Issue 1 Downtime

It was a boring night, so really, what was a group of college age mutants to do except head out to a bar, the XUB having gotten a little repetitive. Cal led the way, Tink on his shoulder, to a bar he and Tink had found, where the atmosphere wasn't quite as rowdy as their usual haunts, but what could you do when there were people with less taste for random brawls and injuries with you?

Tink had talked Murphy into coming and she followed along after Calvin and the girl, feeling a bit like a third wheel. Inwardly, she vowed to give them some privacy as soon as possible.

Coby floated along. "This a private party, or can anyone join?"

"Please. Extra backup is never a bad thing," Cal joked as he nodded for Coby to join them.

Murphy waves awkwardly at Coby.

Coby waved back.

"Just didn't want to be a third-and-a-half wheel," he laughed.

"Nah, this is a group deal. I think there are going to be people meeting us there a little later anyway. It's all good."

"Ah... HERE we go," he said as they came up on the bar. It was loud, looked a bit rough-and-tumble, but it didn't look as if you were in danger of being punched in the face for looking at someone wrong, at the very least. As said, Cal was toning the location down a bit for the night.

As the group approached the bar, a lean, dark-haired boy in his early twenties eyed them from where he stood next to the entrance smoking.

Murphy glances at the boy suspiciously before shrugging it off and following the rest of the group.

Brett had tagged along as well. Even though things with Tink wound up taking off with Calvin rather than him, he still felt a lot of gratitude to Cal for coming to the rescue during the vampire invasion, and hoped to at least stay friends with Tink.

Tink gave grins all round though her eye too was drawn to the unknown quantity, something about bad news attracted the fae and this one stank of it.

"Cal and I aren't exactly the most thingy of people that hang together." Tink offered as reassurance to the others without actually mentioning what she and Cal might be.

"No third, fourth or twelth wheels here - though a twelve wheeler might be fun.. maybe we could steal one."

"I know how to hotwire one," Cal offered as they took a seat at the bar.

"I can drive one," Murphy offers, not sure if she should take Tink seriously.

"Shotgun," he said with a small smirk. He ordered up some beer once he took his seat.

"Cal you don't mind if I go seduce a truck driver then knock him unconscious so we can still his rig do you?" Tink fluttered her eyelashes sweetly.

"See, if I say 'yes,' you'll just do it anyway, so I'll just keep my answer to 'don't show him too much,'" Cal said dryly, reaching up and running a finger down the pixie-girl's back.

"Fuck man," a nearby young man says in a loud drunken voice to his friend, "I don't know why you keep dragging us to this crap hole. Just filled with a bunch of fucking freaks."

His friend laughs, "Dude, you ever been with a mutant girl? They might bitch about 'oppression' and all that bullshit but nothing they like more then a good pure bred human dicking."

"You're disgusting, you know that? They're not even human. That's like, bestiality or some crap. Might as well stick it in a dog you sick freak."

Coby glanced over, and then turned back. "Riiiight. Yeah, we're just gonna let THAT slide..."

"Connor and Morgan would love those two...," Bret murmured to himself, keeping an eye on them in case anything escalated.

Murphy clenches her jaw slightly but doesn't look at the drunkards.

Cal sighed, then glanced at Tink. "'Scuse me for a minute, babe, I've got something to take care of," he said as he stood up.

"And we're supposed to let hiim have all the fun?" he glanced at Tink.

Tink'd up Tink is in their faces in moments, her anger obvious though her mutation is now near invisible.

"Survival of the fittest Assholes, your kind is going to be dust under our feet before they figure out how to wipe their own asses!"

Cal, in the meantime, stood behind the guy Tink was going off on. "Consider your answer to the lady very carefully, dickhead," he said threateningly.

"...I really don't think this is a good idea," Murphy says as she watches them approach the guys that made the remarks.

"In for a penny..."

Brett turned all the way around, now that his friends were involved. He was prepared to try trick the douches into fighting one another, or, less drastically, even make his illusion intervene, if need be.

The group didn't have a chance to start in on the guy, though. With the creak of bending metal, a barstool behind him deformed the bars glowing red-hot as they twisted and wrapped around the man. "I think you were saying something about your betters, monkey-man," the young man scoffed from where he sat at the bar, a gold-glowing hand outstretched toward the man standing between Tink and Cal. The metal bars of the stool continued to wrap tightly around him, burning his clothes and searing his flesh.

"What the fuck!" Tink took a step backwards then forwards again this time towards the fire brand.

I knew he was bad news but cute, they are always cute.

"Nothing wrong with a stouche but I don't go in for burning people alive. Turn off the flames."

"Oh, come on," the boy chuckled. "You don't have a thing for fucking humans, do you? I mean, you look kind of trashy, but not that trashy."

Around them, the patrons seemed to be backing away, giving them a wide berth. The man wrapped in the barstool whimpered pitifully as the metal cooled around him.

"Oh you son of a bitch," Cal growled, starting at the man.

The boy waved an almost dismissive hand at Cal. Instantly, every visible piece of metal on him started to glow red-hot for a second, even as sparks shot briefly from his arm, eyes, and mouth.

Cal let out a noise that was full of pain, even as unintelligible as it was, as he fell to the ground, none of his implants responding.

"You wish you could tap this..." Her words trailed away and Tink flew at the youth, dusting him as she went and heedless of her own safety as she threw fists at his face.

"You filthy cheating bastard!"

Coby was only a moment behind, dashing in to give Tink a hand.

"Arsehowle!" Brett's Bristol accent slipped a bit, as he shot up, instantly creating an illusion of himself a few feet away, towards the pyrokentic fellow. He had his copy move closer, as though he was about to fight hand-to-hand, though if Daniel did strike out at the illusion, it would dissipate.

The man gave a yelp of pain as he fell back in surprise, tink's deceptively small fists impacting painfully with his temple. Dazed, he waved his hand, a table flipping up protectively in front of him, the metal legs and frame growing hot enough to cause the wood tabletop to start blackening. Shaking his head to clear it, he didn't even see the illusion that sprang up.

Coby turned intangible, and flew through Tink, the table, and the fire jerk, before re-solidifing on the other side, ready to punch--though the whole thing'll take long enough for Dan to respond, as he's not any faster than a normal guy...

Tink went down with him wrapping herself tightly across him so he wouldn't get away. She swung again, all of her bar room brawling skills coming into play as she straddled his chest.

"I can't believe I thought you were cute! So help me God if you have hurt him..." Tink glanced over at the prone Cal and struck out again.

"Die you bastard!"

With Tink, Coby and his illusion there to keep the belligerent mutant busy, Brett rushed over to where Cal lay on the floor. "Oh my God, are you okay?"