RP: Bastardpiece Theater [Bastardpiece Theater] Act I: First Steps

"Sorry it couldn't be Aethersperm, ma'am." Kurt had been at the middle of the group while they were walking the mansion, noting in particular any sort of hallways that lead deeper into the mansion, as well as getting a rough idea of any buildings that offered a glimpse into the mansion via its windows. Mostly, he was planning an escape route. "You can feel safe when you're with us."

At that, Kurt gave a very slight bow to the young woman. Whether or not she was truly high class, it didn't matter. What did matter was keeping up the illusion that he represented a group that were dedicated assistants to her.

"My name is Kurt." He then looked towards the rest of the group. "Introduce yourselves to the young lady."

Watching the crack in the door appear and the voice of the young woman, Dex slid the .45 at the rear of his pant's waistband. Not exactly his first choice for where he would conceal it. Though it would work for the time being and he would have to deal with it. Listening to the exchange between Kurt and the young woman, he gave a slight nod at Kurt's order to introduce themselves.

"I'm Dex." stated the man as he leaned back up against the table again.

"Hello young lady," Kira responded in her thick Kuzniyetski dialect and accent. She smiled at the doors. "I am Kira yes? Me and rest of the team will make sure the outdoors will be fine for young lady yes?" Kira was still unsure what to expect, not to mention how young and headstrong the girl will be. If you are to guard someone who does not listen to you it would be troublesome. Hopefully Kira's business will be largely just driving car from place A to place B.

Dick felt a little sorry the girl when she asked if she could go outside. In light of this the pharmacist tried his kindest smile as he made a casual wave to her. "Name's Dick," he offered with a nod, "at your service ma'am."

Amy smiled. "Amy. Looking forward to working with you" although her voice was friendly, inwardly she was already dreading this assignment. She was already expecting this girl to run off to do some fool thing or argue with security decisions.

"Maker-" Fian gasped, caught himself and then tried to look away innociously, this girl is an almost spitting image of his little half-sister in both looks and upbringing, and he now has a conflicting urge to either move closer or back away.

Come on, average that shit out! The voice at the back of his head yelled, so he stood where he was, still uncomfortably looking the other direction, and half mumbled "The name's Fian, I'm with them."

"Bleh, I could care less about those idiots," she sourly replied to Kurt.

Whoever she was, she didn't seem to be a fan of Aethersperm. Or, perhaps the group. Or both?

Fully opening the door, their charge revealed herself in full to the whole team. In all honesty though, it was hard to tell her age. Though the sun dress she wore taunted the mind in regards to the faint curves of her waist and hips, as well as a small, modest bust...she was only five feet tall. If anything, it was hard to believe she was anything more than fourteen or sixteen at the most. Despite this however, despite her face being adorably mousy and meek, her eyes did not share that. They looked from one person to another with a hard, critical stare.

"Hmph. No proper holsters I see," the young blonde girl observed. Tossing her arms into the air, she dramatically despaired, "Oh, how they must care nothing of me if they give under-equipped amateurs for my protection!" making sure to toss in plenty of ham into the act. Sharply turning to point a finger at the Delsaurian, she commanded, "You! Lizard-Butler! Fetch my hat at once!"

Crisply bowing at her order, Nacon replied, "Yes little miss! At once!" and rapidly waddled past her into the room without so much as missing a beat. The girl held a hand to her mouth as she eyed his backside, snickering at the sight before the Delsaurian arrived at what he took to be a closet. As he opened it up, the girl motioned the others to enter with her into the room. "Oh...this is going to take a little bit," the Lizard-Butler despaired, vanishing into what turned out to be a walk-in-closet.

As they all came in, a bedroom complete with fine yet elegant furniture and lush bed came into full view. Though a little girlish in its decor, it was surprisingly tasteful, as it was all neither garish or spartan. Rather, something in between. "Lousy, cheap Benny said he'd make sure they had everything - must have not really cared or something," their yet unnamed charge grumbled to herself, walking to the opposite end of the room. "Or maybe he rushed to get you all or something since he didn't want to keep me..." Though it was muttered more than anything else, a blush briefly rose in her face before it was fought down.

Throwing the door open, the smell of gun oil, solvent and leather assaulted their noses - a small machine shop could be easily seen past her small, slender form as she marched in. Half complete firearms lay scattered about, with several more incomplete and partly milled Zen .45's sitting about. Quickly rummaging, the girl came back to her guards with a cardboard box. "It's not like these are free, so expect to work extra hard to make up for it!" she remarked, thrusting it forward to them all with a defiant look in her eyes.

Inside were several well made leather holsters of various types. Some sewn, some with hammered brass rivets. But all painstakingly, carefully made.

Kurt whistled in amusement at the machine shop that their charge lead them into. Everything you could want...computer controlled milling machines, lathes, surface grinders, the works. Though he wished there were more advanced armaments around, the nature of this mission did require firearms that were more common.

"Not a bad operation you're running here, princess..." He picked up a random frame and checked the slide rails, noting a few imperfections here and there in the overall finish of the cuts. He even looked to the right to notice several automatic reloading presses in the works, gradually producing ammunition in several sizes and types.

At her litte remark regarding the price of the holsters she was giving them, Kurt suppressed his urge to pat the Stylring .45 he had in its chest rig at his left. "Ma'am, we'll do whatever it takes to earn these. You're life is in ou-" Kurt paused a bit "...at least, it's in my capable hands." He turned to the rest of the group "If nothing else, these guys won't be able to live with themselves if they see you filled with holes, which begs the question..."

Kurt tapped his chest rather hard, which produced a thud and a very brief outline of personal body armor showing. "Do you have any of this for yourself? My body can only stop the bullets from hitting you if you're near me. Do you have any personal armor that you can wear under your clothes?"

Dick's eyes went wide when the girl opened up her shop. He wasn't expecting something like this so high above the streets, but it made him glad to be Nepleslian. The pharmacist took in the tools and the products in various states of manufacture trying not to smile too much as he looked.

When their charge returned with the holsters however, the chemist shook his head. "Still rather kind of you, ma'am," Dick commented before picking up one of the sewn ones to inspect it. "Very nice," he nodded, "I'll take good care of it and you."

Dick then began the work of attaching it to his belt and properly holstering the compact.

The little nervous redhead had quietly stood by as each team member introduced themselves to their charge, of course... each introduction started just as Fran had worked up the nerve to say something causing her to bite her tongue rather then speak over one of the others. Eventually leaving her fiddling nervously with her jacket's hem off to the side having given up trying to speak. Of course at the charge's direct and blunt reminder at their state of armament she blushed slightly, her head drooping to the floor. Her handler had been in such a rush and she hadn't thought of acquiring from her own stock before she'd been whisked out the door. The thought of lacking what she needed left her feeling rather naked as she followed the group into a room she could only have dreamed of a few years ago and then one beyond left her speechless... with a massive hint of jealousy. It was always the rich after all... who got all the toys, though as the small trove of holster choices was offered she sat at the back waiting for the others to cherry pick as they wished. Still nervously fiddling with her clothing.

Having spent enough time in the corps to be able to make the "I've seen it all" claim that most men often did admittedly felt his jaw drop a fraction of a centimeter at the sight of the workstation. Noting all of the weapons she had assembled, disassembled or partway through some sort of modification brought him back to the armories aboard the naval ships he so often found himself on. The familiar and comforting smell of gun oil and solvent assailed his senses.

Admiring some of her work as Kurt did, he turned to see their charge with a box of holsters. Glancing at them for a moment admiring the craftsmanship, he reached into the box and grabbed one of the riveted holsters. Observing it closer he saw that it had a clip attachment that meant he didn't have to undo his belt to put the holster on or take it off. Clipping it to the back of his belt, he holstered the .45 compact and waited for the others.

Kira looked a bit like a kid in a candy shop as she looked around the gun-station. The young lady had all she needed to work with guns or even make new one. Kira wished she had this when she was kid, it would make the work she and her grandpa did a lot easier. After all making your own firearm was a bit of a rite of passage for Kuznyietski.

Kira picked up one of the holsters, a leather one bolted together with rivets. She gave it a proper yank to see if it held and it did. "Dis good work," she said with a happy smile. "Might not be too pretty, but gun needs to be comfortable and protected, not look pretty, yes?" With that she proceeded to get the holster on her belt to hide the gun under her jacket.

"Yes, my life is in your capable hands," the girl sarcastically replied, offhandedly brushing off Dick's own offer in the process. "You'd better," the blonde darkly muttered to him. She was sharp, and easily picked up Kurt's own feelings on the matter towards him, as well as the rest of the crew.

Shoving the box of goods into the hands of the shorter of the two redheads as though she were nothing more than an equipment shelf, the group's young charge deftly plucked the partially milled frame out of the man's hands. "Not finished," she quickly remarked, hastily returning it to its resting place. "I still need to finish up the final shaping and deburr the edges before either anodizing or coating the thing." Green eyes darting to his chest, the girl tossed her golden hair back to make sure they all could see her form very clearly - her shoulders were bare save for straps of the green sundress that was worn, and the dress itself was modest, but gave little room for concealing items.

"Does this look like it can hide body armor, let alone a gun?" she sharply asked them all, pointing to her chest with both fingers. Her green eyes briefly darted over Kira and Fran's before she strode over to the former. "Lucky them - they don't need to look pretty," she sourly remarked. Noting Dex, she stomped over to him and grabbed him firmly, turning him around and roughly adjusting the holster so that it hid the lump of a weapon much better - it was her holster after all, and he wasn't quite fully familiar with it. She even went so far as to simply give Amy one herself and put it on for her; a neatly sown one which would hold the weapon in the small of her back. It was broadly made to spread itself across and prevent chafing, and one side was softer, to provide cushion.

Despite all this, she simply didn't forget where she left off. Rounding right back on her, the young woman came back to give Kira a hard, penetrating look. She asked, "These aren't just padded because of armor underneath, are they?", now leaning to eye level and outright staring at the taller woman's bust. "Hmph." Turning up her nose and quickly losing interest, she sauntered out of the workshop.

Only to be greeted by a familiar face.

"Little miss! How is this?" Nacon asked, presenting her with a hat with a green ribbon which matched the dress she wore. "Oh, and what will I call you? I can't be simply referring to you as 'little miss' all the time, can I?" For once, she didn't seem to be sure how to respond to that - whether to try and find something to berate the Delsaurian with, or to simply pat him on his scaly head for the effort. She still settled on something however.

"Leona, thank you," the teenager replied, swiftly but gently plucking the hat out of his grasp before placing it upon her head. Sharply turning about to face the rest of them, the hem of her dress spinning, she scrutinized them all once more. Right before her face softened into a glowing smile.

"So. Do you guys like fishing?" She asked them all. Pointing a finger at Kurt, Leona ordered him about. "I want you going about doing leadery-stuff like you'd usually do. Meanwhile..." her eyes slowly, deliberately fell onto the one member she had been ignoring the whole entire time. Fian. "I want pretty boy here right next to me," Leona sweetly added on, reaching out to adjust his tie with soft, delicate hands - it had somehow became a little bit askew.

"Oh. And the little guy too," she hastily added, referring to Nacon.

Kira watched and listened to the young girl as she acted high and mighty around them. Personally Kira could not care less, even when girl noted that the kuznyietski woman might not be pretty. Kira knew that she was indeed pretty enough and paid not mind to girls barking. Though it was harder when the girl actually addressed her personally.

"I am afraid there is not padding there, no," Kira responded with a cheeky smile. "And I love fishing very much. I and my cousins used to make a boomsticks from dynamite. You need to use pressure and not shrapnel. If you use shrapnel there is not much of fish left to eat. We always brought home such a haul, yes."

Normally her immediate change of mood would of confused him, though as an NCO he was forced to do the same thing with the enlisted men. He was however surprised at her willingness to completely disregard the fact that he stood at least a foot taller than her. Allowing her to fix the holster before she returned to where she had stood after handing out a holster to Amy. As she pointed out Fian and said she wanted him as the personal bodyguard, a low scraping sound could be heard at the back of his throat that sounded like a chuckle.

"Seems almost unfair to the fish." replied Dex as he heard Kira make her statement about dynamite fishing.

Not the first time he had been spoken to that way, but Dick still tensed slightly and gave a quick sigh after the girl had moved on. Then the thought came to him that with watching Leona it likely won't be the last time. The somewhat lost academic then watched as their charge continued through the group.

He looked away slightly as Leona started into their dear leader, Kurt; when she got to Dex, though, he couldn't help but smile and shake his head at her fixing him up. The chemist's eyebrows raised as the girl proceeded to get Amy set up then tracked her over to Kira. Then the shiver started running up Dick's back as he recalled that posture and sighed again.

"Our girls won't be the problem," he thought to himself in his new realization, "This girl will be." Dick then checked his thoughts as he watched their charge head over to Nacon. The pharmacist had to give the Delsaurian some credit for using his uniqueness to abate some of the fate that fell on the rest of them. The talk of fishing caused him to perk up again however, only to make him wonder if what Leona had in mind was different from what he had in mind.

Dick felt his last thought was confirmed when Leona's attention went back to Kurt, seemingly getting to the orders she wanted to deliver. When she grabbed Fian however, the chemist grinned broadly in amusement while attempting to stifle a chuckle. "Hey, Bishounen," he joked, "be careful."

Fian could tell between random suppressing fire and directed fire. This is, despite his attempts to hide in the background, was very much directed fire, directed at him.

But he had deduced that the workshop belonged to Leona even before she demonstrated her familiarity with its tools and products merely by the fact that it was connected and immediately next to her bedroom. Between then and now he had a newfound respect and admiration for the little lady, he always had a thing for girls who made full productive use of their circumstances, especially more so if the alternative option of comfortable idleness was available and not choosen. This, in his opinion, excused her bossiness and set her apart enough from Elsa that he could this time look her in the eye with a soft smile and after she was done with his tie.

"If the lady cannot wear armor, then my body shall be it." He said while executing a deep gentlemanly bow, one thing he did on the way up was shoot Kurt a discreet glance, Fian is supposed to look like he is immediately reporting to this guy after all.

Amy nodded her thanks to Leona as she helped her with her holster. Her earlier observation that the girl would be trouble was now somewhat tempered by the fact that she at least found herself liking the girl and she seemed more capable than expected.

She watched her flirt with Fian with some amusement. She was definitely a pretty girl, although a bit young. Amy just hoped that Prettyboy wouldn't fall for her flirts and complicate the job further. They would have enough difficulty without strong personal emotions getting involved or with personally linking themselves to a high value target.

"Oh dear, don't let Prettyboy's ego get too big, Leona, or he might think he can use it as a shield." she teased. "As for fishing, I can't say I've ever had the chance." she shrugged. It seemed like a trivial way to spend time, but from the looks of it, the idea of being able to spend any amount of time outside of this gilt cage seemed to be exciting for the girl.

Still, outdoors would mean an uncomfortable amount of concealment and open sight lines to deal with and she still had precious little detail on who was targeting this girl, why, and how much they wanted her dead.

Francine didn't like the stares... nor the fact the box of needed items had been haphazardly shoved into her arms by this little tart of a girl. Of course there wasn't much she could do at the moment but stand there, growling silently to herself about wasted time, stupid ideas, and stupid kids.

Finally however the small pile of holsters had been whittled down to one, a worn bit of faded brown leather and grey steel clasps. Reaching in with one hand she plucked it before tossing the now empty box over her shoulder, not caring where it was to land before finally giving her firearm a decent resting place and sliding the mated pair back into her coat pocket. A slight bit of satisfaction coming to her features as she clasped her hands behind her back and waited for the group to figure out what it was to do and then follow them as quietly as she had before.

The short young girl walked around and around Kira as she spoke, gauging her carefully like a predator with prey.

"Hmph. Must have been a small pond - water stops frags and shrapnel fast," she remarked, now losing her interest in the woman. "As for me," Leona began, placing the tips of her fingers upon her chest for emphasis, "Something so sloppy and inelegant won't do!" the girl proudly declared, green eyes brightly shining. It was only a split second later that she muttered something else entirely however.

"If we use grenades again, I might end up gaining weight..."

Storming over to one of the large wardrobes in her room, she opened the carved wood door and revealed a wonderful set of fishing rods, tackle and many other goods. Picking a choice pair of rods for herself, one to use and one for backup as well as a box of all her fixings, Leona handed them both to Nacon, who scurried over to catch it before it was all capriciously dropped on the floor.

Walking up to Fian however, she leaned forward and smiled at the young man. Right before pinching one of cheeks and pulling, running a finger down his chest with another. "And so you will - I don't feel any armor here, so I'll arrange for some." Somehow, her Cheshire Grin wasn't very reassuring - it quickly rounded on Amy and widened as the other girl spoke. "I'll inflate his head all I want until it pops!"

Cackling with glee, Leona lead the way out, her golden hair flowing behind her.

As everyone filed out, Nacon and Francine seemed to be the last ones out. "Ha, high class people are funny," he observed. Turning one of his reptilian eyes on her, he gave the redhead a comforting pat-pat. "Don't worry. Just be a little more assertive next time around to get yourself a nicer one - I'll try and shop around to see what I can find, or find out if she has more," Nacon added before waddling out.

The pair of consoling pats the Delsaurian gave were comforting. Or would have been if he was taller that is - they both inadvertently landed on her soft, pert tush due to his short height. This, combined with the fact that it seemed like they were all toys to Leona, their charge, wasn't likely comforting to Francine at all. In fact...

Shouldn't it perhaps be worrisome for them all?

*****

NEPLESIA!

When one thinks of it, they don't think of green parks, dogs being safely walked on leashes (and shitting on the grass) or manmade lakes filled with fish. This is due to the nature of a megacity that is constantly expanding, constantly growing. As it grows outwards, more and more, the lowest levels fall into over-construction and the nightmare of sheer population density. Worse still, some were chosen to be filled with cement or expanding foaming metal to further reinforce the ever growing foundation of it all.

This meant that things that were inefficient and room-eating like parks simply didn't exist. At least, not lower down. As the mega city was built up, there would naturally be buyers and sellers of land - naturally, the biggest and richest would buy up swaths of land to do with as they pleased, making any assortment of places. They'd eventually sell it as the value of the area in the outer mega-structure shot up through the roof as demand rose and rose as it always did. Higher up, but still under a level or two and shielded from orbit, was one such whimsical use of artificially made city-land.

A park.

For some of the group, this would be perhaps the first time seeing rolling hills, trees, and above all, grass and sunlight, albeit synthetic depending where in Funky City they lived. The group of covertly armored cars had brought them into the park, right into view of one of the man-made lakes. Though hemmed in and surrounded by the rolling green hills, there were many trees and shrubs that broke up line of sight. For them, snipers weren't going to be the most dangerous threat.

Rather, it was perhaps the fat, obese man with a dog that was pissing on a water fountain. Or the brawny cop that electrically stunned both the obese man and the dog for urinating in public and indecent exposure. Maybe it was even the well-off ice cream man in the parking lot that would simply draw out a pistol and off Leona with a shot to the head as she eagerly ran right up to it, arm hooked around Fian's and excitedly pleading for one of the treats.

Just like she was doing. Right now. "Oh! OH! Get me something Fian!~" the blonde girl pleaded him, jostling the young man about as she did so.

Meanwhile Nacon nodded to Kurt as everyone filed out of one of the three vehicles. The Delsaurian walked off to a nice little spot by the shore to set up, somehow whistling while he worked with his hard, scaly lips.

It should perhaps have been impossible, but he did so anyways.