Issue 1 Downtime

The second half of Allison's parking space in the garage was taken up by a second motorcycle. This one, however, was mostly frame at the moment and of an older design. Allison was currently wrestling busted parts off the frame, inspecting each piece of the frame as it was revealed.

Sidney, having just hitched a ride back to the mansion from Maldon is wandering through the driveway when she spots Allison and her motorcycle through the open garage door.

"Whoa, nice. Is that yours?" she asks, wandering closer.

"That one is," she said, pointing to her bike. "I suppose this one technically is until I get through with it. Want to give me a hand?"

"Hells yeah. What are you doing to it?"

"I rescued this from a junk heap and I'm going to strip it down to the frame and try to rebuild it. Been a while since I've done it, but it's sort of like riding a bicycle." She tossed Sid a wrench, "See if you can get the front wheel off."

"Sure thing!" she says, catching the wrench and going to work. "Somebody just threw this out?"

"Probably someone too lazy to even sell it for scrap metal. Their loss is a win for me."

"People are idiots. I'm Sid, by the way."

"Allison," she said. "We met during that detention for the fight in the cafeteria." She pulled another part off, giving it the once over before tossing it in what appeared to be the 'junk' pile.

"Oh yeah right. What's up with that? You a teacher?"

"Not until next semester. Then I'll be teaching social studies. I'm also the school attorney."

Sidney makes a face. "What's an attorney doing with a hunk of motorcycle junk?"

"Stripping it down so I can rebuild it. Been doing it since I was your age or maybe a little younger."

Sidney looks at her as if she's worried she might be bitten and turned into a lawyer herself.

"Just for fun?"

"Yeah. My dad taught me how to do it. When I was in the States, I went out riding on a regular basis. Weather's a bit bad to do it now, but that makes it a great time to do this."

"Sounds like your dad's pretty awesome." she says, giving the wrench an angry jerk and wrestling the tire free.

"He was," she said. "Yours wasn't, I take it."

She shrugs. "I dunno. He doesn't really give a shit unless it's to tell me to not fuck up."

"Some parents are like that. It sucks when they are," she said, squatting down to look at the tire. "Rubber's shot, but the rim might be fixable."

"That's at least something, right?"

"Sometimes you salvage what you can. Sometimes you have to replace parts," she said with a nod.

"Anything else worth salvaging beyond the frame?"

"Something in the engine might be. I haven't pulled that apart yet. The seat was a loss and the back rim was bent. Makes me wonder what the previous owner did to it."

"Sounds to me like I don't wanna know at all. Probably used to belong to The Blob."

"Frame's not strong enough for that," she said with a chuckle, going over the frame again. "Okay, frame's going to need some touch up work, but I have a friend who can help with that."

"And where are you gonna get all the replacement parts?"

"I'll have some of them made. May have to hunt up some original parts from dealers." She moved over to where she'd set the engine. "Let's get this thing apart."

"Sure thing." she says, taking off her jacket and hanging it on the handlebar of the gutted bike.

"So," she said as they started loosening up the engine to take it apart, "do you like it here?"

"Eh, it's alright. Everybody's on a freaking hair trigger though, even some of the teachers. Fuck, especially some of them. Like that Kaltiera mink."

Sid's language didn't seem to disturb Allison in the slightest. "Yeah, she's a little uptight. I didn't say that though. I, of course, scolded you for speaking poorly of the faculty."

"'Course. Not just her though. Can't even smoke in peace, it's bloody ridonk. It's like everyone's thinks people are gonna storm this place if everyone isn't a shining beacon of morals. Like anybody here is any better than the idiots out there." she rolls her eyes.

"I think the concern is the people out there have numbers on the people in here. Even with powers, I think we'd lose. So I think they're concerned that we don't give the outside world a reason to make our lives more difficult than they already are."

"That's a load of bull. People ain't scared cause of what the Tories say, walking through walls and stealing shit or whatever. It's cause of this moral crock shit. Ya got the dipshits who try to take over the world to tell people what to do and then you got the idiots here who try to tell people what to do cause they think they know better. They're scared of the one cause they can kick their arse and of the others cause they think themselves smarter. Hell they probably are, they're smarter than me fer sure. Ya try to 'set an example' like some kinda bullshit shining beacon and people don't like that cause it's makes 'em look worse." she says as she's working on dismantling the engine.

"People think we're differen' and the truth is that most of us are. Not cause we fly or shoot lasers from our arse but cause even the good guys try to be better than all the sorry sods out there."

"Hazard of being the 'good guys', I guess," she said. "Me, I do my figurative fighting in the legal system and my literal fighting in the occasional bar. Appropriate behaviors for appropriate places."

"Bet that'd make more people like you better than just saying you're a lawyer."

"Most people don't need to know about my hobbies."

She shrugs. "Makes you look cool, is all."

"Just wait til I show up to class in a leather jacket."

"Guess it won't hurt not to hate one teacher." she grudgingly admits.