You board the boat Tumbler has commandeered and maneuver out of the bay before heading north along the rocky coast outside of Bay City. It doesn't take long to reach the marine research facility, and a bit of investigation reveals a concealed entrance to a hidden cove beneath the structure.
There, you come upon a cobbled-together lab adorned with all sorts of mechanical bits and bobs. What look like several prototype voice modulators are in a case along one wall, while a crude elevator stands at the far end of the cave.
The Pinniped Piper must have gotten here just a few minutes ago, as he is still straightening the tie underneath the lab coat he is wearing. A nametag on his lapel reads "Dr. Lyle Leonard."
The Piper goggles at you as you hop off of the boat! "What? No! How did you find me?" he gasps, dumbfounded.
What do you do?
On the boat ride over, Wesley listens quietly. We don't really want him being smarter at being a villain, he thinks to himself but doesn't voice his thoughts.
"Well, if it matters, it's good to have you on this side," he ventures. Awkward. Way to be awkward, Wes.
Arcanum flies up out of the boat and stretches out his hands. Mystical lights play off his hands in a display of power. "Why don't you surrender and you can find out."
"You invent a device to communicate with seals, and you first thought isn't 'how can I make money off of this' but 'I'm going to terrorize people for no reason'?" Tumbler says as she hops off of the boat, extending her left hand to pull a bunch of screwdrivers laying around the work tables and shooting them off at the scientist!
THUNK! THUNK! THUNK! THUNK! THUNK! THUNK!
An array of the screwdrivers pin him by his lab coat to the rocky wall as Tumbler stalks forward. "You are the worst example of villainy I've ever met!"
“This a fishing boat? Cause I got a line!”
She kicks her one remaining cable out to entangle him and reel him into the boat!
But as DD attempts to reel the enemy aboard, she finds Tumbler has already pinned him in place. So—
”Oh gosh oh FUUUUUUUUUCK!”
—the Derby instead gets reeled into the Piper, hard and fast!
Swim swim swim swim swim
Crimson Tide rises from the deep, shakes herself off with a chuckle, and take a big step forward to bonk the Piper on the head.
'Whaaaat? C'mon, do I really not look human?” Megan made an exaggeratedly sad face. ”Nah yeah, I get it. I've got some sharky goodness going on, but I'm a 100% home-grown human. I'm Megan, and I've never met an alien with that name, so you know I'm human. But uh... is a hoverboard what it sounds like? Seems like the balance would be easier when air doesn't push as hard as the waves uhhhh the uh, up and down water.”
She stops for a moment to consider before asking:
”So are you an alien, Lil Ziss?”
"Very well. I surr--AAH!" Dr. Leonard screams in terror as Crimson Tide leaps from the water and bonks him on the head! Tumbler assaults him with tools, then Derby flies through the air and crashes into him head-on! When the dust settles, the Pinniped Piper is thoroughly and most assuredly unconscious!
What do you do?
Blood trickles from DD’s right nostril and left knee.
“And THAT’S what happens when you fake surrender! Ha! Ow.”
She whips out her phone. “Group selfie first. Then we ship him to the coast guard!”
The Darling Derby says to Arcanum, “I don’t know how much help I can be, but… do you have the lamp. Or genie-bracers or something?
“I’m working on some new lenses for my specs. They might help me… I just need genie stuff to examine.”
Thinking a bit, she asks, “Should I avoid saying the W-word around you, now that I know?”
“I’ll be sixteen in a week. This is Earth, where are you from?
“SQUEEEE! Where’s your kitty from!
“How come we speak the same language? Are you taking words out of my brain and insta-learning them? If ya, ‘s quee’ is not a word. It should be.”
Arcanum winces as the Pinniped Piper is pummeled to a pulp. "That seemed excessive," he mumbles.
He doesn't smile in the selfie.
"I'm not asking for help. I don't think there's anything that can be done. And I do have the lamp. I snatched it and ran after it all happened, once I realized the lamp's master didn't have full control over me yet."
He nods when Derby asks about the W-word. "Yeah, that would be best. But any off-the-cuff wish can trigger my magic. If things are really bad, like, another starspawn bad, I wouldn't mind if you wished for some real firepower. But it'll push me farther along. So, you know. Only in emergencies, got it?"
Tumbler slips over to the case of prototype modulators, considering them for a few moments. Depending how well they worked, they might fetch a decent price in the undermarket...though, the team was too goody-goody to go for it. Shame, she really wanted a new uniform for her collection.
Tumbler also opted to stay out of the selfie, pulling the hood of her cloak up with her left hand. "The only photograph I have of myself is the mug shot in my record. I don't really need anymore," She says. "So, since we're done here, what next?" She asks Derby. "Not that I don't mind these cute get togethers, but I think we all deserve some pizza for our hard work today, don't you?" She asks the team leader. "On you, of course."
On the boat ride over, Dervish leaned back on the side. He eventually pointed out ”Ya know, this makes each and every one of us pirates, right?” with a snarky grin.
_________
As the others wrangle the “villain,” Dervish blips over to the shiny stuff. The cool stuff. The valuable stuff…
The Darling Derby is blathering in as she brings everyone inside.
“…which wasn’t a problem when Donkey Kong came out, but in 1983, the owners’ dads really were named after Nintendo’s flagship bros, so their sons, both juniors, legally changed their names…”
She abruptly stops chattering as she recognizes a handsome at-least-half-Italian man well beyond the counter. She runs snd leaps over the counter, then stops inches short of his personal bubble! “Lario! Check me out! I’m socializing! On my aunt’s tab, ya dig?”
Lario seems not to recognize DD. She removes her specs (which doesn’t actually help).
“I’m Daphne’s cousin.” That jogs the man’s memory.
Dervish steps over to a table and slides into the booth. He looked like he was just settling in when a panicked look comes over his face! ”SHIT!” he exclaims before blipping away.
A few moments later, he blips back into the entrance of the pizza parlor, clearly frustrated. He makes his way over to a booth large enough for their group and slides into the seat, grumbling to himself.
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"I'm not a pirate. I have noting to do with dis boat." Ziss counters the Dervish as she hovers besides the boat.
---
Ziss smiles for the photo, but once more it is missed due to her mask, but she does makes a 'V' sign with her right hand.
---
As Diego pops out and in, Ziss pats him on the shoulder. "Dere is noting to be ashamed about only making poopoo at home. I had a friend in Taris wif de same problem." Her mask is now on top of her head, revealing her baby face and her deep purple eyes.
|
Terri gulps at the idea of traversing across the waters to a secret sea lab hidden somewhere out there and almost refuses to go. He realizes that he's going to get dragged there anyway and it'd probably look like a bad image. He is however very absent in the secondary fight with the good Doctor finding himself huddled to the center most point on the deck. His body shaking quite literally like he was one of those EDM visual lines with points jutting out of him at every muscle twitch.
"What? Dudes I can't be a pirate, I mean that's totally awesome, but like isn't that gonna keep me from getting on the team this year?" He focus's on what really matters in his mind, his reputation as an all-star. It's the only thing he can grasp at that allows him to remain mostly calm.
Terri slides in alongside the rest of the group having thrown some heavy clothes on over himself partially in an attempt to hide, the other part was so he didn't accidentally absorb any of the tableware. He watches Dervish blipping and blapping around the establishment and just looks at him, "What was that all about dude?"
Dervish looks at the Robo-Dude and says ”Hey bro, you SERIOUSLY think they are gonna let a Meta on the team? Face it, buddy. Football’s over!”
__________
Dervish looks at White Fox in confusion. ”What the…that is NOT what I’m pissed about! I was about to hook up with this bombshell babe, but then my shit was stolen, and then we went pirating, and it just dawned on me she was waiting on me! But she’s left now!”
"I'll take your shrimp scampi pizza, no tails, extra shrimp," Tumbler orders next to the Derby, her hood down as she combed through her fringe with her fingers. She looked pleased to have herself a free meal after the work they put through, though she was also considering how much she was obligated now to this team.
Part of the appeal was the handsome sorcerer and the Amazonian shark bruiser on the team. Though one carried more baggage for her than the others. She decided it was best to try and tease someone else about potential budding crushes instead.
"Hey," She whispers to the Derby, leaning in and holding her hand up to her mouth. "So, you've worked with the team for a couple of weeks. Anyone in particular strike you as dreamier or cuter than the rest?"
"Hum... What is a bombshell?" She asks, and then laughs before asking the second question, though it is obvious that the second one is a joke. "Why would someone steal your poopoo? How?"
The Darling Derby replies, “Hard to say, Tumbler, mostly ‘cause she’s my roommate. But I will dare say you rank high, quite high… like, at least my equal.”
Megan bobs her head amiably, but doesn't order any food. "So do you guys get a lot of Sea Crime here? I was worried that there were a bunch of villains and stuff I wouldn't see anymore, but-" **BAM** She slapped her palm on the table, "There's an army of sea lions to wake me up in the morning. Just great stuff."
She reached over to scoop Ziss up and perched her on her shoulder a little too close to the fan. "So was that the first time you've seen a sea lion? Normally they only go after fish like that."
Diego looks flatly at Zia’s before rolling his eyes. He blips from his seat to the one on the other side of Derby, putting the Legacy between himself and Tumbler. ”So, Derb’s. What’d ya think about when I hijacked that cargo ship for a second and scared off all those sea lions, and half the crowd! That was pretty cool, ya? Clever way to deal with them without killing’em, ya?” he asks as he leans in towards her and Tumbler.
The former villain nods and smirks a bit. It would take more than that to get under the Derby's skin it seemed.
When Dervish popped over, Tumbler rolled her eyes and let him ask his questions while turning to look at the pizza coming their way. "I've got it," She said, trying to lift the trays - darn. Aluminum alloy. So she reached out with both hands to grab them-
Ah.
She'd forgotten again.
Rather than grabbing the tray as she intended, the stump knocked her shrimp scampi pizza over onto the floor, splattering her boots. She froze briefly for a moment, looking at the mess, before sniffing and tucking her ruined arm back under her cloak. "I'll be in the bathroom," She said, walking swiftly to the back and stepping into the girls' room. Stepping into a stall. Locking the door.
"...dammit."
DD almost spits her water in surprise as Diego appears beside her. “Cool? Umm… yes.” Replaying the scene, she adds rather excitedly, “Especially when you honked the horn!
“Number one rule of cool: make sure you call lots of attention to yourself, else—huh the f+*@?”
DD hears the crash and sees pizza won’t be ready for another twenty minutes now. Ohhh… is that why they call her Tumbler?
* * *
In the ladies’ room DD calls softly, “Hey, Tumbler? I’m supposed to be the Captain Klutz of the team. Need help cleaning up?” She’s in the stall, dipf~#%. “—the marinara spatter?”
Ziss instinctively ducks a bit as Meg put her on her shoulders, but then she realised the fan would not hit her as long as she did not raise her arms. "I tink I've seen dem before with my daddy when I was 4 or 5... dey were much bigger back den."
She bows to try to look at Megan before asking. "So, Dervish was about to explain to me what is a bombshell."
---
Once her pizza is ready, she offers it to everyone first. "Any of you want a piece of mine?" She points to the menu. "Still don't understand your letters, but I got number six." True to her word, she has no idea of what is on her pizza. "It is good!"
Wesley tries to salvage the fallen shrimp scampi pizza, lifting it up off the floor with his telekinesis and putting it back on the plate. It's not the pizza that's bothering her, you dolt, he thinks. I wonder if she wished, would it--? How close would that bring me to the end? He stops concentrating on the tray and it clatters to the floor again.
After Derby goes off after her, he sits back and quietly watches the interactions of the other team members. He doesn't say much, and no one comes up to talk to him. That's probably... for the best. Right?
|
|
Having sat in the booth and done his best to be quiet Terri watches the entire scene unfold around him. When Dervish tries to get buddy buddy with everyone and explains he left the boardwalk babe on read he gives a small laugh, but immediately tries to hide it. Especially after his earlier comment about the team's not wanting a freak on the team. That and the pizza on the floor only reminded him of how he couldn't actually taste it anymore. Everything had just been reduced to sensation and matter since the nanites and he soon gave a depressed sigh. Which incidentally caused his whole body to inflate and deflate at the gesture.
Renting his head on his arm the hoodie arm seemed to shrink down on the table as his elbow spread into an impossibly thin wafer contained only by the material itself.
"So Arca, could you like... make me a normal guy again? Maybe that's what Yaves was talking about when she set me up with you dudes." His voice was that sort of hopeful but not in anyway that finds any reassuring promise in the idea.
"It's alfredo sauce. Red sauce doesn't agree with me." She says from the inside of her stall. "I'll be fine. It's just a little sauce on my boots. I'll be out in just a moment."
She wipes her boots with toilet paper to try and clean them up. Doing it with only one hand meant that she was a little slower at this than she normally would be. It would probably be easier to remove the boots, but it had taken her five minutes for each one to lace up the first time. She didn't want to stay in here that long.
When she does finally step out, she's got her mask up. She couldn't show weakness. Heroes were bold and happy and free of drama, like Tide. She probably just needed a distraction. Maybe playing that pinball machine would help her mood.
At least, until she realized how stupid she'd look trying to hit the right bumper.
She sat back down with the others, sulking and glancing out the window, avoiding conversing with the rest of the team.
Wesley looks at Terri. With a properly-worded wish? Should I mention that? He slowly shakes his head. "I don't think my power's that precise. To separate the nanites from your cells and regrow them from scratch? That's control on a level I doubt I'll ever be able to achieve." Control on a level I don't want to achieve. "Sorry, man."
He takes a bite of one of the basic pizzas and chews thoughtfully. He didn't think he needed to eat anymore, but he still ate out of habit and that it was a social activity.
"I do not know many words in your language... I know only what I learned before I left. I learn to speak fast, but letters and... are more difficult." She appears to really struggle sometimes to find words. As she mentions the fact that she left as a child, the words "daddy" and "mommy" being used makes a bit more sense.
She then reaches Nyx, scratching her neck, something she appears to love. "She is from de world of Moraf. She is shy wif strangers."
"What is an Alien?"
The Darling Derby comes out of the girls’ room with a fourth band-aid. Unlike the other three which are white-girl-colored, this new band-aid has My Little Ponies all over it. “Thank you, ma’am,” she says to a young mom with her little one. “I’ll try, but no promises, I’m sporty.”
She gets a replacement shrimp scampi pizza and nods at Lario and Muigi’s simultaneous Italian. “One Tumbler Special, and a size up on the house so Lario said but he’s billing my aunt. I call buIIshit.
“Oh, and Ziss, Muigi says mangiare.” She translates, “It means eat. He always says that to skinny people. It’s a compliment, technically.”
She makes calm, gentle movements. The kitty’s back is not fluffy, but I wanna touch it!
At some point too soon for a normal person, Wendy asks her rich aunt, “Can I get a second bed in my room for my birthday? And a litter box?”
"Skinny people?" Megan gave Ziss a quick tickling poke to the side of her belly. "You're sposeda be a super sleuth, Derbs, you should know that just 'cause someone's a lil squirt doesn't mean they're exactly going hungry!"
"Nerd glasses is right though, Lil Ziss. That's the first proper super villain we've taken down with the whole team - I figure I should eat something and that's either the pizza or the table, so what's the best slice?
***
"They're uh, people and animals and stuff that aren't from here. Like Earth-here. Flying saucers? Little green dudes? Hoverboards probably? I dunno, I've never been off world; are you from space?"
***
As Lario brings out the new pizza, Muigi calls, "Hey! Heroes! You're on TV!" He raises the volume on the television behind the bar, where you can see cell phone video of your battle on Pier 42 as a news anchor speaks:
"Sea lion skirmish! The talk of Bay City this evening is the team of superpowered teenagers spotted battling on Pier 42. They clashed with an odd villain calling himself the Pinniped Piper, who has the ability to command sea lions. Though the Pinniped Piper escaped from the pier, the teens tracked him down and brought him into custody."
The selfie that Derby snapped earlier pops up on the screen. "Here is a better look at the six heroes taken from the Darling Derby's Infini-Gram, though some witness reports claim a seventh team member was present at the pier. Of course, the people of Bay City know Derby and the Hatrix family very well, but we are still working to try to identify the other heroes on this team.
"This is only the second time these heroes have been seen together. We first saw the team in action against the strange tentacled beasts that menaced the waterfront a few weeks ago. During that battle, the hero known as Omnimatrix sacrificed himself to drive the monsters away and secure victory. While Bay City continues to mourn his loss, surely her citizens cannot help but have some hope knowing his teammates are getting back out there and honoring his memory by keeping the city safe.
"And now, it's time to take a look at the weather with Meteorologist Karen Caifa. Karen--?"
"Hey, nice work! Garlic knots, on the house!" Lario says with a smile.
***
Diego slides over in the booth to Tumbler’s side, giving her a nudge with his elbow. ”Hey T. You alright, chica?”
The Darling Derby thanks the pizza guys. After receiving the call on the hat, she says to the others.
“Ohh… I just got a call. You guys know my great-grandfather right? The Capped Crusader? I gotta. I gotta go. F*+~. Aren’t adrenaline surges supposed to wear off?”
There’s a tension in DD’s voice. She had her shit together leading the team in a crisis, but she seems incapable of enjoying a pizza. The only moment she seemed calm was in the bathroom offering help, but now she’s kind of…
…angry?
Wesley stays quiet during the broadcast. He just gets more thoughtful and reserved at the end of it, thinking about Omnimatrix's sacrifice.
His phone buzzing is a welcome distraction. He texts back quickly, Nice. Will be by asap.
"I'm going to, uh, go," he announces as he stands up.
Wesley leaves the pizza place and flies off a short distance before landing somewhere secluded and shifting back to his regular self. He takes the bus to his usual meet-up spot with Daniela.
"What's up?" he asks once he sees her, feeling much more comfortable than he was around his new teammates. He pulls out his bag carrying the lamp and pats it. "Do we need to discuss this... privately?"
"Right. You ready?" He unzips the bag but doesn't pull the lamp out. He stashes the bag in a hiding spot at their secret meeting place, then takes her hand. There's a brief sensation of vertigo and falling, then suddenly they're inside the lamp. It's opulent, a riot of reds and golds with soft, warm lighting. A tinkling of music plays from some unseen source. "Whatcha got?"
Daniela can't help but smile softly as she looks around the lamp. "That never gets old. Do you mind?" She gestures to a bowl of grapes on a nearby table.
"No, go ahead. They never seem to run out, anyway."
Daniela pops a few grapes into her mouth. "Mmm. So juicy." After swallowing, she turns back to Wesley. "Anyway. I wanted to give you a heads-up. I caught a glimpse of a shipping manifest on Professor Braithwaite's desk. There's a yacht coming in to a private dock tomorrow night with something on it that he's interested in acquiring. Not sure what, but it's probably not good, whatever it is."
Wesley smiles despite himself when Daniela enjoys the grapes. "Wow, thanks. Any chance you caught the name of the ship?"
"The Talisman. Pretentious enough for the professor's liking."
Sighing, he nods in agreement. "Yeah. Now I'm wondering how we can hit it without linking it back to you." He pauses for a moment in thought. "Oh, wait. I think I might know a way."
"Good. So far, I've been able to lay low, but I worry what will happen if Braithwaite catches me. More for you than for me. How are you, by the way? Are you holding up?"
He gives her a lopsided grin. "Haven't you heard? I'm a superhero now." He shrugs and takes a couple grapes for himself. "It's a purpose. It worries me that I might have to push myself too hard, too fast. But if all we have to fight are bad guys like the 'Pinniped Piper,' it ought to be all right."
Daniela smiles as well. "Alright, glad to see you in good spirits, Wes. I shouldn't stay too long. Just remember, I'm here for you if you need me."
"Thanks. Yeah, I don't like leaving the lamp alone. Let's go."
Tumbler gets a text on her phone from Arcanum. Can we meet soon? I need your help
Diego slides over in the booth to Tumbler’s side, giving her a nudge with his elbow. ”Hey T. You alright, chica?”
"I'm fine," Tumbler says, leaning away. "Just a little annoyed. Think I'm going to take off," She says, standing up from the table and walking towards the door. "Text me if you need something - I promise not to go on a crime spree before the next team up," She jokes to everyone to show them she's fine and they shouldn't worry about her.
Locksmith: What do you need help with that requires my skills? ;)
Locksmith: Well, sure we can meet. My place or yours?
As Tumbler walks out, Dervish watches which way she turns on the sidewalk. And then, in a crimson flash, is gone.
…and Tumbler spots him leaning against the wall ahead of her. ”Come on now, T. I know you better than that. Don’t lump me in with the rest of those capes. You and me’s a team, remember?” he says as he stands up from the wall and falls in beside her. ”Come on, girl. Tell me the truth. What’s eatin’ ya?”
The Reformed gets a reply almost immediately.
Your place or neutral
Wherever Tumbler specifies, Wesley arrives promptly. He seems less awkward for the moment.
"Hey. I really need your help with something, and it's really important. So, um, hear me out, okay?"
Without waiting for an affirmative, he begins. "Okay, you know all these powers I've got? There's a bad guy, he's the Curator of the Bay City Museum of Antiquities. I used to volunteer there, cataloging, doing busy work, that sort of thing. Interning, basically. Well, turns out the Curator has been collecting really powerful mystical artifacts and using them for his own ends. He found something not too long ago, and its powers went into me, so he like, wants to control me and use them for evil or something. Like I said, bad guy.
"Anyway, he's still collecting stuff. I've got a friend who still works there, and my friend let me know the Curator is having something shipped in tomorrow night. If we just went and attacked the ship, it'll tip him off that I've got an informant. So, I was thinking if maybe you had a contact, someone who'd be willing to rob the shipment. We could then stop them -- let them get away, of course -- and then prevent the Curator from getting his hands on another powerful artifact."
He gives her a hopeful smile. "What do you say?"
She takes Nyx from her shoulder, exposing her very fluffy belly, but as soon as Wendy motions forward, Nyx curls up into a red ball of hard plates. "She is very shy." She apologies. "Moraf is very rocky... hard to explain." She scratches her head thinking, but then puts Nyx by her feet and opens her hand, fingers separated. "Don't know de words, but dis is rock..." She says passing the other hand on her hand and fingers, then gestures for the space between the fingers. "... and here are holes, large and long holes, wif rivers and forests. People dere are small, like this..." She says, gesturing a size of about one feet. "Nyx is a powerful animal dere!" She says laughing of the idea.
She then looks dumbfounded at how Wendy quickly implied her to stay with her. having visited many places and not really having a home of her own, Ziss learnt to accept the help of strangers, specially when apparently offered of the kindness of their heart. "You are very kind. I'll repay your kindness, I promise dat." She says, now bowing deeply.
Jumping from the static board on the sand, she says. "Time to try de real fing den, right!?"
Ziss looks a bit bummed that people do not tell her what is a bombshell. She'll ask around later then. She shares a slice of her pizza with Megan. "Mine is good... and yeah, I'm not skinny. I'm in shape!"
As Wendy says she is leaving, Ziss grabs her last slices and pile them up. "I'll go wif you den. Buy everyone!" She says giving all of them a farewell bow.
Tumbler sighs as Dervish pops up in front of her. She'd expected that the Delinquent wouldn't let things go. "We stole a car together once, I recruited you for the Spinneret job, and then I threw away my reputation because I didn't sign up for the monster apocalypse," She tells him. "And now I'm playing hero. Which you seem to take to better than me," She points out to him, stopping at the corner of the street and tapping the crosswalk signal.
"You know what the difference is between us? You've been in this life for, what, less than a year? I've been training and pulling jobs since I was ten. I was established, people respected me and feared me." She looks at him carefully. "I've fought against the Hatrix family, and now I'm all buddy buddy with one of them. It's still taking me time to adjust to, so can you perhaps give me a little leeway for that?"
Tumbler herself is lounging about in a school uniform with a white shirt, red and black ribbon and matching red and black checkered skirt. She gets up and stretches out, and Arcanum probably can't help but notice the arm missing its hand, ending in an ugly stump at the wrist. The arm itself is scarred from the corrosive poison, running up past her elbow in a grotesque knot of flesh.
"...Hold on." She says before he begins, as she rummages in a chest by the foot of her bed, then pulls out what looks like a long sock and rolls it up over her maimed arm. "Don't want you to feel uncomfortable. Continue," She says, listening to his pitch.
She let him give the spiel, looking familiar with the name of the Curator. "So you want to pull a Kansas City Shuffle and have him looking for his artifact in another direction?" She asks. "...I don't know. I've been dark in the underground since the Spinneret job. Some of them might talk to me though. If it's a mystical artifact, I know just the person. He's more of a backroom broker than an active villain, but he might put someone else on the job for him."
She paces around her bed, her toes digging into the plush carpet she's got spread around the center of her world. "What's this artifact the Curator gave to you? I know it's not relevant to the job, but I'm curious now," She says.
After goodbyes to the first to leave, DD says to Ziss, “You’re practically family. You board, I skate!”
Looking to the rest, she says, “Barring threats of mutiny, we are…
Or the Pizza Faces. Same logo either way.”
Ignoring the anticipated lack of enthusiasm, she says, “Huhhh? Huhhhhhh? We’re teens, we’ll get crap over it—name like this shows we’re like rubber. A special self-cleaning rubber that bounces crap away without getting any lingering stench.
“Unfazed by ridicule! It’s the ultimate defense—think about it!”
She starts to the door, ”Race ya to the curb, Ziss!” She cheats for a head start, with intent to make the race close, then pratfall.
"Maaaan, not even a name drop? We gotta find even more great villains like the Pinniped if we're really gonna make a mark."
"...But there's [bigger]no way we should be called Pizza Face! And if you think that you're not sober enough to skate!"
Wesley tries to avoid looking at Tumbler's wrist, scar, and missing hand. More, he wants to avoid wondering about how a wish could possibly fix it. Am I being selfish? He forces the thought away when she puts the sock over her wound.
"Um, I don't know what a Kansas City Shuffle is. I was thinking you tip off a former partner of yours. Or associate. Or... sorry. I don't know how all that works. But let them know there's a score coming in tomorrow night. It's on a yacht, so it'll be posh. They can take whatever, as long as we get the artifact. But we go like we've been tipped off that some thieves-- er, crooks? Um, 'less than legal operators' are going to be robbing the yacht. So my friend stays, well, safe isn't the right word. But safer. How's that?"
When Tumbler asks about his artifact he shakes his head vigorously. "Oh, he didn't give it to me! It's his. I took it and ran, since if he still had it, it'd be, well, it'd be bad."
She opens up another suitcase, this one stocked full of flip phones and other burners for her use. She's apparently got a system in place as she pulls out one and dials. "He probably doesn't care too much about my current deal, haven't really talked since nabbing some fancy helmet for him a couple months ago-"
She cuts herself off as the line gets picked up on the other side. "Magpie, how are you doing? It's Tumbler. Yes, I'm still alive. Look, I've got a juicy tip about a yacht that's got some precious cargo on board. But, being upfront, it does belong to the Curator. Yes, yes, I know he's probably paid protection fees, but it's a matter of necessity. I was thinking, maybe you could hire some of the Revolvers to hit this yacht, and if some of the cargo then falls off into the bay, it wouldn't be a bad thing if a couple of those items were then never recovered," She says as she strides around her apartment.
"...Well, I'm on a tight budget. So could you do this as a favor for me and I'll get back to you later?" She requests. [b]"Thank you! It'll be tomorrow night, the name of the boat..." She looks to Arcanum to help fill in the details.
"The Talisman," Wesley first tries mouthing silently, and then has to say the name of the yacht out loud.
"Thanks," he says sincerely. "That might put you in some sort of debt with that guy, right? Let me know if there's anything I can do if that comes back around. I mean it."
Dervish holds up his arms in a gesture that is half shrug, half “don’t blame me”. ”Hey, chica. No judgement here. You and me, we aren’t all that different. Yeah, maybe I’m new to all this, but surely you know I don’t buy into all the propaganda they be rollin’ in,” he says as he shoots a thumb back over his shoulder towards the parlor.
”Look. If you wanna be alone, I get it. I got, literally, anywhere else I can be. But hey, you wouldn’t happen to have the deets to Armorer, would ya? I was wondering if I could work somethin’ out with ‘em…”
"Anyone who is anyone in Bay City knows the Armorer. Whether or not they have their ear, well..." Tumbler crosses her arms under her cloak, considering something and getting a devious smile. "I'll help you out...but, it will cost you. A favor for a favor. Something that I've had my eye on for a while now."
She nods towards the hills surrounding the bay, where the more affluent regions of the city are located. "St. Trina's Academy for Girls. I want their uniform. The real one, with the special monogrammed skirt and bow-tie," She tells him. "Get that for me and I'll get the Armorer to hook you up. Don't underestimate just how much money goes into their security though," she warns. "Lot of spoiled princesses to protect there."
"Hardener, color coat, top coat. All ten...all five fingers," She tells him. "I can still do my toes myself, but I haven't been able to give myself a decent manicure since then." She sighs. "Though if you don't think you have a steady enough hand for this..."
Wesley stares for maybe a second too long as his mind runs around on him. This is very intimate. No, it's not! Is this flirtatious behavior? Stop it, just... just say something!
"Only one way to find out, huh?" he says and tries a not-awkward smile.
He discards the notion of using powers to show off. The last thing he should do is knock over a bottle of polish and spill it everywhere if his concentration lapsed. He selects the first bottle. "Hardener first, right? I'll practice with this. You can tell me if I'm steady."
He does his best at applying the polish, and all the while his mind keeps wondering what this all means.
He looks up from his work once all of Tumbler's nails are glossy and colored. He suddenly realizes that he got so focused that he could have missed any signs of flirtation. "Do you like?"