RP: Taking It Back [Phase II-A] Arming the Pack

Archies own natural walrus moustache twitched slightly as it was made a mockery of. Quietly the old man wondered just how much of this genetic material from Alex was responsible for the new "Jacob", or if really was just cerebral corruption.

He turned back to Alex with a straight expression. "Well, he appears to at least know his way around a weapon. More than can be said for some of our company." he said flatly before turning towards the precinct, "What are we to do with all officers inside, then?"

Chrys could no help but to smile as Lucas did his flexing. She shook her head as she wiped blood of his head, clean the wound and proceeded to bandage it.

"Those lethal weapons did not help you much against that asshole Brown hun." She said, poking a little at him verbally. "But don't worry luv I am here to protect you." She said and laughed at her own joke.

Stirring in the arms of Princess Hanako, otherwise known as Jake Foster, the platinum-haired but sufficiently drugged up and frazzled out damsel cracked open her eyes and saw the walrus face.

It did not register immediately. She blinked at it several times, hoping to make some sense of the face of the great galoot and figure out, in time, exactly what had happened to poor little Alexis that she should end up in this sort of a mess.

Then, with a slowness that spoke of a consciousness veiled heavily in a brume of mixed drugs, stress and adrenaline, Ally turned her head to regard the gathered crew, or what was left of them at least.

"Uh... Alex" she pointed out, groggily "Your brother's like, pretending to be a bullet walrus."

"So he is." Alex seemed to address Alexis first and with some small amount of bored disgust, but his left hand was still reaching for and gripping firmly Rennik's gun to eject the magazine before he got to the other drugged up patient. Jake still didn't seem to notice anything that was being said. Perhaps he was currently under the belief that he actually was a walrus, so long as he had those bullet-tusks; and therefore incapable of saying anything other than, 'I'm a walrus.'

"The prison seems to be secured." He said, turning slightly enough to face Rennik and Archival.

"I suggest we go extract data from the computer systems and regroup with any inside acquaintances. Perhaps we can learn something of value."

Alex didn't wait for their answers, instead kneeling to retrieve Rennik's magazine turning toward the rubbled front gates of the police station.

-----

Lucas patted Chrys on the shoulder a little too hard, "Baby, you can protect me from whatever you want, as far as I'm concerned. The last thing I want is to get shot in the back 'cuz someone didn't protect me. And, hey-- it'll be nice to have something pretty to look over my shoulder at while I'm turning these guys into somethin' that looks nasty."

Lucas seemed pretty proud of himself for the job that he did. He stood tall and snatched up the imprisoned and injured ID-Sol, hefting him over his shoulders. He lumbered out the door and walked just a few steps before dropping the guy again to greet Alex as he entered the yard.

"Lexi! Buddy, hey!"

"Lucas." Alex responded. "Did you get the computer data?"

"No." Lucas frowned almost immediately. "I was gonna bring you the prisoner first. I punched this guy until he stopped punching me back, and then I dragged 'em downstairs so me an' Chrys could interrogate him and then he-"

"You didn't even knock him unconscious first? I am surprised he did not take you prisoner." Alex said.

"Well, see, that's the thing. He sorta-"

"Whatever, Lucas. The prisoner is secured. You have always been reckless and irresponsible. I don't need to hear more about it now. I will go tend to the computer. Secure the area."

As Alex walked away, Lucas plopped down on the steps and sighed. Really, the yard was so calm aside from the Cheif Inspector's punching sport, it was already deemed secure.

"One of these days, he's gonna say, 'Good job, buddy!' or 'You are most certifiably helpful' or something like that." Lucas told the slumped over prisoner next to him with his chin resting on his arms.

"Good job buddy," CHrys said and patted Lucas on shoulder. She then gave him kiss on his forehead and looked back the way Alex went. "You know you do not have to tell everything to the Stalker. Important thing is that you know you messed up and what you will do with it. He does not care anyway." She said and looked back at Lucas.

"Now cheer up Luv. I dunno if you noticed, but we two were only who even got into the prison and we took down two power armours, only with slight help from absolutely insane person. I don't know about you, but I feel pretty good about myself." She said and grinned widely at Lucas, trying to cheer him up at least a little.

When Alexis found her feet again, and the world was once more right-side-up, her first thoughts were not for the pitching and rolling horizon. She was feeling wobbly, but not that wobbly. The horizon was broken up by a bunch of ugly gray and glass buildings, and was not very interesting, anyway.

Nor were those initial thoughts directed to the question of whether or not the retard had been feeling her up; Alexis would probably have forgiven, it, anyway, since somewhere she'd heard that the mentally challenged were also impotent for some reason. Although the validity of that concept might later be called into question, it meant that he wouldn't really have been feeling her up. It would probably have been some sort of accident. She hiked up the back of her jeans by the belt, tucked her shirts in again, and looked at the prison, trying not to groan.

"This place?" she asked, a dry and petulant disbelief coloring her voice. "This is like, so fucking stupid. I don't even remember what we're doing anymore. Anyone got any cigarettes?"

"You don't need them, you're a better person then that" a very still wobbly Rennik replied as he used the fence to move.
"Now come on, we gotta go computer something or another. It's very important" he added as he hobbled along to an opening in the fence to go inside

A crumpled, slightly blood-stained pack was offered towards Alexis, Archivals voice rumbling with it. "No one lives forever, wot."

The man was still nursing his slashed shoulder and lacerated arm, but he seemed in well enough shape and spirit. The blown barrel of his once-new rifle evident over his shoulder.

"I'm quite certain Alex is already pursuing his goal here. Anyone know if any of the others made it out alive yet?"

Alexis plucked a clean-looking smoke from the blooded packet, tapped the filter on the back of her nail a few times to pack it, and nearly missed it when she looked away to shuck her lighter, the one with the thorny heart engraved on the side in pink and red, and puff. Maybe if she had been a little less sick (or more sick) she would have ended up missing it after all.

But slowly her eyes were drawn to the barrel of Archie's gun.

She let the cigarette dangle from the edge of her lip.

"The fuck you do to that? That thing looks like you plugged it and tried to fire explosive toothpaste."

Archie sighed before helping himself to a slightly bent cigarette and peered over his shoulder at the broken gun before lighting. He turned back to her and reached into his pocket for the fang he'd won off of Alex.

“Something similar to such, yes. Had a spot of trouble when my partner abandoned me.” he said, trying to keep the tone light. “I may have to ask you to look at it when we get back to the sub.”

Lucas smiled at Chrys' attempt to cheer him up.

"Don't worry about me, Momma-bear." he offered, pulling her by her waist over to his lap. Due to her massive frame, it looked somehow appropriate. Lucas put his other arm around her shoulder and pulled her down to his own shoulder. He held her a little bit in a moment of intentional weakness before continuing. "I've been trying to do something to impress Alex for too many years to really worry about it now. If I couldn't please him while we were fighting in the war, there's no way I can please him here and now. I just gotta keep on trying."

Alex, meanwhile, emerged from the precinct building just moments after he'd entered it. He was stuffing a small datapad into his jacket and packing a new box of cigarettes on his hand. He took a seat next to Lucas and Chrys.

"Lucas." Alex started typically enough, "It is very amusing that you would sit and hug that woman while discussing events that likely destroyed her hometown."

Lucas frowned. "She ain't Yamataian... I don't remember the war ever gettin' out of Geshrinopolis and Elysian space." He looked over to Chrys, "You had folks in Geshrinopolis?"

Alex simply smiled softly and shook his head.

-----

Outside, there was once again the soft rumbling of approaching vehicles. This time, it was Sammy Dalton with the technicals again. Unlike the previous day, the technicals were now unmanned, simply pick-up trucks at this point. The technicals behind him were numerous and driven by bored-looking mobsters with obvious regret for leaving their poker game to come give everyone a ride.

Sammy signaled the rest of them to go around and they did thus, going into this prison in a small caravan. The car-dealer himself pulled up to Archie, Alexis, and Jake.

"Afternoon!" He greeted them, stepping out into full-view from the cab. His plaid suit was looking immaculate in comparison to the tears and bloody grime from last night. "How'd the killing go? Is everybody alive?"

"One could hope for better." Archie replied formally, turning to face his employers employer, "I believe all squad members have been accounted for, however a few officers have been wounded at least."

Archie looked at the building he'd been ambushed in across the road outside the gate. "It seems the invasion was better prepared and more advanced than we had imagined."

"Yea but so were the police" Rennik said, stumbling back to the group after eventually realizing that he hadn't actually left and nobody was following.
"I mean, where'd they get all the guns from anyway, 'cuz I sure didn't give any" he said said, closing his eyes as his head spin from the painkillers.

Sammy frowned.

"Actually, we found out about that while everyone was gone." He provided, "It's some of the resistance in this part of town. They lost communication with us about a fortnight ago-- but we told 'em we were gonna plan a rescue. Came back in contact with us around lunch. They told us they'd been throwing duffel-bags over the fence at night."

The very thought of it made Sammy twitchy and panicky while he imagined Alex burning off at him. He instinctively reached into his ticket-pocket for his usual bottle of pills and came up empty.

"Sheesh." He added at that, "Gotta get some more pills, guys."

"I didn't know this was a rescue gig," Alexis replied, honestly; her memory on the matter was foggy, and it wasn't just the drugs. Hadn't she been put under for a little while? The roof of her mouth still tasted metallic.

Ducking down and poking her head inside the car window, Ally glanced around the interior of the vehicle behind the tinted windows. She was Jonesing for a cigarette, if for nothing else to replace that taste. It was suspiciously close to blood.

"Like, got any smokes, or something?"

Chrys looked at Alex. It was not nice look, it was rather mean. Did Alex just tried to point out to Lucas that she was Elysian? He most likely did. Not that she was hiding it, she just was not telling anyone. She did not even consider herself Elysian.

"I might have some blood-family over there," she responded quietly to Lucas, still giving Alex the mean look. "But I never met any of them. I was born on this planet and did not leave it until about a year ago, and that was only for a week or so. I consider myself as nepleslian as the rest of our little group."

"You mean excepting the one in your hand?" Archie asked Alexis, smiling and taking a drag from his own. He turned to look back at where Alex was being his usual unimpressed self with Lucas and Chrys.

"You know, Sir. Do they not keep whatever contraband they confiscate here under the station? Perhaps you will find what you desire in there." he offered. Being a police precinct there probably wasn't a drug lab for miles, or at least a block, maybe.

Alexis stopped and looked down. Then, she jut her lower lip out, just slightly, so that her cigarette’s lit cherry bobbed in front of her nose.

“I’m losing it,” she murmured. “Oh my god.” Standing back from the car, she plucked the cigarette out of her mouth and ashed it, then took another deep draw and dragoned smoke out of her nose. Already, the taste of metal was receding, but it left behind a sort of dingy cottonmouthed numbness that Alexis associated with getting high or drunk and forgetting to take actual liquids for a day or two.

Then, she leaned against the car and stated, "I blame you. That gun is so fucking fucked, you might as well just throw it away. We have dozens more."

Lucas narrowed his eyes at Chrys and Alex. His brain wasn't quite putting two-and-two together. "So, you're... part Geshrin or something? Is this a joke you guys are playing, or am I just not getting something?"

Alex kept his smile firmly in place. He didn't give out any more information. Instead, he stood up and walked around behind them, stopping to lean over to Chrys for a moment and whisper: "Lucas will come to understand in time. He will be a very loyal lover either way, though. He will not care about anything you do wrong. In time, he will come to defend you even from me. You see, This was more for your benefit. You should know that he and I have killed several of your kind, for Yamatai, long ago."

Lucas wimpered, as every time he leaned in, Alex placed the toe of one boot on his forehead and pushed him back. Finally, Alex whispered on last thing before walking away, "Obviously, the man requires care. Do not damage my friend with your romantic entanglement."

-----

"Oh, no, that's fine." Sammy replied slowly to Archie after a paused stare at the precinct building. He knew they'd be willing to help him. After all, his dealerships supplied and in many cases repaired police cruisers. Nonetheless, he wasn't interested in buying drugs from police officers quite yet. His gaze wondered over to the alleyway where he saw Alexis' bike sitting unattended still.

"Hey!" He said, his face perking up in a smile, "That's one of mine, isn't it? Yeah, I sold that bike to..." his finger popped up and pointed at Alexis. "You! Right?"

"Yea," Ally stated, around the cigarette. It was half gone already, turned to little blue spirals in the still and quiet air. "I am surprised you didn't like, notice that before, you know, when we were introduced."

She rubbed her forehead gently, examining the baby-blue Zephyr across the way, trying to find something else to say.

"It's been a really good bike."