The Dead Savant

Deleted User - 819397

Well, he hadn't had too much hope, but Giles still sighed internally as Toby gave a less than helpful answer about why he needed to come on this trip. It felt like he just lived off gut instincts, intuition and feelings. Which was all fine and good in a normal climate, but with the PRD-01 they were pushing their luck running about like this. After all, he was one of the most hunted Savants, and Toby had mentioned being on the run from them as well so his life wasn't all sunshine and roses where they were concerned either. Still, the younger guy had a perfect track record so far of not being in situations that could get them both in trouble, so...the former aristocrat supposed he should show him the trust that he'd earned. Besides, at this point he was a good few states away from home. Not like he was going to bail out with any sort of success. Forwards, then. The only way he could go. "Alright...I'll take your word for it. I'm just curious what's drawing you there...it's across the country. Your uh..." Here he paused and looked around to make sure they weren't likely to be overheard. "...Sixth sense doesn't have a range limit, I take it?" He didn't know if that's what directed Toby all over the place, but that's sure as heck what it felt like...always showing up exactly where he wanted to be when he wanted to be there...that certainly wasn't normal...
 

DeletedUser28032

Fighting back the desire to tell English where she could ram her judgemental look and to mind her own damn business, Dante quietly listened as Kasumi provided them with what was probably the most useful piece of information he'd ever received from his former colleagues in the FBI. Angel was on her way to a private airfield, with a minimal security detail and was also being accompanied by their old pal Markus making the opportunity to liberate them both too good to miss.

With his fingers still interlaced with Tonya's Dante would examine the pictures of the airfield and its small collection of buildings and hangars before making any form of reply to the others "Damn right I don't trust you...but this I can use..." he growled, ignoring the sermon about not rushing in, and how Raypool would be too well protected to tackle head on.

The way he saw it the best time to retrieve Angel and Markus would be whilst they were on the plane and airborne thus eliminating any potential reinforcements from arriving, not to mention the fact that the security team on the plane wouldn’t be expecting an attack. In fact the whole plan was fairly straight forward; infiltrate Tonya and Liu onto the plane dressed as stewardesses with a pair of silenced weapons hidden in the galley, wait until they were airborne and then quietly eliminate the security team before then jumping somewhere nearby with Angel and Markus in tow. There was only one flaw in the plan; Tonya.

As much as he loved her there was too much riding on her keeping it all together and Dante simply couldn’t risk losing what could be his only opportunity to free Angel from Raypool’s clutches, not to mention Tonya...no, as much as it pained him to do so she was off the team. Unfortunately by benching Tonya they would be unable to simply teleport off of the plane once they were finished meaning that they would either have to jump out of the plane which was difficult enough to do at the best of times let alone with an unwilling passenger, or land the plane somewhere else which would be great if Dante knew how to land a plane...or had a runway to land it on “I don’t suppose any of you guys know how fly a plane?” Dante asked the others, hoping that if he could solve the problem of finding a pilot then he could concentrate on the relatively task of finding them somewhere safe to land.
 

DeletedUser

It was a bit of a surprise to learn that Ash was in Kasumi’s head, but cyberpathy had always been one of the... weirder powers so the reveal wasn’t completely out of the blue. Unlike Dante however, Liu was grateful that that Ash was still around - the advantages of having the AI on their side were far too great to ignore and certainly much better than having it used against the Resistance.

Changing the subject, Ashley suggested that the group relocate to the Resistance headquarters and the group, minus Dante, were summarily teleported to a tunnel that Liu presumed led into the base itself. It seemed that Tonya wanted to have a private conversation with Dante, so the rest of the group waited in the tunnel for them to return. Liu was still uncomfortable with the idea of starting a conversation with Trixie again, so just stood in silence as the minutes passed by. After a while, Tonya and Dante materialized in the tunnel. The pair both seemed to be slightly on edge for some reason, but Liu saw no reason to pry into private matters so didn’t mention it.

Liu listened as Kasumi gave the group a briefing on their current opportunities. The small airfield with the limited security force presented an ideal opportunity to grab their targets and get out of there with comparatively low risk. Raypool certainly likes giving us chances to strike back. The question now was how would they go about extracting their two targets? Disguises were definitely a bad idea, the crew for the airplane would likely be fairly limited in numbers and would recognise if someone was pretending to be part of the crew. The easiest way to get on board would likely be using Trixie and Tonya’s powers together, but Liu couldn’t imagine that sitting well with Dante, who seemed to have other plans anyways.

“I’m too… short to pilot a plane. Besides, hijacking a plane in US airspace sounds like a terrible idea, especially considering they’re treating us like terrorists right now.” Liu replied to Dante. Hopefully someone else would come up with a better idea...
 

DeletedUser31931

Toby
As Giles asked Toby about his “sixth sense”, Toby shrugged nonchalantly and finished the bite of Chinese food in his mouth, figuring out how quite to respond in the time it took him to swallow. “Not that I’ve found out yet. I’ve not gone that far admittedly, only Florida or so, but I always seem to figure out what I’m supposed to be doing with enough time and space to think about it. And now I feel like I should go to Woodstock, and I feel like you ought to come too. Once we’re there, I might have a better idea of what we want, might not. I guess we’ll see”. With a noncommittal shrug, Toby ate the last forkful of his meal, enjoying the flavours in his mouth. It wasn’t the best food he’d ever had, but it was good for a truck stop.

With the pair having finished eating now, they disposed of the waste in a bin, making their way out of the truck stop and heading to a nearby bus stop, where Toby used a crumpled $20 to buy Giles and himself bus tickets to take them around the edge of the city. The ride was relatively quick and, whilst not the most direct route, it avoided much of the traffic that seemed to plague the rest of the city. The pair made good time and as Toby looked at his battered wris****ch he saw that they had twenty minutes or so leeway to make their connection.

Not a long while later, the pair stood outside the connection in question, Toby opening the door up so that Giles could enter before clambering in himself, closing the door behind them. The truck appeared to be some kind of furniture haulage, with large wooden boxes with arrows directing the way up that they should be and labels marking their contents. The wooden crates were sturdy and, making their way to the furthest point into the truck storage area, Toby swung himself up onto one of the crates, motioning for Giles to join him. They were more than capable of taking the pair’s weight and it made for a more comfortable seat than the floor, Toby found. Pulling his tennis ball out of his pocket, he threw it up in the air above his face, catching it as it fell back towards him. The laconic motion brought him a sense of pleasure, and he continued with the action as the truck’s engine trundled to life and the truck, complete with the two of them began to move off. Another eleven hours or so of journey lay ahead of them before they reached Woodstock. Before things descended into complete quiet, however, Toby decided to pitch a question to Giles. “If you were going to be a hero from a story, who would you be, and why?”

The question thrown out there, Toby followed it with the tennis ball, his eyes lazily tracking it, reaching up again to grasp it as it near completed its descent into his face. If Giles wanted to give a long reply and to start a discussion, that was fine to Toby. If he just wanted to sleep, that was fine to Toby. They had eleven hours. For now, the world was fine.
 

Deleted User - 819397

Another truck, another long drive. Giles wasn't claustrophobic, but he was very much looking forward to being done with this trip, one way or another. Still, it wasn't exactly a harrowing experience, seeing as they were hidden from view and all. He didn't think the ETSQ were that paranoid to be stopping random trucks. It was shaping up to be a quiet trip when the question was posed about what hero he'd like to be from a story. With a frown, he pondered for several moments, then sighed. "I don't know. So many heroes are boiled down. Either they're unattainable perfection, or only good for one character trait. I never wanted to be that one-dimensional. I wanted to help people, sure, and I'll admit I was hoping for some recognition, but I never pictured myself as any hero from a book or movie. I guess I wanted to make my own mark, not be considered the real life Superman, you know?" The former aristocrat fell silent, still frowning as he considered the question further. After a time, he sighed and shook his head. "What about you?" It was nice to be in a conversation where there was no digging, no judging, nothing that would be considered prying. He'd had so few of them since...all people wanting to know how he wound up homeless, Rachel and later Toby pushing to hear what had interfered with his life so much...there was no pressure here. And it was so, so nice.
 

DeletedUser28032

"I hate to break it to you Tinkerbell but we Are terrorists so you can forget all that goodie two shoes Robin Hood crap as it's liable to get you killed" Dante drawled, reluctantly admitting that she did have a point and that trying to actually fly and land a hijacked plane would probably result in them being shot down by a pair of interceptors. And so with that option now off of the table he moved on to other potential options "what about the road into the base? Any chance we could set an ambush and hit them before they arrive?" he asked, once again figuring that the fewer people there were around then the better their chances of success.
 

DeletedUser31931

Toby
Giles’ response was understandable, the idea that he wanted to make his mark but still be seen as the fully developed person he was, not be tied in with a single power or trait. As he flipped the question and returned it to Toby, the man stopped to think for a minute, the ball resting in his hands as he pondered his options for a second. “I think I’d choose Green Lantern”. The ball lazily drifted back into the air, dropping into Toby’s hands once more as he gave his explanation. “The idea that so long as you hope for something enough, that you will for it with all your strength, you can make it happen. It’s a nice thought to hold on to”. Toby paused for a second, enjoying the sensation of the truck bumping along the highway, beginning the final leg of their journey that would take them through Colombus and onto Woodstock. Only about ten hours stood between them and their destination, and Toby intended to spend as much of it in conversation as possible. Talking, after all, was one of the more fun ways to pass the time. With a flick of his wrist, sent the ball up in the air, dropping down towards Giles. “Your turn. What question would you like to hear the answer to?”
 

Deleted User - 819397

Toby's choice of hero was Green Lantern, that he wanted to be able to make things happen by wanting them to. "Just so long as you're not talking about the movie version, I'm ok with that," Giles responded, amusement present in his words if not his demeanor. "Green is a good color, too. Been a while since I've been colored in a fun way for any length of time. Miss it." This brief plunge into melancholy was averted by Toby saying it was Giles' turn to ask a question. He puzzled for a moment before nodding. "Say all this settles down and you don't need to run anymore. What's a dream job for you? Not just what you think you can do right away, but what's the goal?" The former aristocrat liked the idea that everything would end someday, that he'd be able to not hide and go on with his life. Toby had to feel the same in his mind, and a question that focused on a positive future was the right move in his opinion. Less likely to go back to questions about the recent past if the conversation moved to the future. Giles stretched out a little as he waited for his companion's response, searching for the optimal comfort position in the back of a semi. Which was a task he had to admit to himself he'd never have thought he'd need to do. At least it was better than doing so from a prison cell...
 

DeletedUser31931

Toby
Giles didn’t take too long to settle on his question, asking Toby what he would do with himself if the present ‘crisis’, as the media seemed to currently call it, came to an end and he could do as he wished. Toby cocked his head, pondering the question, his mind drawing a blank. He stared into the roof of the lorry, his body in the truck, his mind far off. After half a minute of silence, he shook his head and looked towards Giles again, holding his hand up ready to catch in case the other man saw fit to send the tennis ball back in his direction. “I don’t know. I’ve no idea. It’s just not something I’ve really considered much, just been focused generally on the next couple of days and weeks at a time, keeping my feet firmly planted on the ground, going where I think I ought to go, doing what I think I ought to do”. It wasn’t much of an answer, and Toby felt slightly bad in that regard, but he really just couldn’t think of what he’d do with himself. He was too busy ambling about doing stuff now to think about the future, he’d always been that way. “Sorry, not much help that. What about you, what would you do with yourself if this all went away?”
 

Deleted User - 819397

Giles tossed the ball back to Toby as he thought, something to do more than anything else...plus it seemed as though the young guy was using the menial task as a way to focus. The answer came back somewhat surprising the former aristocrat. "No plan? No aspirations or anything?" He shook his head, looking over at his companion with a wry expression. "I'm sounding old when I say it, but you should think about it. One way or another, this will end. Racism of any kind has been thwarted eventually. Even if it's not here, it'll go down. Can't hurt to have a plan ready." The unsurprising return of his question prompted a shrug, and slight hesitation. "I like the idea of going to college. Didn't when...when most kids my age would have, and never really considered it. Recent events though have somewhat inspired me. I like the idea of teaching, maybe PE or something, can't imagine I'd be much good at more academic subjects. Teach kids to have fun exercising, inspire the overweight one who knows he's different in a way that at his age probably is more the fault of his parents than himself...it's a nice vision, anyway. Gives me something to strive for if nothing else. Don't have a whole lot of that otherwise." Giles shrugged and fell silent, his piece said. After a moment of tossing the ball back and forth, he added, "your turn."
 

DeletedUser31931

Toby
As he flicked the ball up into the air, watching it spin, he nodded at Giles’ answer. Wanting to be a teacher, to help others, he could understand that. Now it was his turn to ask a question. Toby pondered for a second, musing on what would be a good question to ask. The ball landed in his hand and he held it for a moment, before sending it upwards again with a lazy flick, the ball dropping down towards Giles, followed by his question. “If you could talk with anyone who ever existed, who would it be?” Unlike the previous question, there was no chance of him disappointing with a lack of answer, and it was usually a good one at finding out who someone’s heroes or villains were. With the ball in Giles’ court, Toby tapped his fingers on the metal beneath him, his left hand feeling the fidget cube tucked away in his pocket, deciding to leave it away for now, whilst they were still using the tennis ball.
 

Deleted User - 819397

The ball came spinning back to Giles, accompanied by a question. An innocent question, and one he couldn't blame Toby for...but all the same it was a punch to the gut. Out of everyone who ever existed, who would he talk to? The obvious "correct" answer was a dead celebrity, maybe a president or something, or a hero of old. It was a question designed towards finding out who your hero was, your idol, or someone you just plain looked up to. But the answer the former aristocrat knew was the right one wasn't any of those. Well, maybe the look up to thing, but all the same, there wasn't a doubt in his mind that the truthful answer was who his mind had jumped to wasn't who Toby was expecting. His hand went out to catch the ball, though he whiffed by a good few inches. After retrieving it, he returned to his crate, running his fingers over the material of the sphere. He owed Toby a truthful answer, but how truthful? He didn't want to open the can of worms...not when they were in an enclosed space like this for the next however long. That meant not being completely honest. The truth then, but obfuscating the core of the matter. He could get through that much...after all, the guy across from him knew the gist of what had happened already.

"I...would want to talk to the person I let die. Not my brother...he'd just be mad that I wasted the wish on him, but...the other. I would just want to...tell them I'm sorry...that I shouldn't have let them go off on their own. That I should have realized it was a trap. That I should have broken free. That I...I should have stopped the shot...I should have...taken it myself..." Still staring at the ball, Giles seemed unaware that he was crying, his voice still steady. "That I should have agreed with them about leaving. That I should have split off with them, so they wouldn't be alone. That I...I'm sorry. And that...that I'll regret letting them die...for the rest of my life. My brother asked me to kill him. I think...I think in time...I can use that to come to peace with what I did to him. But...I have nothing...nothing to reconcile my failure for the other...it was my fault. I had so many opportunities. I could have done something. And in the end...I was an idiot, and they died." He fell silent, then blinked, confused. "D-damn it..." he muttered, wiping his face clear of tears with irritation. He lobbed the ball back to Toby, eyes downcast. "Sorry...not what you were expecting, I'm sure. Didn't mean to throw a damper on Q&A time..."
 

DeletedUser31931

Toby
As Giles begin to respond, Toby could sense that something was off in the aristocrat’s manner. It seemed the question had brought up the instance of the two people whose deaths were intrinsically linked to the man’s actions. As the aristocrat began to cry, staring at the ball. Toby slipped to his feet and crossed over to where Giles was, sitting down next to him. He waited until Giles had finished saying what he wanted to say, and reached his hand into his pocket. “It’s okay to cry, you know. It’s just us in here, the driver can’t hear anything. Missing someone who’s gone is understandable, and feeling like you should have done more to save them is natural, even if you couldn’t have. For now though…” Toby pulled the fidget cube out of his pocket and offered it gently to the other man. “Have a turn with this until you feel more like yourself.
 

DeletedUser28032

With his temper already rather fizzy from his brief domestic with Tonya it didn't take much for it to flare up again with the group of so called "freedom fighters" providing all the fuel he needed with the clueless looks he was getting in response to what he felt had been a sensible suggestion on how to extract Angel, no...Adriel, better get used to calling her that if he was going to have any chance of putting right what had been done to her. But first he had to actually free her from Raypool's clutches and he wouldn't be able to do that with this useless bunch calling the shots.

Pinching the bridge of his nose Dante would slowly and silently count to ten in an attempt to soothe his temper before speaking again, he owed it to Tonya to at least make an attempt at making this work “Tonya…am I asking too much here?” he asked the former intelligence officer beside him in a weary voice, sighing heavily before continuing in the same world weary tone “…I mean I know I’m working with civilians here but…These aren’t difficult questions I’m asking, are they?” he asked, waiting long enough for Tonya to provide him with an answer if she so desired, though the questions were pretty damn rhetorical before dropping his hand from his face to offer the so called resistance a contemptuous glare as he growled at them “ok, I’m going to ask you one last time…Can we attack the convoy carrying Adriel and Marcus, on the road, Before it reaches the air base? Now if you guys can’t do this, then say so and I’ll hire a group of mercenaries, Non-Savant mercenaries, to pull this off! I mean…gods dammit! You’re supposed to be a clear and present threat to society and you can’t even organise a simple rescue mission! No wonder we’re losing!” Dante snarled wondering how they had lasted even this long with the DSRP hunting them down and picking them off one by one “now you guys need to stop playing around and fight like you intend to win this war, or I will do this by myself! Now can you do this or not?”
 

DeletedUser31931

(Due to RL busyness I’m temporarily taking over Liu until Dubble has more free time, as per his request)
Dante

Tonya sighed as Dante threw his hands up in exasperation. The room knew that he was right, but no-one wanted to admit that their best chance was a daylight raid. As he asked his second question, Ashley shifted uncomfortably, before finally speaking up. “I can give you a team of people to assist, they’ll be former Alphabet ground agents. I’d volunteer myself, but I get that you have… issues, with me”. Liu nodded as Ashley spoke. “I would be willing to assist in the operation”. Trixie, for her part, stared at the floor, knowing full well that anything she said was thoroughly liable to incur Dante’s wrath, even though she was likely a good pick for the mission. It was Kasumi, therefore, who spoke last, with Ash still in control. “I would offer to assist, but I get the feeling I’m going to be housebound for the next while. I can, however, provide remote support. It’d well be possible to launch a strike attack on the convey as it approaches the airbase, even just with the group of people here. The biggest issue you’ll have is time limitation. The moment that the DSRP become aware of your presence, they should have a response team on site by 5 minutes, presuming they get the alarm. I still have network access, so I can suppress any immediate alarms, but they also operate off of a deadman alarm system for scheduled handovers like this, so I can guarantee you fifteen minutes, twenty minutes if we get lucky. When you hit them, you’re going to need to do it hard and fast and get out quickly. If Tonya handles the extraction then that becomes less of a problem, but you’re going to be going up against a squad of elite DSRP agents, the details of whom I won’t be able to give you until the day. I can quietly retrieve the details of the airport and send them over, giving you a chance to plan out the mode of attack.”
 

DeletedUser28032

“Siri…the idea of you running around with a gun quite frankly scares me” Dante spoke in a perfectly deadpan voice, quietly relieved that they were finally getting somewhere “Stick to what your good at and gather intelligence…I need to know how many cars they’re sending, which one our targets are in and a good place on the road to hit them, English I need you to contact Firework….we need RPG’s, body armour and assault weapons, and if you’re capable of following orders then I’m happy for you to be on the team” Dante said in a professional voice that was so unlike his usual snarky tone, with his offer for her to be on the team being the closest that she’d get in the way of an olive branch “The plan is simple…we lie in wait until the convoy arrives, cars containing only agents get hit with RPG’s; which will probably be the lead and tail vehicles which should nicely box in the car carrying the targets at which point we eliminate the agents in the front seats…that reminds me, English we’ll be needing armour piercing rounds…once we have the targets we retreat out of sight and then Tonya can perform an extraction…we don’t use powers unless we have to, if it gets caught on camera we are just regular guys understood?” there was no need to provide anymore fuel to the propaganda war against them, let the world think they were just run of the mill kidnappers after Raypool’s girl for the exorbitant ransom he would pay…hell Dante would even write a note pinning the attack on some “White Power” organisation, let those damn redneck fascist’s take the heat for a change!

It was with this rather amusing thought running through his mind that he would turn to look at Trixie, offering the girl a cold, hard look “…and as for you, I have a very special job for you…it’s a nasty, dangerous job that is liable to get you killed…however if you manage to pull it off then I may be willing to overlook your previous lapse in judgement” Dante spoke, moving to stand directly in front of her he would place his fingers beneath her chin and gently tilt her head so that she was looking up into his cold blue eyes as he spoke to her in an icy voice “…think of it as a test of loyalty if you will…so what do you say Trixie want to do a little job for me?”
 

DeletedUser31931

(OOC: Control of Giles done with Regal’s permission)

The Resistance Base
Ash chuckled as Dante expressed his concerns about seeing her with a gun. “I would like to remind you Dante that Kasumi is a thief.” As Dante gave his orders as to the weapons and such that he’d be needing, Ashley ran through the Resistance inventory mentally. “We’ve got you covered on both fronts with our current supplies, I can authorise your use of them as head of Field Ops. As far as body armour goes, we can provide on that front as well, depending on our tailor’s schedule, we might even be able to whip you up a personal suit.” As she finished, however, Dante turned his attention to Trixie and the mood in the room dropped. Trixie shrunk away from the man as he towered over her and fought her instinct to just turn invisible and disappear. “I… I’ll do it.” The words came out of her mouth with a frail determination. She wanted to prove herself, she wanted to atone for what she’d done in the years she’d been under Damon’s control. She wanted to help someone else and do something that wasn’t just about her for once. “What needs doing?”

Toby
Perhaps unsurprisingly, question and answer time came to an end. Toby comforted Giles and the pair continued on in a relative silence for the journey. Each of them had a nap at various points, Toby knowing it was best to get rest whilst they could. At a certain point, Toby knocked on a little slit at the front of the truck right by the cabin and handed a wad of money and a note forward, pulling them from his pocket. If Giles asked him about this, his response was simply “Just asking him to take a slight detour”. It was another four hours or so down the road from this that the truck finally rolled to a complete stop, the engine closing down. Without waiting, Toby checked the back of the truck before jumping out of the back of it with Giles. They were alone on a quiet forest road and Toby started ambling off down the road, cheerily waving to the truck driver as they walked past his cab. A couple of minutes later the truck passed them, driving down the road, the driver tooting his horn as he did so. “Not much further to go now” Toby told Giles cheerfully and the pair made their way out of the small road and walked for another ten minutes or so into Woodstock. The town was busy, but not bustling, and Toby smiled to himself, not really attempting to make conversation with Giles, but happy to respond to the other man if he wanted to talk. After a short walk, they stopped outside a bakery selling fresh subs. Toby asked Giles what he wanted for dinner later and then headed in for a second, making polite conversation as he bought two subs. As he came out, he put them in his backpack and continued on, walking through the town and out the back of it until eventually they came to a large manhole cover at the edge of a park. Toby bent down and grabbed it, pulling it off. He motioned for Giles to go first, with a rusty ladder leading down onto a solid cement floor. When Giles went in, he followed, pulling the manhole cover back over. Once he got to the bottom of the ladder, he pulled out a pair of headtorches from his backpack and handed one to Giles, flicking his own on and putting it on his head. “I’ve always wanted to visit. They’re storm overflow drains, built as part of a project commissioned in the early 1950s. Apparently the FBI were worried about Russians developed some way to control the weather and trying to flood America but they’ve never actually ended up being used. Shall we?”
 

DeletedUser28032

“That isn’t making things any better you know” Dante had replied with a wry shake of his head as Siri pointed out that Kasumi was a thief, as if that equated her to being some kind of professional gunslinger, no Siri would staying well away from the action…or at least for the time being at least.

The smile that spread across Dante's lips in response to Trixie accepting his offer held all the warmth and friendliness of a shark, with the girl clearly wanting to get into his good books no matter how much it scared her to do so "that's the spirit...now, what I want you to do is to infiltrate the DSRP HQ in Nevada… and blow it to pieces, after Adriel and Marcus have left obviously" he quickly added so as to avoid any confusion, before then continuing to speak in the same icy tone "...not only will it deliver a rather nice message that we are not to be messed with but it will also keep the agency rather occupied meaning that the chances of any reinforcements reaching our convoy are minimal, English here will provide you with a burner phone and the explosives you'll be needing to do the job along with any training you require and then you'll be on your merry way, we'll pick you up when the job is done...oh and Trixie...if that building doesn't blow up then don't bother calling us...is that understood?" he asked, waiting long enough for Trixie to respond before returning his attention to the rest of the room, quietly satisfied that things were finally going to start happening, and that they'd be able to deal a considerable blow to Raypool and his cronies “A suit sounds fine to me English, get as many as you can made in time for the OP…oh and for the record I don’t do skin tight and I’d better not look like an extra from X-men either…so any questions?”
 

Deleted User - 819397

The rest of the trip passed comfortably enough, Giles supposed. At the very least there wasn't another moment like earlier. The confines of the truck were just starting to feel oppressive when they finally got to where they were supposed to get out, although once again it seemed Toby's powers were at work since to Giles' eyes there wasn't anything remarkable about this place. It wasn't too long though before Woodstock came into view, a quaint enough place. Definitely smaller than Boulder was, but without feeling like it was trapped in the last century either. Toby sprang for subs, which the former aristocrat thanked him for, though he couldn't help but wish he'd been given his. Ah well, it probably fit into his eccentric companion's Master Plan, so there really wasn't a point in arguing.

The duo's final destination perplexed Giles, and he watched as Toby opened up a manhole with growing skepticism. "...Seriously. Down there." There was no question in his voice, more resignation. "I swear Toby, if I didn't have a better read on you I'd swear you were luring me somewhere right now. Like, I can accept hitchhiking, but this..." He shook his head, sighing. "Alright, alright, I suppose there's no arguing at this stage in the game. I already agreed to come across the country with you, I can stand to humor you a little longer." Toby proceeded to explain his logic, or at least part of it, as they descended into an unused system of drainage tunnels. "I will count myself excessively lucky not to be covered in filth right now...or, well, I guess surrounded by it is more like it," Giles groused, a little put off by their sudden descent, though mollified to an extent by the reasoning and obvious enjoyment in Toby's tone. "At least I'm not ruining any hair I care about with this..." he added, putting on the band and switching the light on. "Ok, lead on, I guess..." He put a hand in his pocket long enough to put a small piece of a sword hilt in it. Things were getting weird again, and he'd be damned if he didn't prepare himself better this time. He could put up with irritatingly high senses for a bit if it meant avoiding another mistake like the ones he'd already made...
 

DeletedUser31931

The Resistance Base
A horrified look crossed Ashley’s face as Dante gave Trixie her task. “Dante, don’t ask that of her. You might not know, but that’s impossible, the shell of those buildings are built to withstand a nuclear blast. Even if Trixie could get inside, which would be hard enough on its own, I doubt we’d even have enough explosives to take the building out”. What she’d said was the truth, and Ash probably had the plans to prove her right but given his current mood, that much probably wasn’t going to stop Dante. All she could do now was grit her teeth and wait nervously for the merc’s reaction.

Toby
With Toby taking the lead, whistling happily as he did. “According to the old plans I happened to find, these should eventually head out into a nearby nature reserve, but it’s a bit of a walk”. ‘A bit of a walk’ proved to be a mild understatement, the pair continuing into the tunnel for a solid forty-five minutes, Toby directing Giles at the various intersections. At one point, the ground started to slope downwards but Toby continued on, entirely unconcerned. He knew this was the way they were meant to be going, so this was the way that they’d go. As the path levelled out again, Toby continued on, pretty certain in his mind that they were almost at their destination which he assumed was the nature reserve. They’d been walking from the start for about an hour when it happened. With his heightened reactions, Giles spotted it before Toby, but all he saw was a blur of shapes. There were two, headed straight for the pair, but before he could even get his sword hilt out from his pocket, he felt the cold muzzle of an assault rifle against his head, another one pressed to Toby’s head. The two figures were dressed in camouflage, both male, no distinctive markings including no DSRP badge. The instructions that came were calm but authoritative, the gun pressed to their heads making clear what would likely happen if they didn’t obey. “Both of you put your hands in the air, open palms. Then you,” the muzzle pressed slightly firmer into Giles’ skull, “are going to tell me who the hell you are and how come you’re standing here.”
 
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