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3:12 am.
Lower East Side.
JP stood on teh sidewalk with a fist full of pebbles flinging them one by one at Elmo's window until he answered it. He yelled in a Psst! whisper, "Sparkplug, you don' answer you' window I'm havin the phone disconnected." Maybe it was late enough that JP wasn't really thinking about the fact that a- the phone company didn't control a window, or b- wasn't aware that he was threateneing Elmo with the ability to sleep uninterrupted. More than likely he found himself amusing. "Pssst!"
Elmo lives, it seems, in the detatched garage of a little old cottage. The owner of the house, Rex, is probably passed out drunk. There's a rough cobblestone drive to the garage, like it was originally a carriage house. And the detatched garage itself is really obviously Elmo's, because it's painted his favorite shade of electric blue. With a yellow lightning bolt on the garage door.
After five or so pebbles on the small window that's all the structure boasts in the way of windows, a light inside turns on. Then off. Then the people-sized door opens and Elmo, tousled and not wearing much, is eyeing JP with a mixture of rue and amusement. "What the hell are you doing?"
JP grinned and shrugged nonchalantly, "Juliette was busy so I hit up the next house over." That grin slowly spread in that infectious manner of his and he mused, "Got two choices. Either put pants on and come down here or I come up there an you won' need em then. Before you answer that OR-" Hands dropped the pebbles lifting to protect his head in case, "throw…things…know comin down here mean' cash an' valuable prizes. The other?" He considered and looked too smug, "Still a prize." Fun time over the greaser bounced in his boots, "C'moooon Elmo there' too much cool shit t' take apart to waste time talkin' bout it."
Elmo's giving JP a highly dubious look throughout this speech, obviously trying not to laugh at the same time. But when JP mentions there's cool shit to take apart, his eyes get big with glee. "Okay, pants it is! Gimme a minute." He goes back inside and the lights come on. Now that the interior is lit, it's clear that he's turned the garage into his very own mad-engineer's workshop, with a tiny living space. Junk and machines and shelving holding junk and machines are crammed into the place, but with the same ruthless neat efficiency he displays at Gearhead's. And it's obvious how much he wants to go on Random Midnight Adventure with JP because he really does only take a minute, pulling on jeans and shirt and boots with alacrity. "Where we goin?" he asks as he tugs the lacings tight on his boots.
JP was proud of it and too that moment to preen with that easy manner that always led to too much hassle. Idly curious JP watched picking up all the subtle details and- aww hey look, tiny blue robot! Right there on the upper shelf. He upnodded to the tiny robot. It did not respond. When Elmo returned there was that grin of approval. His grubby hand reached up and double slapped Elmo's cheek giving him a headbut. "C'mon, I'll explain on the way." No that van wasn't JP's but whever he got it from would they really need it back before 8am? Not likely.
They were headed across town to the waterfront, industrial area and parked the borrowed van. Apparently there was a foundry that was taking apart some high grade equipment. It was an adventure of going up to teh roof. cleanin the schmutz off JP pointed. "Down there. On the other side. they taking salvage apart and smeltin down anyhtin' they don' want. I say instead of throwin it away? Give it to us. Loooot of profit we can cut in on there. Plus anyone doin this ain' reputable so like we don' have to feel bad, non?"
Yes indeed, tiny blue robot, pride of place, not a single thing changed about it from when it came out of the box at the mutant Christmas party. It sits next to a light bulb that's had the filament removed and replaced with a hand-bent copper wire in the shape of a heart, and this odd little arrangement set on a wooden stand.
Elmo had suffered the double cheek slap with only moderate cussing out of JP under his breath in Yiddish. Now his forebearance is rewarded and he digs binoculars out of his satchel to look with more detail where JP is pointing. "Oh, wow," he whispers, excited as all get out. "The stuff I could build with that!"
JP was laying chest down with that charged look in his dark eyes. Yeeeees! A good heist got his more revved up than any calendar girl on the planet and that was saying something. Toes on the roof gravel, heels of his boots wiggling, like an antsy tomcat he was ready to pounce on this. God he was proud of himself. He was half singing when he egged Elmo on with, "I knooooow yooooou would, mon ami. Let's crack this egg an' eat this omelet already." Slapping the hatch with a hand the inside unlocked and it popped open. Both hands gripped the edge of the hatch and he did a forward somersault drop onto the upper catwalk disappearing into the building.
"Jeanushka, you know how to show a guy a good time." Elmo stuffs the binoculars back into his satchel and follows. He's not as flashy about it as JP, but when is he ever? He just swiftly climbs down, dropping next to his partner quietly and on high alert.
JP whispered over his shoulder, "Don' never say that I never ain't doin nothin nice fer you." Dear LORD someone explain double negatives to Jean-Pierre for the sake of all. The workshop floor was off-hours. THe nice thing in 1965 was that the world wasn't so big as it would grow to be some day and people didn't work around the clock. There were people that patrolled the outside on occasion sure, but really most folks went home. Most. Not awlays all and that's why there's whispering going on. Efficiently, those work boots sneaked across the catwalk trying to find something that might give them a better veiw of the place and possible threat.
Elmo prowls along behind, so excited he's got a hum of static electricity around him. There are so many big, BIG machines to admire and think about taking apart and rebuilding into something even more spectacular. He has to hold back from going for the first interesting thing he sees, because there are a lot of interesting things to see. "When have I ever said that," he whispers back, grinning.
JP snerked and whispered back, because yes now was the time for this discussion, "Like e'rytime I call you?" Ah! A vertical conveyor belt. That would work. If he could just…reach… he was shy of falling off the damn catwalk but *ping* contact was made, though it didn't hum to life. That's not what he was bonding with it for. The room was dark but for the flood lights outside the building. You know, for security. Really lights you had one job to do here. With a far of look he murmured to Elmo, "Mostly alone f'now. Dunno what security is outside or when they come back."
Elmo grabs the back of JP's belt as he leeeeans way out, and tries to pretend he weighs more than he does. "Fer godsake," he grunts, holding on and digging in his heels. He reels JP back in, and looks out over the factory even though there's no way he can see what his partner sees. "Okay. Let's go." He's itching with the need to get his hands on some of this machinery.
|ROLL| JP +rolls 1d30 for: 29
JP was pulled back and hopped over one of the railings to land on the one under it a tier below like a damn flea. He swung his legs up over either hand railing and slid down the stair railing like a fireman responding to a 4-alarm. Hitting the bottom he vaulted off the last step with a hop and strutted over to where there were several tables lined near a conveyor belt turned off. What they had was a combination of machine parts from a tool and die shop, broken bits of some robots that were employed by someone in the paper and some stolen very non-human looking pieces of gear. That might be a power source and- "Boooonsoir… what we got here?" He opened up the toolbox and cackled quietly, "Bingo!" A half of a sandwich that was left over. He started munching on that waiting for Elmo to catch up.
Elmo can't yell at JP, or throw anything at him, so he has to settle for rolling his eyes and grumbling under his breath. Climbing down, because he's good at climbing (no short jokes) and there's plenty to climb, he's not nearly so flashy but gets the job done. "You're worse than that damn possum," he mutters at JP. Eating random leftovers, so gross. The alien-looking gear catches his eye immediately—it looks way different from anything else around. He is not cautious at all about picking one of the things up to examine it and sense what power it might have stored.
JP squint to his partner, "Hey, Don' pick on Sidney. He pullin his weight at the garage." He gestured with the sammich, "See? Now I've done some spactacularly stupid things in my life, but pokin at alien electronics? MmMM this you. I can see if I can join wit' any of it but if it ain' metal could be weird." The free hand went picking up parts and pieces that someone carefully half took apart so far.
"It's metal…I think?" Elmo turns it over and over, trying to get a feel for it. "…Maybe it ain't. What is this stuff? Vibranium? I ain't ever seen vibranium—" He touches a particular groove in the piece and it lights up with eerie green. At the same time, Elmo makes a sound like he was punched in the gut, gasping something in Yiddish.
JP reached out and was about to lay hands on the thing when stuff started glowing green and Elmo was making noises. The sandwich was stuffed in Gearhead's mouth, hands reaching out to steady Elmo but not actually touch him. While sentiment is great and all, not completing an accidental circuit is better. "'oo ofay?" he bit the sammich and pulled it out of his face, though genuinely concerned, "You okay?"
Elmo nods a little frantically. He starts tapping at that spot on the piece of equipment and manages to turn it off. "It's a power source," he whispers. "It's like a lightning bolt in a bottle." He's looking at it like it's a beautiful woman who just slipped into something a little more comfortable. Stuffing it into his satchel, he grabs other pieces of the same make and they get stuffed in too. He's grinning again, this time with that crazy edge he gets.
|ROLL| JP +rolls 1d20 for: 5
JP just squint watching Elmo carefully and finally murmured, sammich gone now, "You gon' turn into a Kree tech junkie on me ain't you?" Shaking his head he worked at stuffing some of the pieces they could in the bags. He picked up one piece and made it fold itself into its tiniest configuration possible. Sweet! That got stashed. Picking up up the other piece of alien Tech it looked like a ball on a stick with a halo and the top spinny end on it. JP didn't quite know what to make of it. Eh why not. What's the worst that could go wrong in making it whirr to feel how it moved?
Turns out, it's a lot!
As the odd ball on a stick turned it spun up building up a store of kinetic energy and discharged it in a blast hitting one of the roll up bay doors sending the door flying into the drive. The device in his hand spun apart as it started in a broken state.
JP just stared wide eyed with his jaw agape. The reverie was ended quickly as there was now shouting as a couple people further down also noticed in exclaim. Turning to Elmo JP slap-slap-slapped his shoulder pointing up, "That our cue. Bail!" He stashed as much as he could in the bag and started for the stairs checking to see where ELmo was.
Elmo, going through the things on the table for more alien tech, mutters, "Maybe," without any apologies whatsoever. He looks up to watch with great interest while JP messes with the thing. "Hey, I wonder if—" Then he doesn't have to wonder. When it blasts the doors off, he claps his hand over his mouth and laughs wildly, just cracking up. He latches shut his satchel, stuffs something else into a pocket and flees, running fast for the stairs, grinning madly.
voices were heard in the distance. They'd be getting closer fast. The X-Ternals? Well they were up that scaffolding pretty damn quick. JP wthrew his back through the hatchjumped, and pulled himself througha hand went down for the bacg from Elmo and then again to help pull him up and out before slamming and locking the hatch. "Mon dieu!"
Elmo scrambles through the hatch. No Bobby to help him with this one, but he's got more than enough adrenaline to make up for it. He hoists himself up with JP's help and flings himself on his belly, next to the hatch, before JP locks it. He's still shaking with suppressed laughter. "The— fershlugginer— DOORS —"
JP had his heart racing and was just grinning ear to ear. He was trying to laugh and catch his breath at the same time. "Aaaaah, me… You see how far that went?" His hands rubbed his face before combing into his hair trying to estimate it. "Ri' off the fuckin moorings. Them tracks is toast, Sparkplug. Can you imagine what someone gettin their hands on this could do with it?"
"Thirty yards, easy!" Elmo's grin keeps going until JP says that last part. Then, it fades. "…Yeah. They could do a whole lotta damage. Just by givin' it a twirl, like a pinwheel." He sits up, fingercoming his own hair back. "So it's a good thing we got it now."
JP let the lagh fade and settle into his chest. "I am so unbelievably alife ri' now. Gonna be a lotta interested people lookin for this stuff. Trick gonna be figurin out who. But yeah I thought bein up in that big ol robot was weird. These things…"
Elmo looks up at JP to see that rush dancing in his eyes. He regains his grin. "Knew I picked a good partner." He gives JP a fond thwap. "So, while we're up here…anything else you wanna do?" And the grin turns wicked.
JP looked over to Elmo with a grin and waggled his eyebrows. "Yeah an' part of it was me trying t'pull my car aroun, but JEanne d'Arc didn't ride with us…Weirdly I feel like I connect t'somethin though. Maybe reach her, but I'm attached t'the hatch ri now an there's some freaked out folk ri'now though I mean really they jes over there. You can hear em anyways." Which was true as they were pretty worked up over a door exploding. His fingers gave a fwipfwip to Elmo's shoulder with a satisfied grim, the bastard was too confident for his own good, "Now you see why I tell you pick up th' damn phone?"
Elmo's eyebrows go up, too, but in surprise. "Hey, that's interesting! Maybe your powers are gonna shift. They tell me it happens, but it's never happened to me." He shoulders JP, more contact, more challenge. "Take me out like this more often, and I'll pick up the phone more often," he says, grinning. "Deal?"
JP considered the stipulation to their arrangement and snickered, "sure sure, is a date." And there was the wail of sirens in teh distance headed likely not in this direction. It was New York. It was sort of a natural sound of the landscape as sure as a dog's nose is wet. "Either way that out invitation t'get off this roof an either go get another one or get that van an' get."