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Summary: Caleb, July and Bruce happen upon Scout vandalizing a wall. Caleb recognizes Bruce’s voice from the bank heist and attacks him. Bruce tries to convince him that he is NOT the bank robber. This fails when Brian shows up and starts a fight.
Log Title: Subterfuge Undone
Rating: PG (L)
Westchester - Salem Center
The parking lot that serves Salem Center is expansive. The mall building being the largest in the area, most of the traffic is aimed for there. However, there are a number of independent buildings along the edges of the parking lot and across the street. Benches dot the sidewalks that line the buildings, along with trash cans, bushes, trees and lamps. There is a large archway that leads to the mall entrance.
Scene
There's something always a little strange at seeing the large, expanse of asphalt of an empty parking lot. At least that was Scout's thought as she stood on the other side of mall, at the side of the Grind Stone coffee shop with a can of black spray paint in hand and from the clinking sounds with any little movement, a backpack full of them. It's never a very bright idea to graffiti a building in day light, but things like this often escape Scout's mind. There's a couple quick movements from the can before she takes a step back to admire her handy work - a black cartoon-like shadow figure with the words 'the darkness' underneath. It's actually pretty good artistically, so it's obviously not her first attempt.
Caleb needs sometime out of the city and he's heard about this Mall in Westchester, so he decided to check it out, hes dressed in blue cargos, a red t-shirt, a black jacket, is wearing black Airwalk trainers, his white hair is gelled in a casual bedhead look and his violet eyes are glowing faintly as is the yellow stone on the silver wristband on his right wrist, As he walks towards the mall he spots Scout, Caleb is no stranger to vandalism, him and his twin had their own little crime spree in their village when they were kids, he walks over to her, "You're either really cocky, or just plain stupid", he speaks in a strong Irish accent.
July is just coming out of the mall, when she notices the graffiti, and the two apparently working on it. Out of curiosity, she walks toward the two, and approaches them enough to start listening to their conversation. "Huh. Is that you, Caleb? I would never peg you as one to do graffiti." she chuckles.
Bruce steps out of the mall and tips his Akubra down to block the sunlight some. He glances around to see a group of people gathered around some graffiti. And one of them is…That little jerk who tried to take his money yesterday. He wanders close by, walking with a slight limp. He stops to listen in on what the group is talking about, lighting a cigarette so as not to look like he’s lurking. That kid had some sort of power, and he wants to know if he was somehow related to the Avengers or if he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Mistake number two - remaining at the scene of the crime. "A little bit of both, I think." Scout mentions as she remains standing before her art, arms crossed and her head cocked a little to the left. From a distance it could almost look like she were studying some classic painting from her intense stare, if it didn't happen to be outside and on the side of a building. "Hmmm… not my best, but definitely good." She adds a nod to affirm her own approval. Without taking her eyes off the graffiti, she responds to the new arrivals comment. "He didn't."
Caleb looks round when July speaks, "I didn't do it, i'm not dunb enough to do it during the day, i'd wait till it got dark", he looks at the grafiti, "Not very good is it?", he's met people like Scout before, actully he was like Scout once, he knows how to bug them.
Bruce chuckles to himself slightly. This kid will abandon a wounded person to stop a robbery, and destroys public property for fun. He apparently has his morals confused. Then he hears that it was not the boy who painted the wall and half folds his arms, ashing his cigarette on the ground. He frowns, these kids aren’t very exciting He prepares to walk away but decides it might be fun to cause a bit of grief for Caleb, get him back for all the trouble he gave Dingo yesterday. He clears his throat and speaks out loudly, “Wonder if I’d get a reward for turning in a bunch o’ vandals.” His voice is distinctly Australian, which may raise a very large flag for Caleb.
Finally Scout looks away from her work, eyes narrowing in on the Irish accented teen. "And who are you to judge? Hmmm?" She uncrosses her arms while her free hand falls to her side balled up into a fist. "I think it's perfectly fine." She sneers through clenched teeth, the comment working exactly as it was intended. Pausing, she twists her neck to look towards July. "Don't remember you if we did." She says flatly before looking back to the vandalized wall. There appears to be a strange attraction to this teen and the shadows, every little one spilling and stretching towards her in a slow crawl. "Vandals?" She shouts out in question to the man with the Australian accent.
Caleb grins glad he's getting to her, "Techniques pretty sloppy, also the darkness?, thats kinda emo, maybe you should see someone", he freezes when he hears the accent, "Feck", he takes a deep breath, "Probably less than I'd get for turning in a Bank Robber", theres some fear in the teens voice.
July blinks as she notices Scout's hostility, then the other man that just showed up, looking at him as what he says totally affects Caleb, and she arches one eyebrow here. "Alright, what's going on here?" she asks, not liking the atmosphere of the place.
Bruce inhales a bit too fast when Caleb mentions the robbery. He coughs a few times and ashes his cigarette again. It seems the kid recognizes his voice, but Caleb never saw his face, so perhaps he can still play this off. “Turning in a bank robber? Well, probably. Why, did you plan on robbing a bank?” He’s smirking right now, trying to look as though he finds the idea amusing. He points to the painting behind Scout. “Yes, vandalism. That right there. You know, paintin’ on a wall.”
The pack slung across Scout's shoulders is pulled down and placed at her feet, opened up and the can of spray painted placed inside. There's a couple more seconds wasted as she digs around, pulling some small, metal and rectangular object that is quickly shoved inside her front pocket. The backpack is then placed back onto her shoulders as she turns towards the older man. "That." She turns, also pointing at the wall. "Is ART." She's definitely irritated at this point, taking a couple steps towards the man, looking him up and down. "You think he'd actually try to rob a bank. Ha!" The laugh sounds pretty forced as she glances over towards Caleb.
Caleb gulps, he's completly sure that Bruce is the guy from yesterday but has no way to prove it, he turns invisable for a couple of second (his clothing is still visable), "You're the guy with the sand, i know it".
Bruce looks at the wall again. “Art? I ain’t so sure ‘bout that. Were you paid for that? Or…Did you just destroy someone’s wall?“ He narrows his eyes at Caleb when he goes invisible. That’s a new trick, didn’t see him do that yesterday. He suddenly steps back, “BLIMEY! What happened to yer skin!?” The surprise is slightly delayed and seems hollow. Also he limps slightly when he steps back, probably from an injury he sustained yesterday. “Sand? Like in that news article? The news said he was British, I ain’t from Britain.” He narrows his eyes. “Actually, the news said an invisible person shot that Avenger!” No it didn’t. The news said a woman shot Quicksilver.
"You ever heard of starving artists?" Scout snaps back as she continues to defend her graffiti. She's becoming more and more irritated, which is not hard to miss from the constant fidgeting of the backpack straps and scowl on her face. She looks over to the now invisible teen near her and scratches at the back of her head. "Whoa, maybe you would be good at robbing banks." Her entire demeanor has suddenly shifted, her lips twisting into a tooth filled grin as she stares at him. "Yes, indeed…" she mutters half under her breath.
Caleb looks at himself, "Feck!, not again", he's paniced now and is having trouble becoming visible again, "I…, it wasn't me, some woman did it, the one helping you", as he panics the stone on his wristband glows brighter.
July frowns softly, looking at the other guy, then to Caleb, then to Scout. "This is getting out of hand…" she frowns softly, and looks back at Bruce. "I trust Caleb." she says, looking at the invisible guy for a moment before looking back at Bruce. "As for you… you don't really inspire any trust, y'know? The news article said a female shot the Avenger guy." she frowns, before looking at Scout. "And you, dear, I don't care if you're a starving artist or a world-known artist, if you're depredating private property without the owner's consent, you're going to jail."
Bruce takes another step back. “Me? If I robbed a bank yesterday do you think I’d be wandering around a mall? If I had that kind of money I’d be on vacation.” He feigns terror again. “No, it must’ve been you. You WERE there! You must have shot that Avenger! Why would you do that?”
Bruce hesitates for a moment when July speaks up, he glares at her for a moment before speaking again. “Let’s think about this, Quicksilver was shot by an invisible person. This kid can turn invisible. This kid said he was there yesterday.” He shrugs, “Seems to make sense to me, kiddo.” He glances at Scout again, but she’s not worth his time right now. He’ll deal with the invisible kid and his friend first.
Scout's attention is immediately drawn to the now brighter glowing stone, attached to the wristband around Caleb's wrist. She licks her chops while taking a half step towards him, her left hand tucked into her front pocket as she begins to dig around. "My, my, my… what do we have here." Finally the item she was looking for is produced from her pocket - two slender handles that make up the construction of a butterfly knife. She swings it open, so the blade is now visible. "Jail is for those that get ratted out. Are you going to rat me out?" She says, still licking her lips eyes rapidly darting from the glowing wristband and July.
Caleb reappears, "Kiddo?, the bank robber yesterday called me the same thing, so here’s the list, 1. Australian, 2. Called Me Kiddo, you fill both", he's trying to sound confident, but there’s a slight tremble in his voice. When Scout pulls a knife he walks to stand between her and July, "Leave it, you don't want to do that".
July sighs and shakes her head, "Listen, man, I don't know where you come from, but whoever shot the Avenger was a woman. And, at least from were I come from, women have more slender builds than men, and have breasts too." she says, arching one eyebrow, but then as Caleb puts himself before her, she looks at him, then to Scout, and frowns, "Stop, and drop that knife, or else I'll have to take you to jail." she warns her, while moving to stand next to Caleb, while still frowning at the girl.
Bruce keeps staring at the boy. "Oh, so because I'm from Australia and speak in Strine, I must be a bank robber. You should join the police force." He shakes his head. "Kiddo's a common word where I come from. Turning invisible? Not common anywhere, mate. Not to mention that news article said BRITISH. Oz ain't Britain." He sighs and holds up his hands at July. "And fine, maybe he didn't shoot that hero bloke. Maybe there're just a whole bunch o' invisible folk around here." He hears July's threat to throw the other girl in jail and guffaws loudly. It takes him a few seconds to stop. "What is with you people? You accuse people of being bank robbers and threaten to arrest everyone you meet? One o' these days you're gonna threaten the wrong person."
Scout laughs, her eyes still fluttering between July and the glowing wristband. "Like what? You're going to citizen's arrest me? Good luck with that." She grins, licking her lips one more time and taking another short step forward, the sound of spray paint cans banging together leak through the backpack. "If I were you, I'd take that guys advice." She gestures towards Bruce with the tip of her knife. "And stop threatening people. It is not the decent thing to do."
"Not decent?, you're threatening us with a knife and he robbed a bank, and we're not being decent, fine, won't be then", Caleb closes his eyes and disappears, but this time he phases out of the clothing and is completely invisible, leaving a pile of clothes behind.
July glances at Bruce, but doesn't pay him much attention. He's not the one brandishing a knife. "Being decent and instead of threatening arrest, we should threaten with pain, like you're doing, hm?" She then blink softly as Caleb's clothes just fall down, "Great." she mutters, before looking at Scout again, still frowning at her.
Bruce shakes his head, "I'm just sayin', it's probably better to run from someone with a knife than to stand there and threaten to arrest them by…Turning invisible again." He frowns again and shakes his head, "I really wish you'd stop saying I robbed a bank. There's absolutely no evidence of that other than that I might maybe sound kind of like the guy who did rob the bank." He glances around slightly, looking for where Caleb went. Damn, what an annoying ability. "But yeah, you two girls may want to scram. If that report was wrong and this kid did shoot the Avenger…Well he might be hard to defend against now." Strangely he does not seem alarmed at the knife at all.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Scout says, both hands thrown up into the air. "Stop putting words in my mouth! Have I threatened anyone with a knife?" She turns to look at the older man, looking for a little verbal back up. "Have you heard me threaten anyone? Because I don't recall threatening anyone." She pauses, lowering both arms to her sides. "Maybe I did." She seems a little confused, scratching at the back of her head with her free hand. "Maybe I just like the weight of the blade in my hand. You ever think of that?" She mumbles, taking a step to the side, slowly beginning to circle the spot she was just standing. The invisible teen has been all but ignored by her, the pile of clothes not even getting a look. "Man, you people suck."
Now he can't be seen Caleb begins to deal with all the problems presented, number one, weird girl with the knife, he moves forwards as quietly as possible and attempts to take the knife out of Scout's hand, if he gets hold of it he'll attempt to phase it out of her hand.
July arches one eyebrow and shakes her head at Scout. "You are one messed up girl. You accuse us of being wrong while you were caught red-handed destroying private property." she says, gesturing to the painted wall.
Bruce is silent right now, looking around for any signs of the invisible kid. He hears the girls talking but does not comment on their conversation. The man is focusing on the ground more than the air around him. What is he looking for? Footsteps, disruptions of pebbles on the ground, anything to indicate where Caleb may be. He doesn’t see anything right now it seems.
Suddenly the knife disappears from Scout's hand, and the look on her face is half shock and half anger. "What the!" she shouts, smacking her hands against her thighs. "That's the second one I've lost." She wanders back towards the her graffiti, looking up at it with an expression of sadness. "I really hate you." She mutters, not quite to any one in particular. A couple more steps are taken forward towards the wall, her feet slowly melding into the shadows cast onto the ground. It only takes a couple of seconds before she's fully disappeared, down into the blackness.
Caleb grins an invisable grin when he gets hold of the knife, his eyes widen in shock when Scout disappears into the shadow, while he's standing there watching her, the knife becomes visible, so Bruce now has a clue as to where he is.
July blinks as she looks at the wall, at the spot Scout disappeared to. "Well, that explains a lot." she says, blinking again, but then she shakes her head and looks at Bruce, wondering whta the guy is going to do again.
Bruce also blinks when the graffitist vanishes. He cocks his head at where she went. “Alright, what did you do with her?” He apparently assumes Caleb caused her to vanish. Then he sees the knife appear. It still causes him no distress. It helps him know where the boy is, but he knows that his sands pass right through the boy. He puffs his cigarette again and ashes once more on the ground. “So you shoot people, make them disappear, and float around with knives. You’re aces in my book.” Somehow he sounds less than sincere.
Caleb hasn't realised that the knife is still visable, he walks over to his clothes to pick up his jeans and put the knife in his pocket.
July glances at Bruce, and frowns, "Would you mind stopping blaming my friend with totally absurd accusations? They said it was a woman that shot the Avenger, so that brings up two things: first, the shooter was VISIBLE, and two, the shooter was NOT male." she says, frowning and crossing her arms, looking at Bruce. "Plus, that weird girl went away by her own doing. We did nothing. She's most likely a mutant."
Bruce huffs, "Right, because stating that a stranger is a bank robber is not doing the exact same thing." He ponders for a moment to ponder the fact that this other girl might have indeed been a mutant. A disenchanted and confused mutant. He'll look for her later, but right now he's preoccupied with that knife floating back toward him. He takes a defensive stance, assuming the boy is coming to stab him. He takes the cigarette out of his mouth and flicks it forcefully in the general direction of the knife. Maybe if the kid is holding the knife that means he's tangible.
Caleb drops the knife when the cigarette burns him, "Ow", the burn mark on his skin can be seen while he's still invisable, "God, man, a cigarette?, what the hell is wrong with you?", trust me, cigarette burns sting like hell.
July blinks as she sees Bruce throwing the cigarette, and she tries to deflect it, but ends up hitting Caleb, and then she glares at the other guy. "What the hell is your problem, man, burning other people like that!?" she says, "He's not even close to you!!"
Bruce frowns and looks a little embarrassed now. He runs a finger along the brim of his hat nervously. “Um…Sorry, mate.” He becomes defensive now. “Well what would you do if some guy was ranting that you were a bank robber and then there was a knife floating toward you?” He frowns “Granted, yeah he’s a bit far over there, but still. I mean, I wasn’t gonna let a floating knife get that close.” He can’t help but take notes on the situation. The boy was harmed by the cigarette, and now there is a visible spot on him. It seems that he can be made visible by marking his skin. He’ll keep that in mind incase he becomes a problem in the future.
July frowns at that, "Floating! That implies slow speed!!" she says, "If that means you don't have enough speed to dodge such fast attack, and has to attack pre-emptively, you need some serious help!" she says, "And just because he's holding a knife doesn't mean he intends to do any harm! Now you, holding a lit cigarette, DID intend to harm him. What does that say of YOU, then?" she says, before heading toward Caleb to check on the burn, since hte burn is visible.
or a snake is moving slow, it must be REAL easy to dodge their strike, eh? And right, when I was SMOKING my cigarette I intended to hurt someone with it. I saw a threat, I had a defensive item, I acted impulsively.” He shrugs and does not look too concerned with the boy’s wellbeing. “Look, you kids’ve got a serious hero complex. Maybe you should run home before some mutant haters catch site of you…Or your floating weaponry. In fact, just leave the knife on the ground. If you can go all see through, you don’t need a blade.” He waves a hand at them dismissively and turns to walk away. “Whatever, do what you want. Eventually you’ll run into someone like Magneto and that’ll be the end of ya.” He starts to head off, unless they say or do something to annoy him again.
July rolls her eyes softly. "Right, because he's an invisible crocodile, not a person." she says, shaking her head at that, and then looks at Bruce again, still frowning. "If he wanted to be slow, he'd just sneak behind you, where he HAS to be slow. No one is stupid enough to just walk toward someone they plan on attacking out of the blue." she says, shaking her head.
Caleb is absolutly infuriated, what an arrogant useless selfish prick, he waves a hand in a backhanded gesture and a blast od violet energy flys towards Bruce, "What the…", he stares at his hand, so thats what the energy does.
Bruce just keeps walking off, lighting another cigarette as he does so. He pauses for a moment and glances back at the girl. “I’m sorry, I had no idea you were so trained in combat.” He flicks his dog-tags. “You’ve been in a war too, eh? No? Oh sorry. I didn’t realize you were 15.” That’s when he catches sight of the odd colored light shooting toward him. He has absolutely no time to react and gets struck right between the shoulders. Bruce is sent flying about ten feet before rag dolling on the pavement and slamming into a car. He seems to be unconscious at the moment.
July frowns at Bruce and really wants to punch him, "Oh, I didn't know dog tags allow you to harm kids." she says, arching one eyebrow, but then she sees the energy traveling in the air and hitting Bruce. "What the hell!?" she asks in shock, and then she turns to Caleb's general direction. "Did you do that!?"
Caleb just stares at his faintly glowing hand, "I…I don't know, it's never done that before", he looks at the unconscious Bruce, "Should we go see if he's alright?", as much as he doesn't like the man, he didn't mean to do that.
rolls over and coughs slightly, shivering heavily. He attempts to get on his hands and knees, but he falls down again. “Bugger…” His voice is a little weak and he seems to be having trouble catching his breath. “I think I…” He winces and contorts slightly, but still does not stand up. His face is scratched up and his palms are bleeding a little. His hat is lying about three feet away from him right now. He mutters slowly, “I throw a cigarette and he shoots a laser beam…That’s real appropriate.”
July looks from Bruce to Caleb to Bruce, and curses, "Damn it, Caleb, why did you have to shoot him!?" she asks, not believing this. She runs to Bruce's, picking up his hat on her way, "Here you go, sir. Sorry about that. Real sorry. I didn't know he could shoot like that."
Caleb walks towards July and Bruce still staring at his hand, he knew that magic can take on all kinds of forms but he's never been able to do that before, he stops next to July, the only sign that he's there is the burn on his arm.
Bruce manages to pull himself to his feet and leans heavily on the car. He grabs a hold of his chest and winces again, seems like he bruised his ribs when he hit that car. “Damn. Where is that little bastard?” He glances around and apparently does not notice the burn. “If I’d known he could do that I wouldn’t have worried about the knife so much.” He takes his hat from July and narrows his eyes at her. “For the last time, I AIN’T the bank robber. Do something like that again and I’ll call the police on ya.” He’s looking at July as he says this not because he thinks she shot him, but because she’s the visible one.
July sighs softly, "You just shot the accusations back to him." she says, shaking her head before looking at her watch, "Look… I better get going. You two… better part ways, or else someone's going to get really hurt." she says, shaking her head again, before waving, "Take care."
Caleb says "Bye" to July as she leaves still amazed by his own hand, "Whoa", he's almost forgotten that Bruce is there.
Bruce stands there and tries to catch his breath, just sort of glaring at July when she tries to tell him what to do. “Yeah, well I know what you look like. Keep that in mind. If I need to go to the cops I can give a pretty good description.” He breathes heavily and winces again, jumping slightly when he hears Caleb speak. He contemplates retaliating for a moment, but decides it would be better to make the boy question whether or not Bruce really is the bank robber. “Woah? Glad that was so fun for you.”
Caleb finally reappears, he can only keep up the invisability for so long, and his body isn't used to the energy he just realesed yet, "Not fun, just wow, i've never done that before".
Bruce glares at the boy when he reappears. “Oh, well that’s great. When will I stop being so cold?” He’s still shivering slightly. Bruce tries to stand up a little better, but still needs some time to recover, “Look, sorry I threw a cigarette at you. I saw the knife and panicked. When I saw you could turn invisible I really did assume you were the person who shot Pietro.” What’s this? He knows Quicksilver’s real name it seems.
Caleb shrugs, "How am I supposed to know, I'm as new to that as you are", then something regesters in the teens mind, "If you're just an innocent civilian, then why did you call Quicksilver Pietro?", his hands begin to glow again.
Bruce still looks a little woozy from the blast, but at least he’s not shivering as much. That last question makes him think for a moment, trying to decide whether or not he should give this boy his real name or not. He glances at the hands and holds up his in defense. “Wow buddy. Let’s think for a sec, can we? I didn’t freak out when I saw you go invisible, did I? And not so much when that girl vanished either.” He takes another breath. “I’m a mutant meself. Work at Nowhere. Pietro comes in there once in a while.” He takes another breath. “Lets think for a sec, if I were on a first name basis with the guy, you think I’d go out and fight with him in the streets?”
Caleb watches Bruce carefully and stands up, "Ok, what's your power? And your name while your at it?", he's not buying the Australian's story, he doesn't trust the man, he had heard his voice before, and he's never been to a bar before, cos well, sixteen.
Bruce frowns at the boy, trying to decide whether or not that would be a wise decision. “Not that it’s any of your bizzo, but since I already told you where I work I’d be pretty easy to find.” He holds up his dog-tags, clutching one of them in his hand to conceal the name. The visible name says “Jack Boomer”. He places the tags inside his shirt and reaches around his back under his coat and unsnaps something. “That’s my name, this is my power.” He pulls out a rather large knife of his own. Why does he have it with him? Who knows. He holds up the knife so that the boy can see that it is real before plunging it into his own chest. He has turned his torso into sand, but that can’t be seen due to his clothing. He pulls out the knife and reforms his chest, lifting his shirt to show that there was no damage done. “If I KNOW something’s coming, I can prevent damage.” He puts the knife back.
For the first time that evening Caleb's belief that Bruce is the robber is faultered, "Oh, so you don't control sand…", he glow on his hands fades away but the glowing stone on his wristband remains strong, he runs a hand though his white hair.
Bruce shakes his head. “No, I don’t control sand. If I had a power like that and was the bank robber and realized that you recognized me…Do you think I’d just stand there and banter with you? The bank robber probably wouldn’t want a witness running around knowing what he looked like.” He has stopped shivering now, but he’s going to ache for the next few days. “And just because someone can control sand that doesn’t automatically make them that robber either. Remember, I thought you were the shooter because you can turn invisible. Apparently there are at least two of you.”
Caleb sighs, "Sorry, just, I was so sure you were him", any previous confidence he'd shown is gone, he looks pretty depressed, the violet glow fades from the stone and his eyes.
Bruce chuckles slightly. Excellent, managed to dodge a bullet here. Maybe he’ll look for the kid later and try to get some answers out of him, like why he decided to intervene or who those other mutants were. He seems to be able to move around properly again, though a bit slower and with a heavier limp. “Yeah well, an accent alone isn’t a conviction, kiddo.” He repositions his hat and steps away from the car, bending down to inspect the damage and frowning. “Sucks ‘bout this car. Maybe we should get outa’ here before the owner comes back, eh?” Whether or not Caleb agrees, he begins to walk away from the scene.
Caleb nods and pulls on his jeans and shoes then runs after Bruce pulling on his t-shirt as he catches up with him, "Again sorry, i didn't mean to hit you, i'm not even sure how i did it", and he does mean it, he pulls Scout's knife out of his pocket, "What should i do with this?"
Bruce is limping rather heavily. “Yeah well maybe you should get help. Look for someone who can teach you how to use your powers right before you accidentally fire that thing off in a crowd. This country’d lock you in a zoo and throw away the key.” He glances down at the knife and shrugs. “Wipe it down and toss it. Who knows what she did with that knife? Could be a murder weapon for all we know.”
Caleb notices the limp and goes to put Bruce's arm over his shoulder in an attempt to help him, he slips the knife back into his pocket, he'll get rid of it later, "Whats with the limp?", he noticed that Bruce had the limp before he hit him, and if he's a healer, why the limp?
Bruce pulls his arm back, refusing the help from Caleb. “Thanks for the gesture, kiddo. But it crimps me image.” He smirks down at his leg, “You mean aside from being shot into a car by a laser beam?” He chuckles. “Like I said, I need to know that something’s going to happen to prepare for an injury. My dog tripped me up at the park the other day.”
Caleb just nods and makes no more attempts to help, "It wasn't a laser beam, if it was, you wouldn't have got back up", he smiles a little about the dog thing, "Was he chasing a squirrel?"
Bruce shakes his head, “Oh I don’t know what he was doing. And how do you know it wasn’t a laser beam? You said yourself that you didn’t know what that was. Maybe it was like a…I don’t know. Cold beam or something.” He shrugs and limps up to a green motorcycle in the back of the lot. He stops and leans against it. Apparently he intends to drive it home, even in his injured state.
Caleb shrugs, "Guess you're right, it might have been, i'm still not completly sure what it does", when they reach the bike he raises an eyebrow, "You're not planning on riding that are you?"
Bruce chuckles and leans against his bike. “Eh, I’ve driven in a lot worse states than this. Besides, I can’t leave me bike here all night. It’ll get towed or stolen, don’t want that.” He doesn’t seem to be making any motions to get on the bike at the moment. “I’ll recover a bit first, just didn’t want to linger near that damaged car.”
Bruce is leaning against his bike, he looks a bit tired himself and winces when he breathes. He’s wearing blue jeans and a green jacket. His face is scratched up and his palms are bleeding. It looks almost as though he was dragged across the asphalt. He removes his Akubra and runs a hand through his hair. “You alright, kiddo? Maybe shooting me tuckered you out a bit more than you expected?” A power flaw perhaps? That’d be nice to figure out.
Caleb shakes his head, "No i'm fine, i'm just not used to that sort of energy yet i guess, i'll adjust", still, he yawns widely, "Are you gonna be alright getting home with that limp?", hr feels kinda responsible, as he may have blasted him across the parking lot.
A vroom of a motorcycle rings out as Brian comes up on the driveway, his battle suit helmet on his head. The crimson Yamaha FZ1 stops in front of Bruce and Caleb, the lights illuminating them. The X-Forcer doesn't say a thing, just straddles the bike. Looking over the two.
Bruce quirks a brow at the newcomer, looking at his helmet, then his bike, then his helmet. He frowns slightly and turns to Caleb “Um…Friend of yours?” If this newcomer decides to be hostile, Bruce will have to use his powers to defend himself. That will effectively ruin all of the deceit he has been spinning since he found Caleb here.
Caleb closes his eyes slightly at the light, "No, not a friend of mine, i was gonna ask if you knew him, with the bike and all", he runs a hand though his white hair, "Hello?"
Brian shuts off the bike, dismounting from the motorcycle and revealing himself entirely. He doesn't say anything and any attempts to reach to him telepathically will be denied thanks to the hardware in his helmet. An electronic voice rings out. "Hello." He says, before moving closer to the two. Scourge is just getting a look of the two, not recognizing either of them.
A few major fears run through Bruce's mind. Is this guy an Avenger? Did he somehow track Bruce down to avenge Pietro? Perhaps he works for Magneto. Their meeting did not go so swimmingly last night. When Caleb mentions that he does not know him it worries him a little further. If this man is here to see one of the two of them, and Caleb does not recognize him, then perhaps one of Bruce's theories is the case. He tries to stand up properly to make himself look less injured, but he winces strongly and cradles his ribs when he attempts this. After a moment's composure he asks the helmeted man, "Can we help you with somethin', mate?"
Caleb fights the temptation to go invisable again, "Hey, are you lost, I don't really know the area but I can try to help", he stands up straight and stifles another yawn.
Scourge looks to Bruce again. "No." He says, in the electronic masking of the helmet. Little known to Bruce is that Brian does work for Magneto. But he was not informed of Bruce at all. "You should get that looked at." He comments at the wince and cradling. The mutant looks back to his motorcycle and rolls it into a parking spot. Then the young mutant's plain and shaded helmet turns around and looks at Caleb. "I've been here for the last six years of my life. I should be asking you that question."
Bruce gives this new man a once over and cocks his head slightly. “Riiiight…Well I had a bit of an…Accident.” He looks at Caleb for a second. “But I think I’ll be righto now. Er once I can get some rest.” He actually probably will go to see a doctor, but he has no desire to let this stranger know that he is that badly injured. “So uh…You always sound like that, er is it one o’ them new phone-eridoos? The Whosi-pods or whatever.” Bruce isn’t too well caught up on newer technologies.
When the helmeted man turns to look at him Caleb takes an automatic step backwards, "Ok, sorry, you were staring at us so i thought you wanted help", his eyelids are drooping slightly.
You aren't carrying anything.
"Don't apologize." Scourge says, before he starts to move off. Only saying to Bruce a lie. "This is how I always speak." The electronic speaker emits before Brian starts to move to the mall portion of Salem Center. Weird folk, and Brian had an impish grin on his face the entire time underneath that helmet of his.
Bruce continues to watch the man as he departs. He leans in and whispers to Caleb. “Maybe he was a smoker and had one of those electronic voice boxes put in.” He nods in agreement with himself, deciding that this must be the reason for his voice. “And he probably got all disfigured from the cancer and has to wear that helmet.” He assumes that he is out of earshot of Brian, but in truth he probably is not.
Caleb shrugs, "Could be, or maybe he's a robot, or he's a mutant and it's part of his mutation, like electric voice or something", he leans back against the wall, "You feeling any better yet?"
Brian turns around, pointing a finger to the ground in front of Bruce. Blasting a miniscule line across the ground in between them and him. The sound of energy ringing out from his hand sounds like arcing electricity and a high-pitched screetch. "Guess again." He says, at a louder voice than he was at earlier. The mutant simply turns around and continues to walk towards the mall.
A robotic mutant, eh? That would be interesting. Bruce ponders for a moment why he never ran into so many mutants back in Melbourne. Probably just didn't look in the right places. He is snapped out of his thoughts by the other man shooting the line in front of him. Bruce manages a "CRIKEY!" before doing something he's been trying to avoid doing all evening. He jumps up and yells at the man, "What the bloody hell was that for? I am sick of being blasted at tonight!"
The ground around him is doing something odd. It looks almost as if all of the dust and sand strewn across the lot, stuck in the gaps in the road, and lining the inside of the planter boxes is conglomerating around Bruce. "Don't blast at us and then just walk away!" He seems to have accumulated a bit of sand, though not nearly as much as when he robbed the bank the other day. Bruce clenches his fist and then thrusts an arm forward. The sand becomes a seven foot tall hand and reaches forward toward Brian, but he may be too far out of Bruce's reach. He is attempting to swat the other man like a giant insect.
The energy shot at Bruce wakes Caleb up somewhat, then when Bruce starts controling sand, Caleb is completly awake, he was right the whole, the lying bastard, he clenches he fist and the violet energy begins building up again, "I fecking knew it!".
Brian at first doesn't turn around at all, before something seems off, and he looks up. Before his gloves rip off, showing the glowing crimson energy that they are made of now. A dome of energy wraps around Brian before he takes the hit. And the force of it is nothing against his forcefield. The energy wielder looks to Bruce and shakes his head. "If that's it, I'll be on my way." A sort of a chuckle behind the voice now.
Bruce catches the glowing out of the corner of his eye and holds up a hand toward Caleb. “Hold it!” He speaks quickly, trying to keep an eye on Brian. “Look, YES I robbed that bank and YES I lied to you. But things just got out of hand yesterday because everyone had to interfere. I need that money for something direly important to mutant kind as a whole. I never meant for anyone to get hurt and I didn’t take that much money.” As an afterthought he adds “And I wouldn’t have hurt that lady.” He means the hostage. “I even paid her for her trouble”. With stolen money.
Bruce watches as his construct proves ineffective and limps forward, turning to Caleb “Wait here for a sec? I’d like to explain.” He limps up to where his construct fell and forms a new one. This time a ferocious looking dog as tall as Bruce. A Dingo to be precise. “Arrogant little…” The dog construct hunches down before leaping after the other man.
What does Caleb care what Bruce's reasons for robbing the bank were, theres also the fact that he tried to pin it on him earlier, he is MAD, and that seems to charge up the energy even more, however he can't act yet as he still doesn't know how to release the energy.
Brian makes a move to blast the canine with a burst of energy. The forcefield is protecting Brian still, but it's forming around his body instead of just a dome. Brian then looks to bruce. "It's so cute how you try so hard. But honestly, I'm not going to be known as the guy who had to beat down someone who already got his ass kicked." He says afterwards. Man, when Brian finds out about this one and the brotherhood…he's gonna have a good laugh. "Don't go on trying to be a mutant messiah, that's just tacky. And brings the rest of us down."
Bruce keeps watch on those purple things out of the corner of his eye. “Hey! I was shot in the back by a kid who doesn’t even know what he did. And that’s less than a day after being attacked by both Quicksilver AND Magneto. I’d like to see you after that.” The Dingo is struck and seems to explode. It dissipates into a small sand storm and spirals toward Brian. That force field may be an issue, but he shouldn’t be able to blast a million particles out of the sky. “And I’m not trying to be a messiah, I’m preparing. There’s a war coming, and I want to be prepared.”
The energy manipulator shakes his head more. Though by that point he's in a sandstorm. Brian, adequately pissed sends out an energy blast to the last place he had seen Bruce before the sandstorm hit. This blast comes as a six-foot long spread to cover any ground lost by him strafing.
For the second time today Bruce is hit by an energy beam. He is knocked back about six feet and lands on his back with a cry. The storm simply falls out of the sky and leaves a film of sand on the ground. Bruce sits up and grabs his ribs again. That last burst didn’t help his previous injuries. He looks severely pissed off, but he stays on the ground. All this pain is taking a drain on him, and it seems that his sands can’t even get to this other man. He remains silent and spits on the ground next to him, there’s a bit of blood in it.
Brian sighs and moves back to where his motorcycle is. "So, what did we learn today? Now, you need me to drop you off someplace?" Yeah, he's a gracious winner. At least to another mutant. "You probably don't wanna be here when the police show up." He says, holding a hand out to Bruce.
Bruce hesitates for a moment before accepting the hand. He gets pulled up and winces again. "Damn ribs…" He glances at the brooding Caleb and then at his bike, frowning. He probably shouldn't try riding his own bike back home right now. "I think I can make it back alright." He takes a step forward and goes down on one knee. He may have twisted something during that last fall. "Damn."
Bruce ponders for a moment and looks at the other man curiously. Why attack and then offer help? Granted that's what Bruce did to Pietro yesterday. He smirks a little embarassed. "Um, if you could drop me off in Mutant Town…I guess…" He sighs. "Sorry for attackin' ya. I've just…Kind of had my share of lasers today."
Brian gives a nod to Bruce. "Hop on then." He says before revving up the motorcycle again. He doesn't apologize for the blasts he gave to Bruce. "Mutant town it is." He says, again. As soon as Bruce is on the bike, he's gonna head towards the city.
Bruce shoots one last glance toward Caleb and sighs. He’ll deal with that kid if he happens upon him again. He manages to limp over and mount the bike. He mutters a “Thanks”, but won’t speak until they reach the city again. He’ll have this man drop him off at the edge of Mutant Town and will thank him one last time before heading home to patch himself up and pass out.
~ Fin ~
