Intrigue at the Arcade

[apache_banshee]

Sean and Rose had decided to go out and have some fun. Rose had insisted it had been too long since she had "schooled him" in pool, so they were driving to a local arcade that had several pool tables available.

"I still say I won that last game we had."

Comments

[apache_banshee]

"Hmph," was all he conveyed by way of sound. He bent forward with his pool cue, lining up and sending a pair of balls careening into the upper right corner. He smirked, moving around to the other corner, bending to take another shot.

[wild_child]

"Lucky shot," Rose teased. "That's all."

[apache_banshee]

"Lucky!?" He asked, all indignant. "I'll show you lucky." he mutters a stream of nonsensical words as he makes a point of carefully lining up his next shot. He went to shoot, then sneezed. This casued his body to shift, skipping the ball ahead and completely missing the shot. "Damn it to heck!"

[wild_child]

Rose let out a laugh. "Toldja, Irish."

She moved closer to the table, lining up her own shot. "Lemme show you how it's done."

Unfortunately, there weren't a lot of very good shots. But she did send the ball careening around the table pretty well. "Lousy flippin' cue ball..."

[apache_banshee]

"I'm sorry, but what was that you were saying earlier?" Sean teased.

As the two played, a near seven foot woman dressed like a punker with green hair made her way into the pool room.

[ngm_xsyndicate]

The giant woman looked around the room until she spotted a plump man in the corner who had been on a winning streak, and unknown to the owner, pocketing various betting money. He saw the green-haired woman and abruptly froze. She took several long strides over. She stood in front of the pool table.

"We need to talk, Bennett," she said in a tone that brooked no argument."

"S-sure, Mayhem. No problem. I, I'll talk to you guys later."

The others at the table quickly vacated the room.

[wild_child]

Rose shot Sean a look, kept her voice low. "That... ain't lookin' good."

[apache_banshee]

"Can you hear them from here?" Sean asked quietly, making it a point not to look toward the possible confrontation.

[wild_child]

Rose nodded slightly, focusing on their voices, and not the countless electronic sounds, skee ball, pinball, and people.

"C'mon... don't be somethin' we have ta deal with..."

[ngm_xsyndicate]

"You're late on your debts, Bennett," the woman stated calmly.

"I know, I know. That's why I'm here actually." He shows off the winnings from the men he had skimmed. "See? And this is just the start?"

"I'm supposed to be impressed by a hundred and twenty bucks? You owe Echidna a thousand dollars. You knew the risks of betting on the fights."

"Just give me a little more time. I-"

"That two-bit telenises of yours is only going to work for so long until your "buddies" catch on. And you'll be worse than a cheat, you'll be a mutie cheat. We're going to Echidna. She'll decide whether your ass is worth trusting."

"Mayhem, please! We can settle this between us! Please! She'll do worse than kill me!"

[wild_child]

Rose made a face. "Amazon there's a leg-breaker. Other guy owes somebody a lot of money. Think it's gonna turn ugly. She's takin' him with her whether he wants ta go or not."

[apache_banshee]

"Geez..what do you wanna do? I don't think we want to start a fight in here," Sean asked.

[wild_child]

"You're right," she agreed. "Too many people around."

She let out a breath. "Don't like it, but we gotta let her take him... follow, and hit when the time's right."

[ngm_xsyndicate]

Mayhem grabbed his wrist and put a "small" amount of pressure on it. The man yelped, but caught himself.

"Okay, okay! I..I can convince Echidna."

"Good," the giantess replied. "Let's go."

The two made their way out of the store, the man reluctantly being herded along.

[wild_child]

Rose signaled Sean that they should head out the other way. She had the scent.

[apache_banshee]

Sean nodded, quietly following along. He may not have Rose's natural gifts, but he was a pretty good hunter in his own right.

[ngm_xsyndicate]

They wouldn't have to track them that far. Mayhem took her unwilling companion to a warehouse. They were met at the entrance by one of the workers. He exchanged a few words with Mayhem before nodding and letting her and Bennett inside.

[wild_child]

Rose frowned, peering around a corner. "No way of knowing what's in there. But I don't like this one bit. That guy was flippin' terrified.

"Smart thing to do would be callin' this in..."

[apache_banshee]

"Yeah..." When Sean was serious he tended to be very quiet, even pensive. "Any way we could scout around? Try and get some kind of look in there without alerting the whole place?"

[wild_child]

"Dunno if there's another way in... or any kind of security," Rose said. "Don't see any cameras though..."

[apache_banshee]

"What about the roof? There's a heavy lift over there. We could climb up that and probably jump up the rest of the way," Sean suggested. He didn't know if it was a good idea, but he wasn't keen on leaving.

[wild_child]

Rose nodded. "I take back one of th' bad things I said about ya, Irish. Good idea."

[apache_banshee]

"Just one? Well it's progress I suppose," he says in a deadpanned tone. He heads for the aforementioned lift, trusting Rose to be right behind him.

[wild_child]

Rose was right behind him and quickly started climbing. Once at the top, she made a quick leap, doing a perfect "super-hero landing" on the roof.

[ngm_xsyndicate]

Before Sean could mutter "Showoff", a grinding sound could be heard inside. Part of the floor shifted to reveal it was in fact a giant door blocking what looked like a massive, man-made ramp with stairs built along the far sides. Several figures came up first, all human-sized but with distinctly non-human features: An extra eye, tusks, an additional arm, and various minor, but distinctive mutations. They were also all armed with pistols. Then a large, snakelike form slithered up the ramp. From the waist up she looked like a scaled woman of mixed reptilian and human features. Below was a leviathan-like tail of coiled muscle. The only remotely "human" trai she had was a shock of red hair.

"I'm disappointed, Bennett," she spoke, a surprisingly smooth, almost soothing tone. "I would think you would be more grateful given what I've done for you."

"It's not that I didn't want to, Echidna. Really. Just..Molly's pregnant and I thought betting on the fights would get us some quick cash. I never meant to cheat you."

"Considering you were already in-debt for that mask you're wearing, I'm surprised you'd risk my anger."

Bennett gulped. "We'd spent all or lives in the sewers. I..I wanted our baby to have more."

"You have a roof over your head," Echidna pointed out, seeming to slither idly in an approximation of a human pacing. "You can see the Sun rise without being mobbed by paranoid flatscans. You have edible food and water."

"But-"

"But nothing!" She snapped. "I lived there too and made something of myself here! I didn't do it by biting the hand that fed me!"

"Please, Echidna. I'll pay you back for everything. I swear!"