Fixing M-Town

July 11, 2015:

Mutants work together using their gifts to fix M-Town while Dario sews the seeds of destruction.

//Mutant Town. //

A the main street in M-Town where the purifiers attacked and caused a great deal of destruction.

Characters

NPCs: Peepers

Mentions:

Plot:

Mood Music: [*#https://youtu.be/oK19iX3L87w Everything is AWESOME!!!]


Fade In…

Days after the attack on M-Town you can still feel a strange sense of tension in the air. Will they be back? Is anyone really safe? Are the police going to protect us or just disappear like the last time? The community boils with a quiet undertone of fear as the community worries that they are on their own.

The Minotaur has been right at the heart of the chaos sewing the seeds of distrust, planting rumors of how the government is going to turn against mutants and metahumans any day now and send Sentinels to capture everyone. Like the true evil that he is, he has helped fear creep into the hearts and minds of the local population. Fear clouds your judgement and soon, this powerful creature has a following.

Today he is organizing an effort to repair some of the damage done to one of the buildings during the attack, helping mutants who have useful construction skills put them to use and earn cash money for their efforts.

The Minotaur can be seen holding up a thick bundle of cable that runs under the city street. A fiberoptic bundle the width of a small tree while a mutant with overly large eyes works on fixing the cable to restore internet access. The cable company would take months to come and fix it, so the people of mutant town are doing it themselves.

Lunair is doing her weekend grocery runs for mutants who can't really afford it or get out to bigger stores for things they might want. She also has a box, special for a friend. It's got 'Metal' written on it in sharpie. It seems to be some ore samples, and circuit boards. She does care, even if she doesn't flinch at murdering 10+ Purifiers at a time. Hers is an odd, distorted psyche. Lunair mostly knows the Minotaur as 'the guy who actually licks crime' and 'really likes take out'. Her path takes her through and by the clean up efforts, and she stops to wave at the big fellow.

"This isn't an official assignment," Joshua explains to Lynwen. They are strolling along one of the streets that leads from Manhattan proper. "I haven't heard from the others in a few days. As far as I know, this might go against our … official position. Still, we're free for the rest of the day. So, why shouldn't we see if we can help. Whether they're metahuman, magical, or normal, in the end, they're people." He is dressed for work, wearing sturdy, reinforced hiking boots, blue jeans, and a loose tee-shirt. A backpack bounces between his shoulder blades. When he sees the site where repairs to the cable system are underway, he strides toward that group and waves cheerfully.

Mike Drakos has been living in M-Town for a year now. During that time, he's repaired buildings, and replaced infrastructure — like that fiber-optic cable that's being messed with. Do you REALLY think Metal would go without Internet for more than a few hours? Or let his neighbors go without it? That cable wasn't broken until quite recently… and the robot guy who goes by Metal has been in Metropolis most of the past two days.

OK, so he's not always here, but he's been a constant voice against the ideas that this Minotaur has been spreading. To an outsider, it might not seem like there's a difference, but he's pushing for tolerance, lack of fear, and positive engagement, not hate, counterattack, fear and paranoia. And seriously, as far as mutations that alienate you from humanity? How's "no longer has a human body" on that scale? But there's been a lot that he hasn't been able to do here. He hasn't been able to stop the spread of the Smooth in its various forms. He wasn't able to keep things from going nuts during last year's Burning Human street celebration.

The silver tear-drop shaped craft that drops silently from the sky flows open and a robot-looking fellow walks out, more robot than usual; he's wearing a "HEAVY METAL" tee shirt with a picture of Optimus Prime playing a guitar, and a pair of cargo shorts, and boots. He arrives at the site of the cleanup, and says "Hey, Lunair. How are you doing?"

Meanwhile he's scanning the area and watching how the repairs progress. It'd be very rude and way too Magneto to just grab the thing and fix it.

"All are human," Lynwen says gently as they walk. She is woman of medium height and her golden blond hair has been bound up with golden combs. She is dressed in jeans and square neck t-shirt that shows off a golden torque. She is new to the area and has no idea about what is what. In other words she has it a learning curb. She nods her head as she walks with him. Her gaze drifts to the woman carrying the box with writing metal on it. "That says metal correct?" She asks the man she is walking with. "All of this age are responsible for the current state of things." her accent is very thick and hard to understand but she is speaking english. Her moss green eyes go to the others.

Since the Minotaur is stuck standing in a hole in the street with a big bundle of cable in one hand while the mutant works on reconnecting the fiber lines, he's not able to do much but wave hello to Lunair. His wardrobe seems to have taken a downgrade. No longer is he wearing his custom designed shorts and shirt. They got pretty much torn to shreds by bullets and or energy fire so he's had to become more creative with his wardrobe. Today he's wearing a kilt made out of an old blanket. He's shirtless, oily and dirty from digging up the road. "Are you sure you can do this? Merging a broken fiber optic line isn't like making figurines with your brain. You have to be exact." he says and the man standing on the edge of the hole concentrating says, "What's the worse that can happen? We don't have internet?" and The Minotaur condeeds the point. No where to go but up from here.

Unlike the robotic life form, The Minotaur and the locals are doing things pretty much the old fashion way. They dug up the street and when they are done they are going to have to put it all back together then heat it back up and hope that they don't do too much damage. It's haphazard but a lot of mutants depend on the internet for their lively-hoods.

Lunair smiles, as her buddy says hi and asks how she does. She waves. "Hiya. And I am okay. Kind of unhappy after that attack. They are really stepping things up," She notes quietly. "It is harder not to want to kill them," She states simply, in a soft voice, to Mike. Lunair really doesn't seem bothered in the slightest by murdering the attackers wholesale. Not really. It's just what she was created for. "But I brought you some ores and circuit boards. You seemed to be working pretty hard lately," She offers. Lunair seems sympathetic towards Mike, even if her agenda seems to differ now and then.

There's more people here, too. Is that Lynwen? Wave! And a Josh, perhaps.

When they are closer to the team that has excavated the cable, Joshua waves. "We heard about the … situation," he calls in his distinct English accent. "So the Purifiers did this?" he wonders, glancing around the area at the disarray. He inclines his head to Lunar and smiles. "Everyone seems to be pointing fingers when clearly they should be bending backs to help with the mess." He remarks. "So, how can we help?"

"Thank you," the robot says, accepting the box from Lunair. He doesn't have a mouth in this chassis, so he can't eat it here. A small crawler-robot scuttles out of the still-hovering spacecraft (design just enough different from the one in the Disney movie about a Navigator that it's not lawsuitable) and takes the box up into the craft.

"Hey, can I help at all?" Mike says, to the really big guy holding the cable. "I can make sure his fixes go to the right places. Hey, Peeps. How's the folks?"

He would quirk an eyebrow but his current physiognomy has no eyebrows — so his large eyes narrow slightly as the lenscovers tilt into a speculative expression as he considers Minotaur's clothing. That's … almost 'Mutant Town Hotties' calendar material. Right. A signal to the hovering spacecraft and an order for a couple replacement shirts and shorts … if he can remember what the guy's shorts looked like. This is New York though, if you can't get custom tailoring here, you have to go all the way to Hong Kong.

Lywnen nods her head and then raises her hand in greeting to the woman she does not know. She then offers robot a strange look. She frowns a little.

When asked what someone can do to help, The Minotaur lists a series of issues that range from helping rebuild damaged walls and pumping water out of a basement where a waterline broke to helping a repair team replace shattered windows or a cleanup team sweep the streets of broken glass if nothing else. He's got teams of people working in various spots around the area. He seems to be a natural organizer kind. It doesn't hurt that you really don't want to say no to a guy who throws cars at people for fun.

Peeps takes a break from his fine focused application of his powers and looks over to answer, "Oh, they are doing ok. Our house wasn't hit. We got lucky this time." This time he says like he expects there will be a next time.

The comment about the mutant town hotties gets him thinking after he's done listing off the choice for places someone could help. the big bullman seems to think for a moment about it and looks over at Peepers, the guy fixing the damaged cable, "Say, do you think we could put together a hot mutants of M-Town web site? We could use the money to fund the clinic. We just need someone who can work the cameras and some volunteers." It is true, if he wasn't covered in street, oil and standing in dirt the big bull could be considered kind of sexy and if people started seeing mutants as sexy it would be a definite step up from target.

There's a pause at Joshua. Lunair regards him warily a moment at the question. She nods at him. "Yeah. They're really well armed and aggressive. They seem to have more support these days," She remarks. She doesn't really elaborate. There's a smile for the robot, as the box is accepted. She doesn't seem ruffled by the oddity in the slightest. She doesn't know any better. She accepts things incredibly well, which is both good and bad.

Lunair seems uncertain for a moment. Though, she listens to the conversation. "I - um -" An owlish blink at the mutant hotties idea. "I have no idea, myself," She admits that she has no idea on those things. "I was bringing the weekly groceries to a certain block today. But -" A glance around. Hmmm. "Um." She nods to Lynwen then. "Hello." Yes, there you go, Luna.

"That's a lot more damage than I thought," Mike (the robot) says. "Do you need a rest? I can take over holding that cable while I make some repair drones."

This is the thing that might look strange to any active magician who watches. The robot's human life-force moves into the cable and attenuates, leaving only a trace behind in the robot and the cable; a few minutes later, a miniature street-sweeper truck, then two, then three, begin moving from behind one apartment and out through the area, sucking up broken glass and other unwanted detritus — shell casings, spilled oil, scrap metal. And once they're on the move, the broken pump in the flooded basement repairs itself and starts pumping water out to the storm sewer.

Also, Peepers may find that the threads of glass move themselves slightly to make it easier to connect them.

"Damage is done, no matter who or what caused it," Joshua answers with a shrug to Lunair. He looks toward the man who seems to be giving directions to other volunteers and to his own employees. "Too many cooks can spoil a stew, but if we can be of any help, we're free." He glances to Lynwen. "You're right. The box said 'metal' - probably some scraps or parts. I'm sure that people are finding all manner of debris here." He looks at Mike and cocks his head for a moment. The very human voice emitting from the metal housing seem to have gained his curiosity.

"Hello, pleasure to meet you. How are you doing? What is your name?" Her words are chosen carefully she then switches to an ancient form of welsh and she turns her head towards Joshua. «What is that?» she says as indicates towards the robot. She then reaches out to touch Joshua's arm as she hears the beating of bird wings she frowns. Magic seems to swell around her and then she starts to fade from sight.

Seeing, what appears to the Minotaur as a A.I. taking over the repairs. Dario smiles and says, "You can cook all you want, I could use a break, and a shower. " he says climbing out of the hole he's been standing in. The large bull-man wipes his hands on his homemade kilt, "Assuming I can find a shower in my size. The warehouse I am living in doesn't have one. " then he thinks about it and says, "I guess I can use the river…" more to himself than anyone else.

Looking over at Joshua, The Minotaur says, "It matters who did it. It matters because those people were not humans. They were monsters. They gave up their humanity." he says with stone certainty. Ironic coming from the man who looks like a legendary monster. Dario watches what he thinks is a robot help rebuild the damaged area. That would be some handy technology to have building his Metahuman sanctuary…

Lunair is listening. She smiles faintly at Mike, not seeming to mind the oddity in the slightest. He's a friend, and she likes hanging out with the guy. "Yeah, I think there were quite a few things damaged and blown up," She offered to Josh. "I sometimes bring spare parts and metal back to folks here. Mostly my friend, Metal," She motions a hand to Mike's current chassis. "I am okay. My name is Lunair. Nice to meet you, ma'am," Lunair bobs her head to Lynwen and blinks as the woman starts to fade. There's a puzzled look.

Yes, magic baffles Lunair, too. She looks to the Minotaur. There's some sympathy. "No, they were humans. Just well armed and full of hate. They want to rid the world of anything that isn't plain humanity as far as I can tell."

"That's precisely it. They were humans. We're all humans," the robot says, holding the cable. "Most of us have different mutations, but every human on the planet is the product of a series of successful mutations. What the Purifiers are, is fanatics, fearful and misled. We don't need to be like them, we don't need to take away humanity from other people so we can feel good about killing them."

As he talks, and Peepers finishes his work, the cable begins to wrap itself up again, the waterproof coating and the protective metal sheaths reflowing into place.

A message hits his inbox, and he calls out, "Hey, Minotaur. Some replacement clothes will be delivered to your warehouse — you've been staying in the one on Avenue F and 7th Street, right? I can correct the delivery address if you're in a different one."

And, the sense of 'life' moves back into the robot body as he puts the cable back where it's supposed to be.

Joshua turns toward Lynwen and starts to answer her query, when she begins to fade before his eyes. He sighs. "Now what?" he wonders. He looks toward the robot and Lunair. "That was Lynwen," he explains. "She seems to have attracted some unwelcome attention. It usually means trouble for her, and I need to be ready to help when she returns. I should return soon to help, but for now, if you will excuse me, I should go." He shakes his head.

New clothing, expedient repair work, and good data research. Dario Agger silently puts this A.I. on his list of things to enslave to his will.

Turning to smile at the robot the bull-man says, "Yes, that would be great! Thanks." he says looking around for a fire hydrant, That could work for him. If anyone happens to need a source of magic to stabilize herself, the Minotaur is practically a powerplant of untapped energy…

Lunair looks to the robo buddy. She watches the repairs quietly. "Need me to hold anything?" She asks. She looked worried. "I see. Good luck," Waves. "I hope she is okay," The young mutant looks quietly concerned. She is amused by his looking around. "There's a fire hydrant just by that car," She offers. "Shouldn't be too hard to use it. Sometimes on TV, I'd see people play in the water."

… that's odd. She herself hadn't…?

Walking over to the hydrant, the big bull-man reaches down and unscrews the cap as if he was opening a bottle. Large, powerful hands have no problem turning on the flow of water. It's primitive, but it will do. He takes off his kilt with his back to the construction site and starts to wash up. It's not exactly civil but you gotta do what you gotta do. His only regret is that he doesn't have any soap.

Peepers, the guy helping repair the network cable looks over at the sound of the water then immediately regrets it, "Woah, dude, a little warning!" he calls out as the big bullman goes about his business. The big bull chuckles a little as he scrubs the front of his body trying to get the oil and dirt out as best he can. When you're living on the lamb, you make due right?

The robot floats up from the hole in the ground, carrying Peepers. Other people will probably start filling in the hole; he's going to land near the Minotaur and Lunair.

"Never lived on a farm, Peepers? Hey, I have some 'goop' degreaser in my apartment, I'll send for it," he says, eyes slitted in amusement. Two of the shovels that were used to dig up the street animate and begin scooping dirt back down into the hole, since the other diggers have gone.

A street-sweeper-bot mini-truck moves by, going up onto the sidewalk to get some shell casings. And, unfortunately, a few syringes. There are still some problems in this part of the neighborhood.

It'll take a minute and a half but a drone (helicopter-type) flies up carrying a two-pint tub of the automotive worker's best friend after the work is done.

Lunair looks quietly amused, watching the minotaur and the fire hydrant. She doesn't look long, it's rude to stare and also that would be creepy to watch a person. She looks to Peppers and the robots. She tilts her head. She will help with cleanup for now, then. She doesn't know about the street sweeper bot and its problems.

She looks to Mike and Peepers. "Should I bring you a towel?" There's a curiosity to it all.

De-greaser, wet giant, muscular man-beast kneeling down to scoop a huge handful of the stuff out of the bucket and slather it on his wet chest. All they need is the music track and the streets of M-Town could soon be mistaken for the introduction to an adult film.

"Have you heard about the Eden project?" the big bull asks the robot, "You would be very helpful there." he suggests. Peepers to his credit thinks to unfold the kilt the big guy was wearing and hold it up like a half shower curtain towards the street. It doesn't help much but at least none of the kids in the area can see the details of the big creature soaping up and washing off his more intimate parts.

Looking over at Lunair, The Minotaur says, "thanks, but I would need several and I don't think you're going to find many out here. I'll just air dry and then brush myself out." he says a sound of annoyance in his voice. That must take hours to brush out that much hair.

"I hadn't," Mike says. (He totally has. It's on the X-Men Red list of things to watch for risk.)

After watching the degunking process impassively, the robot says quietly to Lunair, "A hot-dry-towel gun is a very polite weapon against Atlanteans … you wouldn't happen to know how to make one?"

Looking up into the sky, Peepers the mutant says, "It's days like today I miss having eyelids." he jokes as the big minotaur keeps scrubbing away, "I heard about Eden on the radio. They said that it's some kind of big fancy resort island. That guy, you know, the handsome one, Dario I think his name was. He's converting the island for mutants and metas. I want to go there. Maybe they can make me a house in my size. It would be nice to live somewhere I don't have to constantly worry about breaking things." the big guy says, "And the purifiers couldn't get to us there." he adds making it sound like a great plan, "What do you guys think? Should we move away from the humans or stay and fight?"

Lunair isn't going to watch. She's not pervy. But she is polite. "I could do a really big blowdryer or try," She offers to Mike. "I hope I don't have to fight more Atlanteans," She admits. "They were pretty nice once we moved past the misunderstanding though," And really, she can't blame them. Having their leader offed during an attempt at diplomacy? Yeah.

"Just let me know," She offers to the Minotaur. Without looking. Lunair looks to Peepers. "I see. That seems rough," She offers to them. "I don't know, myself. It depends. Some have connections, some like this place, some do not. I think it should be an option, either way."

"I kinda have connections to New York," the robot says, "that and I still consider myself and the other mutants humans, so, moving away from one bunch of humans to keep out another bunch of humans, that seems like a backwards step to me. But I will be glad to visit and help out."

The same robot from earlier that scuttled away with the box marked Metal, comes back carrying a head identical to the one the robot has set on his shoulders. A little poking and prodding causes the giant optics to come loose, in a frame somewhat like sunglasses.

"Hey Peeps. I know the last set maybe didn't work well, but see if these ones work." The lenses will at least blink, and close, when he thinks about blinking.

It looks odd seeing Peepers wearing lenses but after he adjusts them and blinks once he smiles widely, "These are amazing! I.. I might be able to sleep well for the first time in years!" he says, "You have no idea how much light there is in a dark room. Having eyelids is something you never think about until you don't have them. It's not something I would wish on anyone."

The Minotaur seems to finish his scrubbing, at least for now and stands up back to his true height. He turns off the water and puts the cap back on, "If you could help them out, I think it would be great. I know a lot of mutants can pass for human but humans will ever accept mutants as humans." he explains, "We need to separate. It's the only way to keep the peace."

"We need to be safe, but being separate, completely separate? That's more often brought increased hatred, not peace," the robot says. "What is your plan to keep that from happening?"

Hey, creating a separate space isn't innately wrong, after all. It's not like having a bunch of mutants in one place in New York has increased the hostility over what was there before. Yeah, it's made it possible to attack them en masse, but it also kept them from attacking freely, because they fight back. And, unfortunately, Metal is a busy busy robot. He can't be here all the time. If he could, well, those Purifiers wouldn't be dead right now, and neither would the girl. The Mercs who were reportedly involved? They might be in serious pain — but not dead though.

Lunair is lucky, as mutants go. While she's not the redonkest most powerful mutant around, she can pass as human. Usually. A very quirky human.

Lunair smiles to Mike. She seems to trust the robot's judgment on this. "Oh, neat." Mike has so many nifty powers. Lunair looks to the robots, watching curiously.

Yay for Peepers! She has to smile at that. "I guess some might want to seperate, but there's going to be the jerk who wants one or the other wiped off the Earth," Lunair points out. "I mean, how many super soldier programs are commissioned because of people with powers?" She herself is a product of the 90s and its desire for super soldiers. "I just don't know how well others would respect that boundary."

"From what I hear, " the Bull-man says seeming to hear a lot of rumors about the subject, "That guy in charge is talking with those Kryptonians to ask them to move there and protect the island. No one would mess with them and that congress lady wants to kick them out of America anyway. What make you think they'll stop with aliens? We could all be next. I don't know about the rest of you, but if I'm going to be on a boat leaving America I'd rather have a choice to where that boat is going."

"I'll see what happens. Congress has been full of evil stupidity in the past. The Travesty is a bad distaff version of Joe McCarthy, and she'll be revealed as such… she's being too clumsy not to be," the robot says with a cheerfully optimistic tone.

Overconfident AI? Robot Precognition? Just Plain Naive? You decide.

Blink. Lunair rubs the back of her head. She takes a deep breath. "It's not my thing, but it is really worrying," Lunair admits. "I'm lucky enough to be legally dead and pass as human to the eye. Sometimes I feel a bit bad about it," She offers. "But I have friends and I get to stay in space sometimes, so it's not so bad," She remarks. "The politics seems to be getting ugly."

Seeing an opportunity, Dario says, "If you can get into hardware, can you get into computer networks? Could you snoop around and see if that crazy woman leading the racists has any connection to the purifiers? Maybe if we exposed any link she has to them then they would be seen for the terrorists they are and our people would get the protection they deserve from the government? We could all sleep more soundly then." the bull says as he puts his kilt back on wrapping it around himself and tieing a knot to hold it.

"That's an interesting idea. I'll see what I can do about it," Mike says. Note to self: find out what's up with the Minotaur. He seems like a nice enough fellow but there's an element that just seems slightly off-key.

"Who is it that's funding this place again?" The street-sweeper brigade rolls up, waiting for Mike to process their bins full of trash. Right. Uhm. Not in front of the minotaur, kids. Go back to the parking lot and I'll get it there.

"I have none of the relevant talents. I'll just help the little robots and do some cleaning. Unless someone wanted a drink and I can go grab some," Lunair offers. And awww, little brigade. They're cute!

Looking over at Mike, the Bull says, "That guy on TV, Dario.. " he pretends to have trouble remembering the last name. "Angler? Hagger? Agger! Dario Agger! He's the CEO of that Roxxon oil company. He said he's building an island for mutants and metas to live on. Aliens too. He's made some bold and impressive moves. Basically he's going to cripple the economy of any state that votes for the law against our kind." he says, "Roxxon is a powerful company and he controls it. For a human he's a pretty decent guy. His parents were murdered in front of him so he's very pro-hero."

"Huh. Revenge for murdered parents. Not necessarily the most healthy motive," Mike muses, "but I can understand it. It's not really that easy to cripple any state's economy, but I don't think it'd take that much work to mess with it. And Politicians are a superstitious and cowardly lot, they can be easily swayed by the promise of money given and taken."

Robot smiles at Lunair. By tilting his head and tilting his eyelids into a > < shape. "I don't have a mouth in this chassis. I'll switch later. Hey, thanks for the info on the Eden project. I'll see if there's anything constructive I can do around it."

Lunair smiles back to Robot. She nods. "Okay. I'll be back this evening anyhow. I didn't bring frozen food this run. Good thing, probably," She considers. "I hope your project and his go really well and all. But um. Parents are kind of a complicated subject…" Her smile fades. There's that neutral, complete lack of expression. She's fairly certain she has or had parents at some point, or really is she some sort of chimeric lab creation? It makes her uncertain. So many memories created, so many wiped out by medicines to keep a failing body alive, and who knows what was done deliberately? She shakes it off.

"Well. I'll be back then. I'm going to get the last food run in."

The big bull man says, "I'll go with you. As much as helping out makes me feel good. Having a friend would make me feel better." he says as he starts to follow Lunair, "If you don't mind a big dumb brute like me coming with you?" he asks playing his part to the hilt he even scuffs a hoof like he's embarrassed to be asking.

"Huh? S-sure. You're fine," Lunair looks confused. She has the world's biggest negative modifier to social checks. Being in a hospital room, lab or war zone or some sort of fighting murderous montage has a tremendous downside. And that downside is slapping her in the face so hard right now.

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