The Wellspring Arms, Saturday - How It Starts

[the_merriest]

Bishop
A thousand miles and a thousand years; that's what it felt like. But there was no mistaking when Lucas saw the sign-- Wellspring Arms. Nobody else could've been responsible for this place. And he'd done his work well, during the morning, cutting comms lines and shutting down basic security.

No doubt Cable had a lot more set up in this fortress, but he wasn't going to let that throw him.

He pushed open the door into the store, pulling his cap a little further over his eyes. "Good morning, ma'am."



Rikku
Rikku looked up from where she was burning poisonproof onto an armor, smiling at the newcomer.

"Good morning," she said, hoping her chirp didn't sound hesitant. He could just be someone she hadn't met yet. A new teacher, some guy stopping in Fandom to set up an ice-skating rink. Working at this store was totally going to make her paranoid.

She cleared her throat. "Welcome to the Wellspring Arms and Meditation Center. How can I help you?"



Bishop
Bishop scraped his throat before he closed the door behind him, offering her a nod. "I'm a new cop in town, ma'am. I'm just running a routine check-up of any potential local hot spots, it'd be kind of you if you'd let me in on the basics of this establishment?"

Had to be careful not to set the girl off-- she looked normal enough, but in a place like this, you could never be too sure.



Rikku
"Hot spots?" Okay. No pissing off the cop, if he was one, and no giving him information if he was that guy that was looking for Cable, so, uh. Tread carefully, Rikku. "Someone's warned you about the town being weird, right? 'Cause it is. People turn into other people and stuff like that. Pretty safe, though."

She glanced around. "This is ... it's a gun shop, and there's a meditation room for anybody who wants to use it, and a shooting range, but you've gotta get permission. That's so students don't just go back there and hurt themselves. You have to be careful in a place like this, you know?"

All of which was true.



Bishop
"You do," Bishop replied, his eyes drawn to the area just past her. The inside of the shop, too. That was... a lot of weapons. Hopefully nothing hidden in here to fire them. "I appreciate the run-through, miss. Do you have any idea where I could find the owner?"



Rikku
Time to play stupid.

"He's out," she sighed, pushing aside the poison fangs and rifling through the box next to the armor. "He never tells me where he's going. I'm not allowed to shoot the guns, I'm not allowed to play with the register, I'm not allowed to sell people stuff, I don't know why he hired me. He could just put a cardboard cut-out here with a sign around its neck that said THIS WAY TO THE MEDITATION ROOM. Shouldn't complain if I'm getting paid, right?"

Hmmm, maybe whatever she was looking for was under the counter. She slid a finger over to press the silent alarm before grabbing some fire gems and straightening up again. If this guy was a cop, he'd understand, and she had a feeling Cable wouldn't be too mad about a false alarm. Better than the alternative.



Bishop
"A lotta people have to do good, honest work for that kind of cash," Bishop replied, his eyes narrowing a little. Did she just--? "Does this place run any business at all?"

A more important question would be what the hell is Cable doing with this place?, but he was going to keep that one to himself. His hand came to rest, easily, at his gun. He figured he'd cut most of the important wires, but you never knew for sure.



Rikku
"I mentioned the meditation room, right?" she said, nodding to it. "Lots of people go back there and get all Zen. And, I mean, he sells guns, I'm just not allowed to. I tell them to come back when he's here."

That was a lie, she'd never known Cable to sell one the whole time he was here. But the guy was looking at her funny and maybe it'd sound less suspicious if she said that? She had a twisty-weird feeling in her stomach and it was getting worse.

"He's weird," she said, rolling her eyes and hunching over her armor again. See? Very casual, here. "And people doing good, honest work get paid way better than I do. Seriously."



Bishop
"I'm taking it his wife would have some remarks, though," Bishop replied, following her movements closely. She could be being honest-- she could also be playing a damn good game. Still, she seemed like a good kid. Blonde. Cheerful.

God knew what had gotten a kid like that into this. "Always had a mouth on her about doing things right." Which was one way to describe Domino, sure.



Rikku
"Wife?" She didn't have to fake her confusion. Wife? Maybe this was all a huge misunderstanding? He was here for some other guy, wrong address, sorry.

Right, and he just happened to fit Cable's description of that one guy. Except with his cap pulled down like that, she couldn't see if he had a tattoo on his face. And the rest of it was just "African-American male," which made her feel kinda weird about pressing the alarm.

"He, uh, doesn't have a wife," she said, shaking her head. "I mean. Unless they split up or something. Doesn't have one here."



Bishop
"Oh. Well, that'll be another reason to track him down. Offer my apologies." He gave her a good-natured, if firm, nod. "Must be hard on him. Who got the kid in that one, you have any idea?"

It was maybe playing a hard ball, yeah, but if she was lying, there was no way she was just going to give it up without trusting his story, and if she wasn't... well, then this was pointless.



Rikku
The baby. Oh. Oh, shit, the baby. She was right. And what sort of alarm was it that Cable wasn't down here already? Maybe he really was out. Great timing for that one. Okay. Right.

Deep breath. She looked up at him and this time she was faking her confusion. Shit. Maybe he could tell. He'd know she was lying and --

"Kid?" Rikku asked, eyes wide and innocent. "Whoa. I didn't know he had a kid."



Bishop
He studied the girl. Was she lying? He had a hunch she was, but... Bishop's gun came up just a little, not ready to point it just yet. Not just at some poor innocent blonde girl who just wound up in the crossfire.

Unless he had to. Killing that baby meant everything. The whole freaking future depended on that baby not being around. And he wasn't going to hesitate because of the big eyes, this time.

...

He wasn't. The gun came up.



Rikku
The barrel of that gun looked huge. It looked enormous. And it was pointed right at her and she put her hands up, panicking and stumbling backwards, away from all those fire gems and poison fangs, smart move, Rikku, she'd messed up, he knew she was lying, he was going to kill her and kill Cable and the baby, the baby, the baby.

Her hands were shaking, her Godhand was lying on a desk two feet away, and her own gun was tucked into her shorts, in the small of her back. No way to grab for either. Dammit. Dammit. Dammit.

She opened her mouth and nothing came out. The only thing she could think to say was 'don't shoot' and that was pathetic. Try harder.



Ino
She really needed to get over this tendency with leaving stuff around the shop. First her trays, now her notebooks. Seriously. What a pain. At least Cable-san wasn't working today? Yeah. She'd take that as a plus.

"Rikku?" Ino chirped as she entered the shop, "have you seen a purple noteboo--"

She glanced up, eyes narrowing slightly at the tension in the room. "Rikku?"



Bishop
What the--? Miscalculation. Should've gone for reason, first.

Bishop's head spun over to identify the new arrival-- what, had Cable just hired a whole truck of blonde girls to swarm this place?-- "Stay there!" he called, loudly, "This isn't any of your business, ma'am!"

It was either that or pull the second gun, and he wasn't too sure about the first, right now.



Rikku
Ino. Ino Ino Ino, oh thank fuck, perfect freaking timing. She'd been warned, too, right? Cable said he'd told all of the employees and Ino was a ninja so it was two-on-one and not just the guy (The Guy, him, the one that wanted to hurt the baby dammit) pointing a gun at her.

"Ino, get down!" Her hand was already tugging her Glock out of her waistband. Shoot to kill, but only if you have to. She didn't. She hoped she didn't.

She pulled the safety off and held the gun pointed at his head. Trying to stop her hands from shaking.



Ino
She'd bristled at the guy's words, because those weren't words anyone wanted to hear when they walked into a store--and Ino had been telling a small part of herself to shut up, thanks about being called ma'am because that wasn't helpful, yeah--and--

--Rikku's words only sealed the deal. Bad Stuff was Happening.

Excellent.

She didn't question the order, darting down and behind the nearest shelf, tugging out a kunai and wishing that she'd brought her gun. But who brought guns to pick up notebooks? Like, seriously.



Bishop
Bishop's head swivelled back to find-- a whole world of crap. Dammit. "You don't want to fire that one, miss," he said, strengthening his grip on his own weapon. "I'm here on a very important mission for the survival of a decent future."

Exits? Exits. He'd need a diversion. ...Something that wasn't diverting him. Talk would be good.



Rikku
"I don't care why you're here," Rikku snapped. She didn't. Maybe he thought he was saving the world, maybe he knew more than Cable and he was, but there was a baby girl with huge eyes and she was a Guardian, dammit. "Two of us and one of you. Drop your weapon."

He seemed calm, he wasn't firing randomly, maybe she and Ino could tie him up and then he and Cable would talk about whatever the heck it was they knew about THE FUTURE and this would all get settled and nobody would shoot anybody else. That last bit sounded really, really nice.



Ino
With her kunai tightly held, but not too tightly because that was just stupid, Ino peered around the shelf, blue eyes cold but--excited--at the same time. She did like a good fight after all. And this, Ino supposed, was for a good enough cause.

If she only liked babies more... Doesn't matter. Focus. Focus.

"Drop it," she said, wondering how quickly this could all go Very Badly, and trying not to be the one to mess it up. Because how wretched would that look when Cable-san was already seriously unimpressed with her lately? "You're surrounded." Bravo, Ino. State the obvious.



Bishop
Two little blonde girls with weapons. There was no reason this should go hard. "You think he's actually told you anything?" Bishop asked, and now he was keeping that side-arm in mind. Had to just tilt his hand like so... "You think he cares about any of this?"

She was shaking a little. The girl behind the counter. He could tell, now. "And I am a cop. I really don't think you're going to fire that one, miss. No reason to make this bloody." Unless he had to. And he wasn't moving his own gun, that's for sure.



Rikku
Right. This was where he was gonna tell them that Cable was secretly evil and he was a nice guy and they should just hand the baby over to get stabbed. Just like Yunie should kill herself, it was better than way. Please.

"Are you deaf?" Rikku asked, narrowing her eyes. "We're not interested in talking, here. You put the weapon down, or I will shoot you, and so will she. You don't believe me, fine, you can be surprised and dead."

Okay, technically Ino was holding a ninja-thing and not a gun, but the point still held. Right? Sure. More or less.



Ino
It would be a stabbing not a shooting from Ino, but that totally worked, right? It'd still be painful, and frankly, she was still better with the kunai than her gun.

Half a year of training did not trump more than half her life after all.

She raised her chin stubbornly. "'You think he cares about any of this?'" Ino parroted back at him. "Who fucking cares what he thinks? You're in our store with a drawn weapon. It doesn't even matter why."



Bishop
There was an opening if he'd ever seen one. "It isn't your store, little girl," he said, lowering his gun just about half of an inch. It was a long shot, but hell, any shot. "And I need to see the big boss about a baby. So you two just tell me where he is and skip along home."

Time it very closely.



Rikku
Oh. He wanted this to go the hard way.

This could totally go the hard way.

Rikku aimed at the hand that was holding his gun and squeezed her trigger.

She said drop it, already.



Ino
At the same time that Rikku squeezed the trigger Ino let fly with three kunai, one after another, one for the backs of each of his knees--they never did expect that, for some reason--and one for the middle of his back.

'Little girl'? 'Skip along home'?

Yeah. Fuck off. Drop dead, or something. Seriously.



Bishop
Well, that had been a little more succesful than he'd hoped.

Timing, though? He could still do timing. Bishop hit the floor in the instant before-- kunai thudding into the desk just over his legs. Ouch.

But his sidearm got drawn in that same instant, and he was firing, one barrage of bullets going flying at Ino while the other one shot holes in the ceiling above Rikku's head. Move move move next.



Rikku
Shit shit shit. Rikku dove below the counter. This was bad, he was expecting that, baiting them, how did he move so fast?

She tossed the Glock on the floor and grabbed for her Godhand, instead. She could strap it on in half a heartbeat without looking. Much better for close-up.

And she was going to get close-up in a second, as soon as she fumbled with that buckle. Peering around the counter. Hoping like hell that Ino was okay. No time to think about it, pop your head around and hope you don't get a barrel between the eyes, move.



Ino
Ino had started backpedaling the moment he'd gone down of his own volition and even still they only barely missed her.

She loved the shelving, yes. Nice shelving, good shelving. Sorry about the bullets in you, shelving.

Keeping close to the ground, Ino carefully started inching her way down towards the counter, wishing that she could get a better visual of what was going on, and hoping that nothing really awful happened while she... did her best not to get shot.



Bishop
Momentary quiet. But they were still out there, the girls. Didn't want to rough 'em up too much if he didn't have to. "Stay down!" he called, scrambling quickly for cover behind a shelf of his own. "Just tell me where Cable is, and we're all getting out of this without any major injuries."



Rikku
"You started this," Rikku said, leaning back against the counter and trying to catch her breath. "You came in here and asked me lots of questions and pulled a gun on me. I don't know where he is, I said that."

She was nearly certain that was true. The silent alarm followed by shots fired, in his own store: no way was Cable upstairs calmly waiting this out. So he was Out, somewhere, and she had vague ideas where Out may be, but damned if she was going to list off some guesses for this asshole.

Please let Ino not have been hit, over there? She couldn't see anything, dammit.



Ino
Ino carefully peeked around the end of the shelf. Yeah, she could totally think of several places for Cable-san to be too but no way was she saying any of them.

She was also? Possibly starting to think that the whole... team training thing of Cable-san's might be a good idea. Ino couldn't remember if she'd ever known what, exactly, Rikku could even do in a fight. Other than the fact that she could fight. "And, you know? Getting out of here with only 'major injuries' is not so reassuring." Which had the added bonus of at least telling Rikku that she sounded okay. If pissed.

Could she hit him with a kunai from here? Shit, was a kunai even going to do anything to him?



Bishop
Did he just hear something crackling? Some kinda thud? Bishop's head turned and he found...

...A turret looking back. The bastard had put in some kind of decay on any overrides, or something like that. Of course.

The little guiding light on top whizzed around in his direction and-- Bishop pulled up like something just burned him, turning sideways while he fired enough shots in the damn thing to--

Something off the top of it exploded, and it went dead before firing anything. He caught his breath, then swung his head around, staring wildly into the shop. Where were those girls?



Rikku
Dammit. She'd given up the Glock in favor of her Godhand, and now she needed range and didn't have it. She could have fired off a shot before he saw her aim.

Except he had dodged her bullet, before. Except she didn't think she could shoot to kill, not right here and now, aim for the head and squeeze the trigger. Even knowing what he was here for.

"There's more where that came from," Rikku said, with no real idea if it was even true or not. "We can call them off. If you put your weapons down."

They had him surrounded, after all. Right?



Ino
They totally did. Ino hadn't remained still while the turret thing had been being... well... pulverized, and was rather dangerously close to where the guy was now, carefully, oh-so-carefully, peeking around to see him and resting a kunai in one hand.

"We totally can," she said, ducking back a little and hoping her voice didn't give her position entirely away while putting every inch of confidence she had into what she was saying. "So, yeah, you might want to settle down."



Bishop
"'Fraid I can't do that, kids," he said, loudly, moving almost imperceptibly into the general direction he'd heard the purple kid speaking from. Just enough to point his gun at her if he had to. "If neither of you can tell me where Cable is, I suggest you put down your weapons and we'll figure out how to work out his location together, alright?"

He'd already hit the basics for this particular part of the plan, but there was nothing wrong with pushing it. Provided he could get out without too many casualties. "I meant it when I said this was important."



Rikku
"To you," Rikku said coldly. "I don't know you, I don't trust you. You pulled a gun on me. You shot at us both. If I knew, I wouldn't tell you."

This town was getting to her. She didn't need weapons for range. She was just playing with fire gems and she didn't think she had range? Stupid.

One fire gem ... plus one fish scale ... and then you shook them together and tossed it. Usually made a nice, big boom.

Not a huge boom. But he was sort of near Ino, she thought, so she'd save the Potato Mashers until she was sure he was clear.



Ino
Ino was probably nearer than she ought to have been considering the use of explosives, but she ducked way down and hoped like crazy that the shelf she was hiding behind would be good enough cover. It seemed to be, and she cautiously shifted, wanting to look but not quite daring to yet.

And carefully, very carefully, started sending chakra into her kunai. If a regular throw couldn't hit him, then maybe one with enhanced speed could? It was worth a shot.



Bishop
Kids. Really, he should've known by now what these damn teenagers can do. Parts of the shelf by Bishop's head exploded, sending debris his way, and he hit the ground a moment too late--

He was bleeding now. Oh, that was fantastic. The objective was now to get clear of the shop and head into stage two. Not gonna take the kids out without a reason. ...Even if the pounding headache that one gave him started to seem like a damn good reason.

On the floor, he got to moving. Towards the end of the shelf. Towards the sound which he was pretty sure was the other girl and not some kind of whirring death machine Cable had installed. He hoped.

He hoped a lot.

And fired a few more part-blind rounds in the wall near Rikku while he was at it. He didn't want to take her out, but he had to take a couple of risks, here.



Rikku
Okay, she hadn't expected the shelf to blow up like that. New rule: no causing shrapnel in enclosed rooms. Dammit.

She hugged her knees and tried not to squeak when bullets hit the wall nearby. Okay. Second new rule: move before you throw explosives, if the enemy guy knows where you are.

That shelf over there looked like convenient cover, and if she crawled fast, she'd only be open for a couple of seconds. Go go go go go.



Ino
Ino had four kunai now with her chakra neatly wrapped around them, through them, and the effort of that was making her have to bite her lip just to keep her concentration steady. She should've practiced this more. Should've, could've, didn't.

Fuck it. She'd been lazy. Right. Lesson learned. She'd start working at it more after this.

She twisted, hearing the guy coming closer to her, and knew it was going to be now or she might not get another chance to strike. After a quick glance to confirm his location Ino flung her kunai, quickly quickly quickly at him and her chakra-enhanced kunai flew faster than she could ever have flung them on her own.

Then she was moving, darting away, and hoping like mad that she'd bought enough time for herself that he wouldn't just shoot her before she got to cover.



Bishop
He hissed in pain when the-- what were they, daggers?-- buried themselves in his shoulders. There was an audible crackle to them, something like... a battery. It hurt like a bitch, but it felt like being plugged into a livewire.

The kid was quickly starting to remind Bishop of someone. Fine.

Hostage-taking looked to be his ticket out of here, and someone had just graciously given him the tools-- that crackle redirected, he ignored the pain (got pretty used to ignoring it, at this point) and focused, pouring that energy into his hands.

Non-lethal. Stun. He fired the energy at the girl's body as he caught her slipping away. He paid little attention to the whirring noise kicking off somewhere in the other wall. Had to move fast, no time for more surprises.



Ino
Ino was paying more attention to getting out of the way than anything else but spared a moment to glance behind her to make sure--oh, shit he was aiming at her fuck--

Pick up the pace, Ino.

That would be, of course, when she stumbled over a bit of shelf-shrapnel. It was only a minor stumble, nothing enough to make her go down, but it did slow her enough that--

--the energy, whatever, oh fuck that hurt like anything clipped her and she went down. Fuck.



Rikku
"Ino!" Rikku shrieked. Shit. Shit. Shit.

Fuck cover, she wasn't letting this guy get to Ino. She bolted up from kneeling and flew around the shelves.

Couldn't throw anything, bad move, too close to Ino, Glock was behind her, just had to get close enough to swing that Godhand into this dick's face. Guts. Something. Anything. Just had to get closer.

Rikku ran.



Bishop
Bishop scrambled to his feet, scrambled hard, and he was closer. There was the girl, his ticket out of this store without any undue damage-- he snagged her as he came by, twisting her around like a shield. "Stand down," he snapped, "Now."



Ino
Oh fuck that hurt and Ino clung to consciousness with all the stubborn will she had, though the way the world spun when he grabbed her made her wish that she wasn't still awake and there was Rikku and--

--He was saying... stand down? That made her force her eyes open, blue eyes utterly furious.

Screw that. Seriously, fuck that.

Her head hurt, she was in the worst possible position all because she'd be stupid and he was saying that?

Ino drew in a painful breath--what had he done to her?--and forced herself to speak. "D-Don't listen."

Seriously, Rikku. Don't stand down.



Rikku
Rikku held her arms up, Godhand firmly in place, ready to punch his lights out or defend, no fucking clue how to hit him without hitting Ino, dammit, but arms still at the ready. It never hurt to hold them there. Just in case.

"Let her go," Rikku snapped. "If I stand down then you're gonna drag her out of her. That. Doesn't. Happen."



Bishop
"I'm going to let her go as soon as I get out of here," he said, his eyes flicking from Ino to Rikku to... whatever it was that was making that weird whirring noise.

...Another turret unfolding. Well, crap. Suddenly, he was moving backwards a few paces, dragging Ino along with him. "I am not in this to cause anyone any damage." Except for that baby, but that one was necessary.



Ino
Ino was...

Well. Quite cross at finding out that she couldn't move very much at all. Opening her eyes and squirming a bit seemed to be about the extent of her capabilities right now.

Great. She was beyond useless...

Or, not quite. She could squirm. She didn't have much control over how she squirmed, but enough at least that well, she'd make it a wee bit more difficult for him to drag her out the door.

Ino set to squirming with a will, forcing herself past the pain and cursing her unresponsive body. She was not going out passively.



Rikku
He sounded sincere enough, but that wasn't what mattered. What mattered was that he was dragging Ino off and who knew what he'd do with her once he got away.

He was also holding her in front of him, like a shield, which made stopping him difficult. Except ...

Except he was very tall, and Ino was even shorter than she was, which meant his entire head was clear.

She flashed her arm up, throwing a punch toward his nose. With her right hand, the one that still had the Godhand strapped on.



Bishop
What the hell was that thing? was the one thought that flitted through Bishop's mind before the Godhand impacted, sending him staggering back even further. More whirring noises and oh crap that turret was about to aim and man did that girl pack a punch.

But the door. He was close. It was right there. Somewhere in the process, he hurled the one he was holding at her, desperate for a distraction, and went through the door.

Someone could replace the damn thing later. It wasn't his problem.





Ino
Rikku had one hell off a punch and he'd... he'd... thrown her.

Ino winced and hoped she didn't land too badly, and really really hoped that Rikku didn't get hurt by this because, um, yeah.

There wasn't much she could do about her direction at the moment.



Rikku
Hey, the shrapnel was Rikku's fault; the least she could do was try to catch Ino before the two of them smashed into the ground.

Which they did, spectacularly.

"You okay?" she managed, trying to her breath.

Wow, adrenaline wore off fast.



Ino
Ino was... ow... she spent a few moments just breathing before even trying to answer that.

"Still alive?" she offered, struggling with her body and pleased that it was starting to respond, albeit slowly, to her commands. "That's a good thing, totally. You good?"



Rikku
"Y-yeah," Rikku said, nodding. "I think."

Scared, angry, nauseous: the usual post-fight comedown. She pulled herself up onto all fours, stretching slightly before setting her feet down and shifting her weight. Nothing major seemed banged up.

"You ... hurt? I have ... healing stuff. Potions," she said, still breathing hard. "He ... hit you with something."



Ino
Ino carefully pushed herself into a sitting position, slowly slowly, but she managed it. "He messed up my body," she said, slowly flexing one arm and checking out the range of motion she had--not quite up to speed, but it was wearing off. Whatever it was. "Could barely freakin' move." Hence the squirming.

"It's wearing off on its own."

Calm. Calm. She could do calm. Sitting here was a good thing. Way better than throwing a fit 'cause she'd been useless and if she hadn't been caught then maybe he wouldn't have gotten away.



Rikku
"Cable said he had some weird ... energy-stuff, that he did," she said, standing up slowly and looking around the room. "Oh, man, this place is trashed and I have no idea where he is. Uh. I wasn't lying about that. I mean, I would have, but ... seriously, I don't. I hit the silent alarm and nothing happened. I'm kinda ........ worried."



Ino
"He goes out sometimes, walking Tether," she offered, "he might be doing that." It might not be anything bad. Not yet. Not if this was the first place he'd gone. "Or he might be at Deadpool-san's."

A wiggle of her foot. Okay! It moves. Good. Now for the other. Yes, same reaction. Excellent. Movement was sweet.

"Help me up?" she asked, "Just in case I'm rushing it. Stupid body."



Rikku
"Totally," Rikku said, offering a hand and leaning over. "You sure you're okay? I mean, if you need to go to the clinic or something, that looked freaky. Uh. We should ... we need to find him. And the baby. This ... this is gonna be bad."

Understatements 101, with your host, Rikku.



Ino
"I'm fine," Ino said dismissively, slowly getting to her feet and using Rikku's hand as support. "I've had worse from Kabuto really, and I dated him. Just the timing that really sucked."

"The baby's more important," even if Ino still wasn't fond of her, "Cable-san can take care of himself. We're going to need to tell people 'bout this. 'Cause I don't think we're going to be able to take him out."

Ino carefully let go of Rikku's hand. A slight wobble but she was up. Hurrah.



Rikku
"No way," Rikku agreed. "He was fast. I don't even know what he was doing. We need ... yeah. We've gotta find him. And her. I'm guessing she's with him. Right?"

And hopefully not asleep in the crib upstairs? Wow. They should check that. Right? Sort of? She rubbed her forehead.

"Split up? Meet back here? How do we do this?"



Ino
Ino glanced up dubiously. "I'm really hoping she's with him right now, but yeah, we should, uh, totally confirm that, right? 'Cause if she's here then we aren't moving an inch because he probably won't come back here 'less he's found Cable-san." And, you know, beat him.

And Ino was voting for Cable-san on this one.

"Annnnd," how weird was it to be giving orders? But Rikku was asking her and Ino could... totally work with that. "I'm saying split up. We both saw him, which is proof he's here, and we'll cover more ground that way." A deep breath. "If we're lucky too, even if he spots us, he won't harm us so there's no need to double-team. Just... go out of your way to avoid confrontation if you spot him again."

A beat.

"'Less he's got the baby. Then confronting him is totally totally right." One more thing, right? "And, meet back here? I doubt he'll be back here so this is a fairly safe," if trashed, "spot."

Was that everything? Did that make sense? It had to make sense because she wasn't allowing herself to not make sense right now. No. She'd been useless in the fight, she wasn't going to be useless out of it.



Rikku
Rikku nodded. "Okay. First stop is upstairs to see if the baby's here, but I really, really doubt she is." And really hoped she wasn't, because if the guy came back ... let's not think about that, Rikku. "Then -- do you know where he walks the dog? I can see if I can find Deadpool, I mean, we need to get him in on this either way, and if Cable's with him, bonus. And -- wait, does Cable have a cell?"

She pulled out her own, flipping furiously through the numbers. "I think I only have the store number, for him, and the other one, upstairs. Do you have a cell with you? We can check in that way, if you give me your number."



Ino
"In the park mostly, I think," Ino said, picking her way through the store and making for the stairs. "It's a fairly safe area, by his standards with the baby. And I'm pretty sure he's got one? But I'm not so sure if he'd take it with him since he can, you know, read minds. I'm not sure what the range of that is though so I don't think standing around and thinking at him would help us." Or would it?

Who knew?

"And I don't have a cell, sorry," Ino was seriously wondering if she should get one just for cases like this.



Rikku
"We, uh. Can try it?" Rikku offered. "I'll feel kinda stupid but ... what the heck, I usually feel stupid anyway. I mean, we can do that while we're doing the rest of this, right?"

Cable, that scary guy is here and he was shooting things. WATCH OUT.

There. Good enough.

She followed Ino up the stairs quickly, looking around the little apartment. "You'd think she'd be crying or something, right? That whole mess downstairs was loud."



Ino
Cable-san! That guy? Yeah, the one after the baby? IS HERE. BE CAREFUL.

They could totally keep thinking as they did other things.

"I'm pretty sure Cable-san's got some crazy protection going on between downstairs and up here," she said, wrinkling her nose as she wandered through the place. Yep, that picture of Domino and Caliban was still up. The plants she'd stuck in here were still where she'd left them too. "Soundproofing might've been involved, so we can't be totally sure."

Where would Cable-san keep a crib? "I'm not hearing anything at all though. So either she's really asleep or totally not here."



Rikku
"Oooh, I didn't think of that. Soundproofing, I mean. That's a neat idea." She frowned, looking around again. "You know, I don't think I've ever been up here before."

And there was the crib, over against that wall. Empty. Rikku wandered over, noting the pile of tiny stuffed animals she'd gotten for the baby, and felt the strangest stab of heartache.

You'll be safe, little one. No matter what.

Which reminded her: Cable, the baby is in danger. RUN.

She took a deep breath and blew it out again. "Okay. Not here. I don't know if that's good news or bad news, but ... at least we know. Right?"



Ino
"I've been up here lots," she said, coming over to the crib. "Mostly without his express permission, but whatever. And yeah, okay. Good. At least we don't have to worry about guard duty then."

Because, uh, two blonde girls who'd already failed to stop the guy were probably not the most reassuring of guards. Not at all.

Ino's hands slipped down to her waist, untying her forehead protector and then bringing it up to actually, you know, be on her forehead. "Let's move to stage two then. Get help. Who do we know that can help? Deadpool-san... and..."



Rikku
"Checking the park for Cable," Rikku said, fidgeting with nervous energy. "Lots of people here can fight, I mean, we can go back to the dorms and grab people. Except Cable might get mad if we drag them into this and they get hurt, but that's better than her getting hurt, right?"

She chewed her lower lip. "I'm not sure who here even knows about ... all of this. I mean. He said he was getting messages from Jamie, but not Jamie-that's-a-student-Jamie. It's one of those other-world things? Dimensional or whatever."



Ino
Ino clenched her hands. "We should keep it quiet," she said after a moment. "The baby's important, but so is the rest of the school and if we just tell those that are in the know..."

If she was wrong, if she screwed this up...

"We should be good. If he'd had reinforcements then he would've brought them here, where he'd thought Cable-san was. And I don't think he's a match for both Cable-san and Deadpool-san at once." Pause. "And Jamie. Jamie should totally know. It's... yeah... they're the same? But not? Something like that, I don't really get it, his world is crazy-complicated. But he might be able to help and he already knows 'bout the baby so there's less risk there."



Rikku
"I don't think anybody's a match for both of them," Rikku said, shaking her head. "And ... getting a lot of people's gonna take way too long. We need to be finding him now, not trying to explain the baby and ... yeah."

She was already hopping down the stairs. When she reached the ground floor, she stopped long enough at the counter to find a large, blank piece of paper and a marker.

"You take Jamie, I'll take Deadpool, and we meet all meet back here? Maybe they'll know where he is, if we don't. If he's not with them, I mean. Right?"



Ino
Ino was just a bit slower than her down the stairs, but every step came easier and that was a relief all on its own. "Right. Meet back here whether we've found anything or not."

A beat.

"And we'll hope like mad that he's with, like, Deadpool-san already. Because that's the best situation out of them all. Jamie, at least, should be able to do something. He's got all those multiples, right? He'd be the best to search the whole island and quickly."



Rikku
Rikku nearly facepalmed. "Sorry, sorry," she said, hurrying over to Ino. "I forgot you're still kinda wobbly."

She held up the sign she'd just finished. "For the door. So if he comes back here and we both missed him, he'll know something's up. Uh. He would anyway, 'cause the store's trashed, but we can leave him a voicemail."

Blink.

"I'll do that on the way to Deadpool's."



Ino
"I'm getting less wobbly with every minute," she promised. "As long as I don't have to, you know, run for my life in the next half hour I think I'm good."

Even if she would, in fact, be running as fast as she could to find Jamie.

Ino blinked at the sign, almost amused but now so wasn't the time. "I'd add a '-san' to it, but that's definitely going to get the point across." To business though. Which was definitely not signs and yes. Focus.

"Right. You get to Deadpool's and I'll track Jamie down and we meet back here as soon as possible after that and compare notes." Orders. She could do orders.



Rikku
"Right," Rikku said, nodding. "Good luck. To both of us. I think we're gonna need it."



Ino
"We'll keep each other posted." Ino took a deep breath. "Move out."

And then they were gone, with the shop was closed behind them.

(OOC: preplayed with the phenomenal flowering_mind and spring_lost. NFI, but broadcast is okay, and OOC is love.)