The rest of the gang arrives.

[Feral]

Feral was standing in the middle of JFK airport waiting for Oddity and Ricky to arrive into the States. It was a long trek out to there from LA, but it was worth it. Feral made mention to Anna and the rest that he would be gone for several days to work on a big contract.

He never did say what exactly the contract was, only that he was a contractor. Since he was so handy around the house, they mostly assumed he was building something or taking something apart.

Instead he was at the airport. Feral's arrival at the fishing town several miles south of New York City proved lucrative enough, but the news people made the place impossible to inhabit as a base of operations. He would need someplace smaller and sleepier. A place where no one would notice or care if no one was seen for miles. He needed a country town.

Oddity might not like it so much due to the lack of interesting things and people, but Feral's time at the Redencion House made him think it would do Ricky some special good. Plus it would allow Boulder to continue developing his powers without large ramifications. It was a good idea.

Feral waved curtly when the two came into view. "Welcome to America!"

[Ricky Rider]

Ricky had a generic black baseball cap on, a blue t-shirt and jeans. Slung over his shoulder was a tattered backpack with all of his possessions, which consisted of nothing more than another shirt and fresh socks and underwear. The toiletries he'd bought at the mall had been taken by airport security.

"...but I live here," he said blankly, stopping in front of Feral. The bloodthirsty man looked entirely different, standing amongst all the people dressed in casual wear. He'd half expected to come into the airport and find a bloodbath.

[Oddity]

"Pooh!"

Ricky was pushed aside as Oddity bounced onto Feral, arms around his neck, legs around his waist. Her lone suitcase skidded to a stop at his feet. The blonde grinned widely at him as she planted a big ole kiss on his chin.

"I missed you oh so much! Did you miss me?"

[Feral]

"I surely did," Feral said, returning the kiss to her forehead and setting her down gently on her feet.

"You do live here, don't you?" he said to Ricky. "Well, welcome home then!"

He took their things from them and led them out of the airport. "We have two new recruits. You will be meeting them shortly. Then I will need Ricky's help for a special assignment. The rest of you will be mapping and finding a way to sneak into the Jericho Center."

[Ricky Rider]

Ricky looked away as they snuggled, and didn't answer Feral's welcome home as they began to walk out of the airport. He was hardly paying any mind, feeling once again like the third wheel. He did catch his name though, and turned his attention to the conversation. "What mission?"

[Oddity]

"MORE NEW PEOPLE?"

Oddity had been skipping happily beside Feral, but stopped in her tracks at the mention of new mutants joining their merry little family. Her and Ricky barely got along, they didn't NEED any more strays! A pout and crossed arms followed.

"How are we supposed to get into Jericho with a bunch of newbs?"

[Feral]

Feral nodded. "Yes, more new people. we can't conquer the world just us three. We need an army. A solid standing army, and Jericho is just the place to find people who will line up with our point of view."

Feral ignored the fact that Oddity was standing stock still and upset. "We needs these people. Boulder will map out the area with his powers while Varun finds a suitable entryway. It's going to be up to you, Oddity to walk in disguised and find the information I'm after."

Feral turned to Ricky. "You and I need to go find a place to set up shop."

[Ricky Rider]

"What do you mean, we're setting up shop?"

It seemed an odd kind of thing to be talking about in public, but the obliviousness of the people around him was sufficient to make it like they were whispering in a private, locked room. He looked around, trying to take note of who was paying attention to them. After a few minutes of walking through the labyrinth that was the airport, Ricky decided that the humans surrounding them were only noticing these things: his scar, and Oddity's assets. Nobody was giving Feral a second glance, he just looked like another guy. So Ricky shrugged it off.

[Oddity]

"Maybe I dont want to play dress-up with newbs! Maybe I wanna set up shop too!"

Oddity was pouting at the back of Ferals' head as they made their way through the crowds of people. She didn't notice anyone staring at all, because she was too busy feeling angry.

[Feral]

Feral shook his head. "You can decorate the place later if you'll wear that little black skirt, white button up top, and high heels with the strap round the ankle, and then use them to find tons of information for me to use on those fools."

Feral pulled Ricky close with a conspiratorial arm around his neck. "We need a quiet out of the way place where no one would notice things were out of place. Somewhere we can do whatever we need to do for our jobs and not get any attention at all. You're from New York? Got any idea where we could go?"

[Ricky Rider]

He was from Indiana, but didn't bother correcting Feral, as he'd been bumming it in New York for two months before his encounter with Klaus Heidegger.

"No, I don't. I doubt you'd wanna set up in the city. We'd blend in ok on the streets, but I doubt there'd be a building anywhere that would serve our needs and have stuff that'd be useful. Like water, or electricity, or stability." He shouldered open the door to the terminal and looked out at the traffic. "So how're we leaving?"

[Oddity]

She was still fiercely pouting as they exited the airport. "I only wanna decorate if WE can have the house all to ourselves....Kiddo can stay, the rest of them can sleep in the shed."

Her eyes lit up at the mention of the city. New York City! Heeee! "Oooooooo, but staying in the city would be soooo sooo much fun! Please say we can be in the city Pooh!"

[Feral]

Feral balked. "The city is where we are going to cause our trouble. We get in, get out. If we stay in the city they can find us. Eventually they will figure out where we are hiding and they will corner us."

He signed and grabbed Oddity, pulling her to him so she was around the other side of him from Ricky.

"We can and will fight our way out of them and set up shop somewhere else, but that idea is tiring. If we find a place outside of the city we can enter at any point we want. As long as we get out, we can split up and take our time getting out again. It'll be quiet and we can relax and get real rest. We need a place in the country. A place where there are good homes and electricity. If we take a small country town fast enough without causing a lot of damage, no one will know that anything happened. We can live like we deserve."

Feral patted Ricky on the back. "Won't that be nice?"

They got into the parking deck and made their way to a fresher car that he recently stole from someone. Boulder and Varun were leaning on the car, waiting. Feral waved to them.

"The bald one we call Boulder. The other man is Varun. You will get along with both of them and be civil," he said, staring down Oddity as he finished the sentence.

[Varun Petrov]

Varun said nothing as he looked over the two new people. He gave a slight bow of the head to Feral when he waved. He looked over at Boulder and smiled.

"Vell. . . I guess I vas right on suggesting the SUV."

[Boulder]

Boulder reflexively reached up and grabbed the hood of his light jacket to hide his face when he saw people coming. When he noticed Feral at the front of the group, he pushed hit back again. No need to hide his face if they were about to leave.

"Looks like you called it right. More trunk space, for bodies and such, right?" He nudged Varun gently in the ribs.

He murmured over his shoulder at his companion as he waved to Feral and his two cohorts. "Who's the blond? Certainly not someone I'd expect to roll with Feral....she must be one mean lady to be in his crew..."

[Ricky Rider]

Ricky gave them both skeptical looks. More crazy killers? Not what he needed to deal with.

"So, uh, hi." What was he really supposed to say? "Who's driving?"

[Oddity]

Oddity walked slower than the boys, making a face at Ferals' back. She was always always super nice to the strays he brought home - just lookit Kiddo!

Two new boys (yuck - although, deep down, she would hate hate hate if Feral brought home a GIRL!) waited by an SUV. She hung back beside Ricky, frown firmly in place.

[Feral]

Feral stood between his new and senior members with a pleasant look on his face. "Varun, Boulder," he said pointing at each man in turn, "meet Oddity and Ricky," he finished, pointing to the other two.

Feral opened the hatchback and placed his people's things inside. "Varun has been driving so far," he said to answer Ricky's question. "Would you like to drive?"

Feral's question bore no malice or hint of challenge. He was with family and Feral wanted to make them feel relaxed and do all kinds of things. They needed to have a full life and have what they wanted.

"If you want to drive, or learn how, we'll teach you."

Feral then turned to address everyone. "When we have jobs, we do as I say as soon as I say it. When we are just relaxing, like today, we can do whatever you like as long as you keep a low profile and don't draw any bad attention to yourselves."

Though most of Feral's enterprises looked like random slaughter, he chose his targets carefully to either prevent and curb society's ability to attack more mutants or sew discord among the populace. Today was a day to rest. The only mission they had to accomplish was the one with Ricky to find their new home.

[Ricky Rider]

"Uh...not now," he said, pulling open one of the rear doors. "You wanted a place in the country? It'll be a few hours driving. I'm not sure which way to go, but I know it's a while." He remembered clearly stowing away in trucks in and watching the endless miles of country turn into endless miles of freeway and then into big-city congestion. It'd been spectacularly boring.

[Varun Petrov]

Varun looked over the two people whom they had come to pick up he was not really sure what to make of them. One thing was for certain, it would take some use to getting to a female being around. He smiled as he watched her make face's behind Feral's back. He gave a slight bow when Feral called his name. He held the key's out for whoever wanted them.

"I don't mind giving up the vheel."

His Russian accent was strong, considering he has only been in the States for about a month.

[Boulder]

Boulder was busy looking past Feral and Ricky, fully enthralled by the set of swaying hips following the pair. He was finally able to tear his eyes away from them only when he heard his name called by Feral, and when Ricky was pointed out and introduced, Boulder took his first good look at the kid, for a kid he was.

"Deja vu..." he muttered as he watched Ricky go around the back of the vehicle. I feel like I've seen that kid before somewhere....but where? Unable to place the kid in his fragmented memory, Boulder shrugged.

When Varun offered up the keys, Boulder didn't say anything, but silently prayed that someone would take up the offer to drive.

[Oddity]

"GIMME GIMME GIMME!"

Oddity pounced on the keys with a wild grin, pushing passed everyone and climbing into the front seat of the car. Her over-excited giggling could be heard through the car door as she started it up and revved the engine.

[Ricky Rider]

Ricky slid into the back seat with caution, buckling his seat belt and tightening it a little more than was necessary. He found the O.S. handle and grabbed it tightly, anticipating an exercise in Crazy Taxi. "Oh man," he mumbled.

[Feral]

Feral dashed into the back seat right behind Ricky. He too buckled in and extended one long blade to point at Oddity. "Do not wreck this SUV. Do not cause a panic. Do not get the police to get after us. Low-key is what we do."

[Varun Petrov]

Varun smiled as he watched Oddity jump into the SUV. He smiled as walked around the car and got into the passengers seat. He was very casual about everything like normal he buckled up and leaned against the window.

"Come on Boulder. . . Let's see how you like this car ride"

He chuckled as he taunted Boulder, who for the past week had been harassing him about the way he drove.

[Boulder]

Boulder stood shocked as Oddity ran up, giggling, to snag the keys out of Varun's hands. For as second, all he could do is just stare as everyone else piled in the car, and he was only able to move after Varun jolted him out of his momentary stupor.

"I'm more afraid of riding with her driving than I've ever been with you Varun...," he mumbled under his breath.

Warily, Boulder opened the back door and clambered into the back seat and wedged himself between the door and Feral. Luckily, Ricky was small enough, and Feral was lanky enough that the back seat was not too cramped with the three of them back there.

Carefully, Boulder put on his seat belt. Since the first city raid, he had made a habit of wearing his stone armor at all times, under his cloths. Right now it was like a thick vest beneath his hoodie, and Boulder began to slowly manipulate it, sinking it into and around the frame of the seat, just in case.

He cast a worried look over at Feral and Ricky. Feral's warning to Oddity was stern, but was not enough to put Boulder at ease.

[Oddity]

"Mwhahahahahahahaha!"

In spite of the fiendish laughter, Oddity managed to get them out of the airport packing area safely. She didn't really know where they were supposed to be going, but she was too busy playing with the radio and making faces at the other drivers to really care.

[Ricky Rider]

The radio dialed through hundreds of stations faster than anyone in the car could determine genre, artist, title, or even instruments. There was the occasional brief, static-laced word as Oddity ran the through all the talk radio, then he leaned forward and snagged her forearm as it moved to punch the button to switch to AM.

"Please, can we just tune it to something and leave it? You did this with the plane's radio, too." He reached past her trapped forearm, seatbelt straining to hold him down, and held the tuner until it entered a range of stations that he was familiar with. He hit seek once, and it rewarded him with something lightly jazzy. He let Oddity go and sat back. "You can change it if you don't like it, but please don't fiddle with it like that."

[Feral]

"Are you starting to wish you had decided to drive after all, Ricky?" Feral asked.

There was no malice or bite to the words: just a question asked by one man to another man in a dangerous situation.

"Oddity, if you touch the radio again, I will remove the radio along with the whole hand you used to operate it."

[Varun Petrov]

Varun sat in the passengers seat looking at Oddity with a mix of pleasure and annoyance. He rather enjoyed her enthusiasm, but this fiddling with the radio was pushing him a little to close to his limit. He turned to the window and sighed when Ricky reached up and took control of the radio. As he stared out the window he looked a little up the street and saw a police man on the corner walking his beat, he smiled. . . .He wanted a little pick me up, this would do very nicely. He focused on the guard as they pulled up to the stop light the guard with in seconds lurched forward coughing. A few seconds more he feel to the ground dead, a trickle of water poured from his mouth as the on lookers gathered round. Varun started to chuckle under his breath.

[Boulder]

Boulder shook his head at the goings on in the car. The crazy, seemingly mindless flipping of radio stations. The calm, detached manner that Ricky stopped Oddity. The blatant thread of chopping off limbs from Feral. Feral's welcome earlier rang in Boulder's mind, "Welcome to the family".

Boulder muttered to nobody in particular, "If this is what a family is like, I'm glad I was born an only child and raised by my grams instead of a real 'family'."

Boulder lurched out of his private thoughts when he heard Varun chuckle. The man hardly ever found anything funny it seemed, so, what...?
"Varun, what did you just do?"

Just then, he heard screams from pedestrians on the sidewalk. He turned to see what the commotion was and saw the downed cop in a puddle of what looked suspiciously like water.

[Oddity]

"Look guys, when you're driving, you can do whatever you want..." With one quick flip of the dial, Oddity changed it to an alternative rock station, one that was blasting something loud and electronic. Suddenly, all four men were jerked foward as the brakes squealed.

Varun felt a hand smack him upside his head, coming from the drivers side of the car, not the back seat. The blonde was glaring daggers at him, obviously noticing the goings-on outside of the car. "Are you retarded? What part of laying low and not calling attention to us didn't you get?!"

[Ricky Rider]

Ricky hunched down in the seat, trying not to gawk. He didn't get what had just happened, but he did see something that, to his mind, was very important. "Light's green, go! Let's just get out of here!"

[Feral]

"Maybe they'll see it as a heart attack or something. Oddity, drive normally or we'll still have unwanted attention! If I have to take over this car from you, so help me I'll lock you in a room by yourself for five whole days and you won't speak one bit to me."

Feral had a hunch that the only real way to curb the blonde's behavior was to hold himself back from her. Who knew if it actually worked or not, but most other punishments either had no effect at all or she wound up enjoying them. Mostly when she got more crazy than normal he would just walk away and let her be alone for a few days. When he got back, she'd be toned down. Normal would never ever describe Oddity's personality.

[Oddity]

"Fine, fine, FINE!"

The car jerked forward, cutting off someone who was about to turn in front of them as it zoomed through the green light. Oddity was pouting something fierce at Ferals' threat - no-one else got locked in a room an ignored. It wasn't fair! This weirdo beside her was the bad one, and here she was getting into all the trouble!

[Varun Petrov]

Varun said nothing to Oddity for slapping him. He just continued to look out the window at the dead cop. As she speed off, nearly hitting a car, as he looked into the mirror he noticed a car slip in behind them. He did not think anything about it until he saw the fain out lines of hidden lights.

Undercover cops. . . .

"Ve are being followed." He said calmly as he looked at Feral from the corner of his eye.

[Boulder]

"Oh my Jesus..." Boulder wasn't particularly religious, but the phrase seemed to fit for this situation.

"Varun....why can't you just behave for one day? Especially when we are just starting to get settled..."

He glanced forward, trying to get a feel for Oddity's driving. If we ARE being followed by cops, all they will want is one good reason to pull us over. Is she speeding? Weaving? Anything...?

Boulder glanced behind him and, like Varun, could just barely make out the silhouette of hidden lights tucked away behind the headlights.

Shit...

"I think....maybe those cops should have a nice, innocent, blow-out of one of their tires... You never know what kind of trash and debris people leave laying in the street after all. And if you run over one...Psssshhh" Boulder mimed the sound of air escaping a tire, "Flat tire."

He used his power to pull off a small shard of metal from the seat, made ready and looked over to Feral. "You seem to be the self appointed father figure of this insane little family...Do I need to ask your permission before doing anything that's not 'mission oriented'?"

[Varun Petrov]

"Forgive me for stating an obvious fact. . .But if Miss. . .(Varun chuckled again) Sunshine would have not made a frantic move like almost hitting another car. . .ve vould not have cops behind us."

Varun said as he looked at Feral waiting to see what his reaction would be.

[Feral]

Feral rubbed his temples. The Redencion House was so much easier than this. But still, this was still not so foreign that he couldn't think quickly.

"Firstly, we are going to find a big, full parking garage and lose this car. Then we are going to get out of that garage and into a big crowded area where no one will recognize us. Then we are going to get as far away from this hotspot and get out of the city.

[Ricky Rider]

There was a brief silence in the car as Oddity steered the vehicle into a parking garage. Ricky couldn't stop his heart rate from picking up, or calm his hands which were shaking with nerves. He felt very much like he was in real danger, an emotion that was made almost absurd by the light, happy song that was playing. Idly, he tried to identify it, but couldn't come up with the name. Panic, chaotic...something "ic", he was sure.

"Oh for love of everything," he groaned, sitting forward and pressing his hands over his eyes. "Is he still there?"

[Varun Petrov]

Varun glanced behind him as they turned in and watched the cop pull in behind them. He groaned when he saw the cop reach for him receiver.

"Yes, he followed us in. And he's calling something in. Vhat do you vish for us to do?"
He was talking more to Feral than anyone else in the car.

[Feral]

Feral groaned. He put a hand to his forehead and felt his temples for the familiar throbbing of a stress-related headache.

"I need Boulder to put an ear to the ground, please."

Feral wanted to know how much time he had. Fighting off the SWAT team and NYPD was not how he wanted this to go. Then he had a better idea.

"Boulder, I need to know if the sewer is under us. If it is, we're collapsing this parking deck and dropping into the sewer. The bottom of he place will need to collapse faster than the top if we want to avoid getting crushed. It's going to take a lot of nuance."

Feral looked about. He was thinking, trying to improve the plan as he went. "Ricky, it's a little dark under here, but can you blast the floor beneath us. If you can open up holes for us to fall through it'll take some pressure off of Boulder."

Lastly he looked at Varun. "And if you are capable, I would like you to use the sewer water underneath to cut holes as well."

There was a whole lot of 'if' coming off this plan, but he couldn't think of much else to do apart from take on everyone. Things were much simpler back at the Redencion House. Back with Anna. Was this still something he wanted?

[Oddity]

"None of this would be happening if genius here could behave himself."

Oddity had parked the car, leaning to look over the seat at Feral as he rattled off a ridiculous plan involving massive damage to, well, everything.

"How do we know he's even looking for mutants? Maybe we have a busted tail-light or something?"

[Boulder]

"Maybe the crazy blond chick is right. I mean, why don't we just all sit here and see what they want? They didn't turn on their lights, and we all look normal enough right? Let's just see what..."

Boulder ran his hand over his head, and it snagged on the stone jutting from the top of his scalp. Upon feeling it, Boulder stopped in mid sentence. His face darkened, his eyes hardened, and his jaw tightened as he ground his teeth. He slowly dropped his hand to run over the ridge of stone over his right eye, and then drug his hand over his cheek, feeling the damage to his face.

Without moving, Boulder sent a tendril of stone down to touch the ground. The tendril, after a second, moved back up into the car.

Boulder's chest seemed to loose bulk as he manipulated his stone vest, making it move with the faint sound of running sand to cover his entire body under his cloths, leaving, for the moment, his head and neck still bare.

He didn't look up at anyone, but glared a hole through the seat in front of him. "There's a sewer system under us, maybe five yards to our left. I've already made a tunnel under us that will slide us down to the main artery of the sewers. I've also found the weak points in the building. If you want it to crash from top to bottom, it will, and they won't know what hit them..."

Silently, Boulder glared out the window at the cops, waiting for the right moment.

[Ricky Rider]

Ricky got out of the car and balled his hands into fists. This was dumb. He'd had enough. He looked at the tail lights. Neither of them were broken. The cop got out and approached.

"Son, do you mind telling me why your vehicle sped away so fast from the scene of the crime?" Ricky pointed one fist at the cop, and the other at the floor. Each fist shot five blasts, making five holes. The cop went down with a man-sized space in his torso. The concrete opened up wide enough for Feral's kill-crew to jump down one at a time.

"Let's just get out of here."

[Varun Petrov]

Varun said nothing as he listened to Feral's instructions. He got out of the car behind Ricky. He smiled seeing Ricky decimate the officer. The second officer in the car was already on the radio Varun looked at the car and water gushed from the engine and from the consoles destroying his communication devices. The officer opened the door and grabbed the shot gun that was next to him. A large smile plastered Varun's face. Boulder would know this look well, as Varun looked at the cop wanting him to fire.

"GET ON THE GROUND! GET ON THE GROUND, NOW!!" It took only a second for a nearly invisible water shield to surround Varun that was almost a foot thick. Varun started to walk slowly towards the trembling officer. "STOP OR I WILL SHOOT!!"

Varun's voice sounded menacing as he talked threw the water shield. "Then shoot." He said as he took another step. The Officer shot one shell, but Varun kept coming. Losing all his nerve the officer unloaded the whole gun at Varun, the bullets just dissolving as Varun stood still. Hearing the clicking of the gun Varun smiled as he started to advance once more this time like lightning. In what seemed like one flawless move Varun had lunged at the car causing the door to knock the officer down and shut the door at the same time. He was now crouched over him. His water shield gone. He leaned down, only inches from him, and looked over the man's face.

"Now. . . let me hear you scream. . . ." Varun said sadistically as he started to tear his flesh a part using the water that was inside the man's veins. The Officer screamed out in great agony. Varun smiled and leaned his head back. He looked as though he was listening to a beautiful concerto as he continued to slice the man to shreds. Looking back down at the officer he stoped as he reached down and pulled off his badge. Casting a glance over his shoulder he smiled at Boulder.

"Here's another for your collection."

He flung the badge like a disc straight for the Boulders chest where it hit dead center.

[Lucian]

Lucian watched quietly from the far end of the parking deck as the cop seemed to just spout blood from himself. He made sure not to move and inch. He had slowed his heart beat as well to a mear mummer. It would seem that he were dead if someone took his pusle right then. He watched intnently as The man with a thick Russian accent pulled off the officers badge and throw it to another of five that was watching him. His mind raced with things to do. Watching the wother man blow a hole clear threw the other officers chest was something he was sure he could take but the other he wasn't so sure about. So he stood there hidden behind a large SUV, listening and waiting for the perfect moment.