RP: ISC Phoenix [Quick Interlude 2] - The Tools of the Trade.

"I believe I can take you there," said Cranebeinn, walking towards Vincent. "You must be that new fellow I heard Jim mention on the communicator. I'm Crane, your humble chef and pyrotechnics expert." As he began to walk with Vincent towards the kitchen, he turned back to Luca. "I'm glad you brought some kitchenware. I took the liberty of spending some of my money on food supplies, so after everything's set up, I'll cook a meal for everyone tonight."

"Very good. I suspect you're the chef, then?" Vincent said, following obediently. Obviously he would depend on someone to lead him until he learned the layout of the base, in which case he would play a larger role in moving the equipment.

Luca had two of the unassembled bunk-bed frames in his hands as he walked past Vincent, who mentioned something along the lines of "Base Layout".
"Oh," Luca said as he showed Vincent in, "The base, as far as I can tell is 3 storeys tall, each connected by a ladder, which sucks." Then he went on to explain: "On each floor there's a room to the left, and a room to the right. They're fairly big. On this floor, there's the Kitchen o'er there, and the Armoury next to it. Upstairs is the bunkroom and next to it is our little proposed library and planning room."

He hefted the frames into the armoury and laid them against the wall. Suddenly, the sound of a truck's horns could be heard. Dad was sitting on the second floor and watching what was going on outside when he heard this, and came scrambling downstairs to investigate the noise.
He then saw a fleet of three trucks coming close towards the base. He couldn't see a label of any sort on them, but he realised - that was the support he'd called for. A smile came across his face.
"Boys! Girls!" He announced to the crew over the honking, "We've got some friends of mine to give us a helping hand with overhauling this junkpile!"
Mum came down to investigate what was going on as well, "Friends of yours?!" She asked quizzically.
"Yes Anna, many friends of mine!" He replied.

The trucks ploughed through the rusty front gates and made a stop. Suddenly, one of the trucks opened up, and about 16 women and 4 men, armed to the teeth with construction tools came rushing out and made ranks in front of everyone present. However, most of the girls were dressed rather impractically in maids uniforms while the men wore something more practical. Then the door to the lead truck opened, and a woman stepped out, she was dressed differently to everyone else.

She was about 5'7", long blonde hair, black eyes with a B cup. Her face was weathered with years of construction behind her belt and a lack of skincare. She was wearing what looked like some serious construction kit. Overalls, a Hard Hat with an "<N>" symbol on it, Tough boots, Gloves and a massive monkey wrench clasped to her right hand.

"Looks like the place has changed a lot..." She said as she inspected the Base, giving a smile toward's Dad's way, "And so have you, Big Bad Wolf."
"Hah hah," Dad replied as he gave her a firm handshake, "Nina, you haven't changed a bit, nor have your ladies I see."
"Oh you!" She giggled as she looked at the crew behind her, "Who are these guys?" She asked politely.
"One of them is my son, and those are his - uh - friends. They've decided to take the same life I have."
"Lovely. Which one?"
"Him."
Mum took offence to all of these girls coming along, especially Nina. "Friends, eh!?" She asked Dad as he took him by the shoulder.
"Yes - Anna..." Dad sighed with a blush.

Luca was absolutely flabbergasted at what had unfolded in front of him in the space of - about a minute or two. "Dear Balisong Sauce," He commented as he looked out upon this 'fleet' of 'uniformed' girls that'd come out of nowhere on behest of his father. He looked at him and said: "Dad, you're a diamond, y'know?"
"H'yeah yeah." He replied, "Now: It's you and your friends call."
"Uh..." Luca tried to think of what they could do, although there were quite a few things outstanding, he then decided that he'd get to a decision consulting his crew: "Huddle!"

Once Luca's crewmates were in a firm huddle, Luca asked: "I honestly don't know how my dad just called all those guys and girls, but if I ever --"
John interrupted with an intentional cough.
"Ehh - Anyway, what will we get done with these guys 'n girls first?"

Vincent heard the trucks and blithely maneuvered a 180 degree circle in the hallway to watch the fleet fly through the front gates and come screeching to a halt. He shrugged and moved off towards the kitchen again. Once he reached it, he put the flatpack sink down on the counter and walked out to go by the rest of the crew.

"'Lo." His only words.

Inside the huddle, Jim said casually, "Your dad certainly has a lot of friends, Luca." He stole a glance at the crowd of maids standing there and stifled a laugh. It was hard not to laugh at the gathering. Maids in military position. "Now I have seen everything!"

Joining the huddle along with Vincent, Crane said, "Well, I'm as surprised as the rest of you, but as long as they're here, we might as well put them to work renovating the place.

"Maybe we can get the hangar and the front gate fixed." Vincent suggested.

"I'd hate to see the hangar collapse on top of my shuttle."

Jim nodded, still smirking, "I agree, we wouldn't want either ship getting crushed or trapped, do we." He cracked his knuckles, "Let's get started, the work isn't going to do itself!"

Hitori was getting a little headache. Seeing these women made her a little... jealous actually. They were apparently much prettier then she was. She decided to hang back and keep out of the way. These other women seemed to be a bit more useful with tools anyways.

"Hmm." Luca said as he got the various inputs, "Okay, we get some of them to fix the fence, some to Help get the furniture in, and some to fix the hangar. Later on, we'll get all of them to fix the interior and exterior of the main base, and get the furniture. All that's missing is a megaphone."
With that in mind he broke the huddle and stood up to address the 16 maid/builder ladies hand the 4 builder men.

"Okay!" Luca said as he broke the huddle to , "Here's what we'll do! I'll get..." He was going to count how many people there were, "One, two, three, four..."
Nina gave him a nudge, "There's 20, darling. 16 builders and 4 commanding builders."
"Right - I have a question..." Luca asked Nina confusedly, "How come the builders are dressed as maids and all female?"
"Entertainment." She replied with a wink.
"Ohh..." Luca said as a dirty thought or two entered his head, "Anyway - I'd like one third of your builders to fix the gate, one third to help bring in the furniture from this shuttle, and the rest to fix the Shuttle Hangar before it collapses on both of the shuttles."

"Sure thing, boss." She replied as she turned around and began barking orders for who to go where, and eventually everyone was in business as more and more tools were acquired from the backs of the trucks.
"You and your buddies can help too." She sat down on an empty box with her wrench in hand and observing everyone hop to it.

Luca, John and Mel decided to keep helping with bringing in the furniture, they were almost halfway done, ticking off the list, piece by piece.
The gates and part of the fence were being redone with iron mesh, and the builders were busy pouring concrete to put the main poles down.
The hangar was being stripped away systematically, and would be replaced with a much better suited hangar that connected to the base, the builders assigned to it were busy plotting out the blueprints, looking for a suitable design.

Vincent watched the ripping and tearing of the hangar with satisfaction when he saw, via telescopic vision, one of the bolts holding a metal I-beam holding the roof up break. He was about to freak (After all, that beam was directly above his beloved Junker) when he saw it impale into the wall and stop. He exhaled.

Thank god... After that, he decided he would be much more meticulous about where he parked the Junker in that hellhole. He moved over to Hitori, who looked rather dejected, and decided to make the best out of a dull situation.

"You handy with a plasma torch? An I-beam just half-collapsed and I wanna get it out of the way before it ruins the shuttles."

Hitori didn't answer for a moment. She hadn't realized the Vincent had been talking to her for a second. She said simply, "Sure. Where do you need me?" At least she would be a little helpful.

Jim Strode up to Vince, who looked like he needed help, "Hey Vince, I happen to be pretty good at using one of those. Let's get to work and get this place fixed up!"

"Trying to steal everyone else's job are we, Jim?" asked Crane, coming out of the building. "I think Vince and Hitori can handle it. Why don't you give me a help assembling some of the kitchen so we can eat tonight- I'm sure you can find some use for that torch in there."

"Yeah, what Jim said." Vincent said, going over to one of the trucks and hauling two plasma torch sets off of the back of the truck and into the hangar. Once he reached the I-beam, he beckoned for Hitori to come over.

Jim nodded and apologized, "Sorry Hitori, didn't notice you there! I'll be right there Crane." Jim followed Crane inside and looked at what they had to do. The place was a mess. "Well, lets get cracking shall we?"

Vincent jury-rigged a sort of backpack set-up and hauled it onto his back, then climbed up the scaffolding, along the way picking up a welding mask just barely large enough to fit around his head, then lowered it and set off welding the rusted beam.

Hitori scratched the back of her head as these events occurred. Afterwards, she helped Vincent as best she could. The welding made her sweat quite a bit. The Geshrin made a mental note to change into clean clothes after they were all finished here.

Eventually, the combined efforts of Jim, Vincent, Hitori and the builders did manage to disassemble the whole hangar.
"Hey," One of the head builders said as he showed Luca a blueprint he'd just drawn up, "Here's a concept we have. The second room in your base will connect to this hangar for easy access, and a little workshop at the back, as well as space for Two shuttles, and maybe a motorcycle or two. How's that?"
"Anything will do, thanks a ton." Luca replied as he gave the head builder a thumbs up.

Meanwhile, Luca, John and Mel had managed to haul all of the furniture into the house and lay everything down, ready for assembly. The fence had also had the posts put into it and the wire stretched across it. All they had to do was assemble the gates themselves (Made of Wire) and weld the hinges on.

Dad sat down on the front porch of the base with Mum and Nina.
"After all these years..." Dad reminisced with Nina, "Who would've thought you'd still be around today?"
"Oh, it's just getting by, nothing big." She replied, "I'm surprised that you married your medic!"
"Well," Mum interjected, "Heroes need a little bit of support here and there, right?"
Dad blushed a little while his hand went for the back of his head, "...Yeah..."
And the girls laughed.

Vincent moved his impromptu welding rig off of the scaffolding and away from the messed up hangar, the welding mask up on his forehead, his brow furrowed and creased with sweat. Welding in a leather duster didn't exactly work for a person with his frame. He moved towards the main gate, and waited by the posts for the gates to be moved into place so that he could add the hinges.

"Someone mind getting me the gate hinges?"