Players:
Summary: Chloe tells Robin about some of her plans.
Date: July 4, 2020.
Log Title Have a Blast
Rating: PG.
The Future - The Underground - Living Area
Army barracks would seem like a five star hotel compared to this place, but cots and hammocks seem to fill the area. There are some side rooms where mutants tend to fit four to six to a room and there are even some holes in the wall a mutant or two seems to have made home. Like the rest of the tunnels, its damp and musty in here and not much light save the same electric and gas powered lamps found in the rest of the tunnels. Everything from small children to older mutants sleep in here and it can be seen from the people who cant get out of bed. In this room there is a small corner thats been sectioned off with old sheets and blankets to form a medical area with what stolen medical supplies the mutants have managed to gather.
In the relative silence of the living area, Robin is working on her recently acquired laptop computer. She's been using it for charting while she's also out scouting, sending Blank out to watch for Hunters, Sentinels and Hounds while she inputs data into the comptuer. At the moment, her expression is completely blank but her eyes are wide open as she works, which means that the puppet is out and about even now.
Slipping her way down one of the tunnels Chloe ducks into the living area, keeping her speed down to practically glacial levels so as not to disturb anyone trying to sleep. Slung over one shoulder is a messenger bag and she's clutching what might well be an /extremely/ cold quesadilla as if it was a holy relic of some kind. "Robin? You awake? Only now Robyn is gone there's a bunch of intel I've gathered that I normally would have passed to him and no-one seems to know what to do with it. So I figured you could merge it with your own reports and stuff."
Robin looks up towards Chloe and nods her head slowly, expression and motions still making her look more like a marionette than an actual person. She shrugs at Chloe and says, "I've taken over Robyn's papers and information, yes, so I could use it. Everything is coming together, now that I have this." She shifts the laptop slightly to demonstrate its presence. "Every piece of intel helps."
Chloe somehow shrugs the bag off without seeming to release her food with either hand. "Bit further away than the usual stuff. I was doing a border crossing the other day and got back in this morning. Got to stop off at this little Mexican village in the middle of no-where which still grows everything they need." She sighs contentedly, then devours her meal. "First time I've had real cheese in so long…"
Robin looks up at Chloe with a tilted head, nodding slowly and inputting something into the computer. "That's excellent." Her flat tone and lack of expression doesn't convey any emotion, but she is genuine. "I'm looking forward to a day when I can cook a three cheese lasagna and think that's totally normal again. I wonder if there even will be such a day? There's so much to rebuild." As negative as she can sometimes be, she is very hopeful that a better future is possible. She reaches for the bag and looks inside.
Chloe goes to the extreme of licking every last bit of grease from her fingers. "I doubt it'll ever feel normal again," she replies, a serene smile on her face. "Even if things go back to the 'good old days' not one of us will ever rest easy again. I'm not even sure I'll stop when the war is won, might just find myself another disaster zone and stay with it. Not like I've really got the skills for much else. Unless I find some kinda monastery in need of a martial arts master. But even then I'm not sure I could cope with that much sitting around pondering the mysteries of the universe. Not without major league leg cramps anyway.."
Robin smiles slightly and says, "No, I guess not." She reaches one of her hands up in the air, accomplishing nothing it seems, but lowers it back down slowly. She reaches back down and taps something else on the computer. "I don't know what I'm going to do. I could go back to being a teacher for mutants or whatever. I have no idea. Superheros seem a bit outdated now, with all this, so I won't go back to that." She adjusts her glasses slightly and shrugs. "I think some of the mutants huddling in the tunnels have a better chance than us of living out the rest of their lives normal. We've become warriors. It's hard to avoid."
"They'll carry the fear with them forever," Chloe points out sullenly. "Maybe we should be doing more to get everyone who can't fight out. I mean the rest of the world isn't going to let them send Sentinels in, not after seeing just how big a mess they make." She stops and grins. "To be honest I'm putting all my faith in a decade old riddle and the hope Ahab playing with time travel blows up in his face. Then a me can exist who has never eaten live mice. And to think I used to tease Heather about her cooking!"
Nodding, Robin says, "That's true. I don't know… I think it would be good for some of these people to get out, but most other countries aren't really interested in keeping American mutants among them. They'd just get deported if discovered." She shrugs and tilts her head slightly. "I heard the riddle the other day. Honestly, Heather has never made a lick of sense to me, even back in the glory days. But… Volk said that she retains something of herself. That could be important in understanding her now. Or even understanding some of the other Hounds."
Chloe nods. "Cheaper and safer just to change as much of them as you need," she muses. "I don't suppose you have any intel on patrol routes around Salem Centre? Or what used to be Salem anyway, doubt there's much of the place still standing." She glances around, then adds "I think one of the riddles clues might mean there's a small chance information is left there. But I can't check it out properly if it's a heavily patrolled area."
"Salem Centre is one of the most heavily patrolled areas, actually. It seems to be used as makeshift barracks for some Hunters, even," says Robin, shrugging. "I can give you times that it's least populated, and when their security is the weakest, though. I can also send Blank in to try and recover whatever you're looking for. I'm trying not to use her as a disposable soldier so much, but when it's dangerous, better her than you, right?"
"I need to be checking cafes and the surrounding streets. Ones near to Xaviers," Chloe explains, trying to narrow down the search area. "I… uhm.. forgot the name. It's been hundreds of years me time though so it's impressive I still remember that much!" Idly the speedster begins pacing back and forth. "How makeshift is the barracks? I could mix up some bathtub firebombs and hit them with a speedstrike, kinda like an airstrike only on foot. After all nothing is more distracting than someone setting your house on fire!"
"It's patrolled by Hounds, Hunters and Sentinels at virtually all times of the day." She moves a few things and then shows her screen to Chloe, going through the timestamps of the markers so that the heavy patrol motions become obvious. "They've used them for awhile. I'm expecting an influx of enemy units to the area with recent events."
Chloe lets out a long drawn out sigh. "Bleh! Okay, so how about I make plenty of noise elsewhere when it's already due to be quiet there?" she suggests, studying the screen. "Maybe leave a few explosives along patrol routes just outside the area. Then if you send Blank in things should be fairly quiet because they'll be spreading out to search everywhere else." She glances at Robin and grins. "To be honest I could use an excuse to blow things up. Running back and forth all day isn't very exciting. Even if it is important."
"Alright, clear it with Rashmi, but that plan works for me. I've seen moments of ruckus elsewhere while the camp patrols are slow. And honestly, blowing things up seems like a great idea to me right now with that in mind," says Robin. Blank teleports back in, a finger touching Robin's shoulder, and the girl's expression suddenly become animated again. She leans in slightly and adds a few more markers. "I hope you have a blast."
"I hope I have several. Say, how accurate are the patrol timings? Rough guesses or do they come through some areas like clockwork?" Chloe asks, her eyes flicking around as she tries to memorize the map and the routes. "I have this idea involving… well… dropping a building on people. Would be a lot easier remotely done, but I could set it off in person and scram."
"Depends on the patrol units, really. Some of them move through on some kind of schedule, others are pretty rough guesses. It's about unit personality, but I can give you peak time probabilities, if you want," says Robin, nodding her head to that. "The more specific you get, though, the harder it is to use them to plan anything."
Chloe hmms. "I guess I'll just set them times for about when they're due and if nothing else they'll hear the booms and come to investigate!" she decides, nodding. "I'll let you know when I'm going to paint the town red. Might be in a day or two if Rashmi won't hand out any explosives. 'Coz then I'll just have to do a border run. Although it'll hurt my barter funds, but I guess that won't matter if we fix time huh? Anyway I best get going, people to see and places to go. Possibly even a brief nap!"
Robin nods at Chloe once and says, "Godspeed." She glances towards Blank and back towards Chloe and offers a small wave before getting back to her scouting work. The blank expression reappears on her face, and Blank flies off.
