RP: ISC Phoenix [Prologue] - Just For Today

Luca's quick draw was quite impressive, Panther admitted he was probably not able to imitate such a move, not even a clone. Panther's right hand was holding one of his throwing knives a second after Luca did his draw, which Panther silently put away inside his jacket. Panther nodded to show his acceptance and said, "I see even after death, Luca returns in good form."

"As for me, I have managed to avoid more scars since I had left so I will say that I am well." After saying his bit, he looked over at Seiren and gave him an appreciative nod. Inwardly, he wanted to work with him later since he only had a glance of Seiren's handywork, and wondered if he could aid in his own craft.

The young woman glanced at Luca and a hint of disgust crossed her face for a moment, before she turned back to Lina, glancing down at the woman's assets with a small amount of jealousy before regaining herself, and answering. "I'll take soda, You have any spiced cherry soda?" she ordered, deciding she might as well sit at the bar while she figured out what was going on.

"Go over there, I need to talk to him."
"No." The girl hissed at herself, below her breath.
"seriously, Ellen, this is something important!"
"I don't care." Ellen mumbled "I'm thirsty and the lady offered me a drink, so I'm taking it" She glared at her own reflection on the bartop, seeming annoyed "It's been You, You, You for the past three days anyway. Now it's me time." Ellen could almost feel the voice rolling its currently nonexistant eyes. In fact, she felt the great urge to do so in response to herself.
"Fine. But only one drink, then it's my turn." The voice seemed more than a little annoyed, but knew Ellen was right, at least for the moment.

Enzo didn't seem to take note of Panther's comments, distracted again by Vitalia. Then, by the entrance of yet another teenager. "All these brats." He said, "Must be some kinds of Yamataian cartoons convention in town 'er somethins."

Enzo rolled his eyes and plopped down on a barstool. After a moment of silent smoking, he finally sat up straight with a start and demanded, "Where the fuck are we, anyway!?"

Vitalia had been silent.

She had not, however, been a species of furniture; she had been watching, from her slumped-back lean against the bar counter, the circus come into town. This was all business as usual for Luca, so Vitalia didn't bother participating in her dad's business until she heard something, on the edge of hearing, that didn't quite add up.

It was a voice that she remembered, very well, coming out of the throat of a dark-haired girl who had just walked into the establishment and sat down nearby.

To the exclusion of all other things, Vitalia focused; her entire body came into alignment, as she examined the girl without moving her eyes or attention from Luca and Panther. Vitalia did not have to be looking directly at the girl to know she was there. Anyway, the voice had done it; Vitalia knew she had found the woman that had beaten the shit out of her father, but the realization startled the brown-eyed girl. The culpret did not appear any older than Vitalia did.

Settling her elbow on the bar counter, Vitalia buried her hand in her hair and leaned on it, listening with a bored expression.

"My business has been in resurrection recently. Go figure." Luca replied offhandedly to Panther, after that particular remark about coming back to life. Then again, he was never truly dead - just sleeping and waiting like an old god dreaming to rise again.

And then he heard a voice in the bar. He hadn't noticed the short brunette walk in and take a seat, apparently mumbling to herself. He looked over to her and his mind started to get to work on examining who the woman was.

The last time he heard her, her voice had previously been muddled by a couple of factors - through the speakers of a power armour, and through a phone - and with an entirely different tone. Whilst the voice was the same, the tone that this particular woman had was different - she sounded more like a girl full of doubt rather than the decisive woman he knew.

And this was the woman, who, apparently, beat him up about a week ago and told him to re-embark on his Icarian journey. There was only a minor resemblance between the girl before him, and Aerin Tatst. He sat down at the bar, between Vita and Ellen.

"Who're you?" He asked Ellen, suspecting her true identity since he'd heard the most of her voice. "Are you a fan? Want an autograph or a doll?" He leaned in and looked at her as Lina passed her a spiced cherry soda. There was a hint of resentment for his old glories in his voice.

Where was Aerin's body and her mind - and why would they be in this body? Something wasn't adding up and it was making Luca uncannily nervous. He was hiding it though. There was no way the girl before him now could've beaten him up - even in an armour. Something had to be coaxed out of her.

"I know you're in there, Aerin. Will talk later, just play along." He sent with Yamataian telepathy to Ellen before speaking. "Or do you feel like following me too?" He then snerked. "You look a little green to be following me!"

"Glad nothing exploded!" Seiren sighed happily, pleased that Panther didn't have to break anybody's arm over a little identity crisis. A hand slipped into a pocket, pulling out a plain black notepad with a pen stuck in the spiral above. Flipping to a clean page, he began to scribble down notes for a new design. He was surprised that he didn't think of it sooner, but the memory was jogged by the fact that it was many people's first time meeting the man. In a bar, no less.

"I wonder where I can buy some of that freezing stuff. . ." He mumbled, scratching out a circular shape onto the pad.

Panther was distracted by a new scent entering the bar, and tilted his head to see if it was a threat. After confirming that it was not indeed a gun toting thug bent on spraying gunfire everywhere, he said to Luca, "Not all legends are so lucky, most are legends when they die, not when they live."

After Luca left for the bar, Panther did the same but kept a seat between him and Vit empty. He ordered a mild drink while he thought things over.

During all that Zeta was leaned against the bar. Indeed Panther took her by surprise, but Panther could take by surprise anyone. Still as the Gartagen thug and mr. Cowboy went all aggressive against the Kohanians, Zeta's own hand slipped near the handle of her SiZi plasma revolver. Not drawing but she wanted it handy, should she need to shoot few guns out of few hands. Luckily Luca resolved the situation quite handily.

Now Zeta wanted to say hi to few old faces. Starting with the candy-maker. Zeta took beer, Lisa meanwhile poured for her and went to sit next to Seiren. He as always looked more like she. "Howdy lass," she said cheerfully to tease him little.

Bronzi inched in closer to Seiren. "Yer the boy that looks like a girl aye?" He said with a grunt. Bronzi's face was bare, and his helmet sat limply on his head, its straps dangling under his chin like his short and unkempt hair.

"I remember da candy you gave me yester day...I was wonderin'....can you craft customized ammunition and bombs like that?" He said with a snort.

Bronzi then nodded to Zeta, but kept his attention firmly locked on Seiren.

A young man pushed through the saloon doors and briefly stood there, surveying them all with black tinted eyeglasses.

He was adorned with a black fedora and matching business suit - this person was dressed like a shady businessman, far out of place in this dusty ghost town. Without so much as another moment of hesitation, or interest in the other occupants, this person made his way to the bar and sat down a few seats away from the rest. It was only then that he took off his hat, revealing brown hair which remained immaculately spiked despite the headwear.

"Bar tender? I'll have a shot of whiskey, but I need to ask about something else," he spoke when Lina arrived, "There's a local ad going around for job offerings, but when I arrived, there was nobody there - this is the address. Are you familiar with it?" the odd man out asked her.

It was the address that Luca Pavone and Vita had been staying at.

"Howdy lass,"

"Hi Ze-hey! That's-" He began. Then Bronzi intruded.

"Yer the boy that looks like a girl aye?"

"Wha-but-damnit!" He stammered, dramatically flinging his notepad in the air. The small object gracefully flew up, then not-so-gracefully landed on his head.

"I remember da candy you gave me yester day...I was wonderin'....can you craft customized ammunition and bombs like that?"

"More than that!" The pint-sized inventor cheerfully replied, taking the notepad off of his head while flicking his other hand. A Little Killer pistol extended down into his palm.

Bronzi paused and looked at the hidden weapon for a moment. "Alright baby doll well today's yer luckeh day. I reckon me and you are gonna be pals."

"Ya see I got this shotgun...ya can load it with most anythin ya can find...errr...hrm.*

Bronzi began looking around the bar, he reached over the bar top and loaded his weapon via the muzzle, using a built in ram rod with a bundle of forks and butter knives.

"But yer cleva, and can make all kinds of crazy shit...."

Ellen stopped as she was addressed by Luca, taking on a bored disposition as he spoke, leaning back slightly in disgust has he made some... suggestions. She remained silent, until Lina passed her a drink, at which she simply responded. "I was thirsty, you can get drinks here, right?" She motioned to the beverage before her and took it in hand, subconsciously scooting toward the opposite edge of her chair, annoyed by this uncouth gentleman and wondering why in the hell the woman whose mind was stuck in her body was so enamored with him.

And then the telepathic message came. Ellen's eyes opened wide in a bit of shock, but Aerin's voice emanated within her mind, telling her to calm down and keep cool. Tell him I'm here, and I've heard. Just play along like he says.

"She's here." Ellen then told Luca, offhand. "But not right now. It's Ellen time, so let her know when you're in a better position to talk openly, kay?"

Makari smoothed out his coat and mused at the scene around him. He was entertained by the antics of his new fellow crew members (currently the front loading shotgun) and was near-astonished by the diversity of the group. We've got spacers, yamatai, Neps, a giant lizard-ish guy, a cat man, and little girl, to name a few, he thought. Makari smiled approvingly and signaled the bartender for another round. This was going to be an interesting ride. "So, you going to pin us a nice juicy steak to the wall with that?" he chuckled indicating Bronzi and his shotgun.

"This place is for drinking, not cooking." Lina told the cowboy as she reached under the bar and wrote more down onto the tab. "Go down the road if you want to tear some place a new ass with that thing."

"Shh. Shh. Telepathy. Under the radar that way." Luca said to Ellen with Telepathy.

"Who's here?" John asked as he leaned back and took a look at Ellen. He adjusted his eyeglasses - and didn't recognise the girl.

"Just a girl." Luca turned around and replied. He then looked at the man who strode in - pushing the saloon doors aside. There was something vaguely familiar about him - was it in the face? Was it in the voice?

Lina was happy to answer the kid's question: "The man you're looking for is dangerous." She said with a sultry tease in her voice, "And he's sitting right here..." Her finger trailed along the bar before coming to rest pointing in Luca's direction. The bar was already very crowded, but Luca knew when attention was being drawn to him.

"A johnny come lately then." Luca answered, looking the kid up and down. "What's your name?"

As the kid was about to give his answer, another man came in hot on his heels - screaming through a self-made hole in the ceiling and landing next to the booth that the two freespacers were occupying. He landed face down on the floor with a splat and a snapping noise. Allison swivelled around and leapt out of her seat - Echelon stood up and caught her, falling back into her seat as a holographic, red exclamation point filled the air above her. "!"

How one actually vocalises "!" is difficult to pronounce if you don't have an 11hz speaker for a mouth.

After registering what happened, Luca stood up and gave the kid a finger to wait while he dealt with this. He walked over to the man on the floor, then up at the freespacers. He looked up at the hole in the roof, it was man-shaped.

He then looked back down at the freespacers and asked. "I wonder what this guy wants?" The flat man in question appeared to be unconscious - there was only a bit of blood on the floor from the impact that was slowed by the ceiling - and he was having trouble breathing. "Think you could you wake him up, Somerset?" He then turned around and his voice had some hint of concern. "Anyone else here good at medicine?"

Lina sighed as her gaze went from the ceiling down to the man on the floor. Her head rested gently on her hands, leaning to look at the spectacle. "I hate it when they drop in unannounced." John almost started laughing, but Melissa gave him a stare not to.

"Oi Enzo if ee's dead yer free t' search for loose change." Melissa piped up with a cheeky grin.

Vitalia was on her feet and beside the stricken man almost immediately; the intervening space didn't seem to be a problem.

Without much fanfare, the teenage girl rolled him over, and then crouched with her tush on her heels, and her hands on her knees, examining him.

"He's not dead," the smaller, cuter, curlier-haired Pavone decided after a few moments, "Just terminally stupid. Hey, guy. Guy. Hey. Hey Guy. Hey."

She tapped his cheek a few times, just to check.

"Is it just me," Vitalia reasoned, "Or does this doofus look familiar, dad?"

The young man, dressed like a criminal of the smoother variety, simply raised an eyebrow behind his shades at the initial fall.

He did turn in his stool to better look at the whole scene, but stifled a bit of oncoming laughter as he watched Vita childishly prod and poke the man on the floor. After fighting that off however, the young man hopped off his seat and took a step forward. "Since you did ask Mister Pavone, I happen to have a Bachelor of Science towards the medical field," he explained, kneeling down and examining the person himself.

"Started working towards my Masters, but, there's always something up." The young man then ceased his check, lifting up the brim of his hat so that his eyes peered over the dark oval glasses he wore. "The name's Smith. Hoping you remember that name," he smiled.

Striking green eyes looked up at the battered, bruised leader as the smile became a grin.

Enzo whirled around in his stool and leaned back on the bar to survey the newest victim of the harsh mistress known as Gravity. He let out a sigh and repressed the subtle urges to go ahead and go through the guy's pockets-- distracting himself by focusing on Smith. The look of recognition never dawned on his face, but Enzo knew all too well who Smith was and there was never a time when he was more certain that he disliked another person.

Smith had never really been nice to Naoko.

Enzo had always held a soft spot for Naoko.

And, now that Naoko was long gone-- Enzo still had to deal with Smith. It was like having a tumor, and getting a surgeon who accidentally cut off your arm trying to treat it.

"Well, fuck it all." Enzo said out loud, "If he's deads, let him lay. If he ain't, let him comes around. Fuck 'm othah-woise."

Panther was keeping an eye on Seiren since it seemed things could escalate from where he was sitting, but wasn't too concerned. He only kept an eye out for people who was causing trouble that could be a danger, while doing his best to relax by ordering another beer. The assassin elicited a chuckle when the person fell from the roof, though it did not stop him from clutching a dagger from the back of his hoody jacket.

Bronzi pulled his head back and let out a snort at the challenge. "I'll send these forks and knives into yer ass and then ya can tell me how good it feels."

With that he shouldered his gun and took a deep exaggerated puff of his cigar causing the cherry to light up brightly. He then exhaled a thick plume of rank smelling smoke all over Makari.

"I could do it now, but I reckon if I did, the whole room would start shooting too."