sound of the tank over the hills and everyone's freaky reaction to it. At first, she looked over to where the sound is coming from, then turned back to the group and nonchalantly observed "Brah, those are just tanks, nothing to-wait a minute..." Then her brain has started to download the fact that she is on the Nazi's opposing team. "Ooh, yeah right, Im on the Black Beret, oh, oh, OH OH SHIT!" Download completed.

She made a beeline to Toriar, tugged on his muscular arm and begged "Bro! Bro! Get inside! I'm sure the Black Beret will gonna miss you if you're gone, OR DEAD! We won't talked about some bullshits again, pinky promise!"

"I could get into that. But I don't want any sort of no-touch rule on the strippers." Tyler seemed to give the idea some merit, eying the girls with them (especially Lexi) to check if they were stripper material, something he maybe wouldn't have done so quickly and blatantly if he'd heard the groups antics on the minibus, and how far they were willing to take things. But he hadn't, so that point was rather moot.

Tyler's relaxed attitude quickly moved into frenzy mode as he heard the sound of a fast approaching tank, along with the rest of the group, and he utilized his army training into getting the cart into the garage at high speed. "Aren't the NOA going to notice the new, bright purple minibus? Or are they dumb here?" He sincerely hoped that it was the latter, and this batch of NOA soldiers were the dumb fools he'd been with in the early days of his conscription.

As she exited the bus, Amanda was helped slightly by the fresh air. Then she heard the distant rumble of tanks. "Oh, joy. Uncle Noah's armed goons have stopped by for a visit, and we don't have any gifts for them."

She looked at the departing Toriar grimly. The Black Berets could use every man they could get, Amanda knew. But her first priority was getting herself to safety. She rushed inside, hid behind a large tool cabinet, and promptly threw up from the physical exertion and use of her abilities. Helluva first impression I'm making here.

"He's right, no point hiding if they can see the shortbus," Hank said. "Open up those garage doors, we have to put her inside."

A distant tank was a sound Nicolas knew all too well. Taking a second to breathe deeply through his nose, he walked towards the open front door with only a slightly quicker pace, arms tightly wound around his pot.

Before he went through the doorway, though, he turned to Toriar and the girls who had followed him. Freeing his (still slightly sore) left hand, he urgently motioned towards himself and the garage, mouthing out "Come on!" to the three of them.