The Road: 2nd Gear

[spitfyre]

"Fucker" Gew muttered after he destroyed the car he was driving at. He grabbed his shotgun from the back seat and reloaded it, before getting out of his car and going over to check out the twisted wreck he destroyed and just scope out the area to make sure the crazy was actually dead. After examining the wreck he went back to his own vehicle just to see the damages to his own car.

[Meep Meepersons]

Ifri snarls as the swines spit hits her face, not even wiping she lunges like she intended, but her overconfidence ended up screwing her as she feels her claws strike the dirt. Before she could recover from her fumble, her arm is chained to the idiot on the other end's arm. Then spouts some shit and headbutts her in the nose! "Fuhck! Auh! Bastard! You want a dog fight!? You fucking got it!" With that, blinded by her own tears, she clasps her hand to their arms and grabs hold with a whiteknuckled death grip, She'd also try to grab his arm with her clawed hand if she could and before he could react, she'd wrench her arms and spin to her right, planning to pull him along and keep spinning until she had him clear off the ground. She'd continue to spin and spin and spin until his arm or her arm ripped off, or she hit something with him. No matter how many times he would hit her to try and stop her, she'd keep trying to spin him around until she succeeded.

[Gorutsuki]

"I don't know whether to cal this a happy reunion or not, I never thought I'd see you again lars." A small smile crawled its way onto Lesh's face, probably not because of the man in front of him but that seeing him rreminded him of better days. "I have to hand it to you though, you always seem to survive shit somehow, but I'm guessing you won't let an ex-officer like me inside there, will ya?"

[exalted]

Rip:

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The stench is almost overpowering as you near the rear doors, a clouds of buzzing insects adding to putrid gore coating every surface inside. You see a leather pouch mostly clear of the gore and quickly snatch at it before you loose your lunch, stomach churning as you stagger from overwhelming smell.

Opening the pouch you find mostly junk, a diary filled with scraps of paper mentioning safe places that have mostly been crossed out and a couple of pressed wild flowers. The only thing of value you find $20 tucked inside the cover of the diary.

Spitfyre:

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The buggy is a twisted, mangled wreck. You see the body and work and chasis completely crumpled where you hit and the rear diff has almost been torn out completely. Taking a knee you see it is little better inside the stoved in cabin, the driver skewered by steering column. You try not to look at the young woman who had been strapped to the front of the rig.

There are a few parts that are still salvageable (+4 salvage).

Looking back at your own jeep it seems mostly fine, a bit of dented body work and then you see the slight lean it sits at. It looks like the ram brunt of the impact but transferred the force into the chassis, twisting it slightly. The body work could probably be hammered out but you would need to get to a workshop to straighten the chassis.

Meep:

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Lashed tightly forearm to forearm, you are unable to use your clawed hand to grab him, but can still use it as a point of leverage. Latching on to his bound arm to try and swing him fails to get him off the ground, his constantly shifting feet robbing you of momentum though you easily overpower him, pushing him around all over. With both your hand occupied you're unable to stop the rain of blows that land on your chest and face from his free hand.

The blows to your tits sting and threaten to rob you of breath but you don't feel anything crack or break under the onslaught as you feel your face gradually swell more and more with each blow. Screaming in anger you slam him back against the Chrome Hounds truck again and again until his legs buckle underneath him. With a groaning shriek you hear the handbrake give out and the truck slowly starts to roll back, trapping the leader's free hand under the wheel.

"My Hounds," he barks in pain, vainly struggling to pull his arm free of the wheel, "Assist me, assist me!"

Looking around you see the war boys doing the opposite, each carefully backing away from the two of you.

Gorutsuki:

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

"And why would you go saying that? I'm very sensitive to negativity." Lars mocks, "Just because you were some no good, low down dog of the 'law', you'd think I wouldn't let you in here? You have to think positively you see, we're all positive people here, we don't like negativity."

He struts forward, walking around you as he sizes you up.

"You see it's all a frame of mind, change you perspective, change the world and all that," He laughs, "Don't think 'wouldn't' I let you in and think why 'would' I let you in? What could you do that would make me let you in?"

[Meep Meepersons]

Ifri grits her teeth and bares with the blows as they rain upon her chest and face, wincing as her face begins to distort from the goons strikes. "Kuh..." Smirking as best she could when she finally started getting some traction, she managed to whip him around and slam him into a truck a few times till his free arm gets caught in the tire as the truck rolls from the brutal impacts. "Fucker!" Standing over him, she grips her human fist so tightly the black leather of her finger-less glove groans with the strain from it. She then would start to rain blows upon him. Punching at his face, neck, and shoulder of the arm trapped in the wheel. If she could she'd stomp on his gut and crotch as well, hoping to help the truck rip his worthless arm off by keeping him occupied with her rather then pulling his arm free. "DIE!" She shouts before roaring like angry bear, right at him as she goes to pummel him. Hopefully it would strike fear into those who hear it, perhaps even warding them off from crossing her like this worthless sack of shit! "GRAAAGH!"

[Riptide]

"Shit!"
He curses as he realizes he wasted his time for almost nothing. He pockets the $20, and takes the diary with him as he makes gets back on his bike and makes his way to his destination.

[spitfyre]

Gew dumps the bit of salvage he was able to find in the back of his Jeep before hopping in and saying. "Well, now the trail is cold. Just perfect." Then remembering that he saw a pair of tracks leading to the third city a while back he turned his car and headed in that direction.

[exalted]

Meep:

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

You hear the sudden ignition of engines and wheels spitting dust as you continue to rain down blows upon the old leader under you are left breathless and you arm is numb. When the red fog finally lifts you see the man is bloody pulp, though his chest still rises and falls softly as he wheezes for shallow breaths. Looking around you see the rest of the hounds have fled from your fit of violence in the other vehicles.

As the dust clears you see the tow vehicle pull up and a warboy jumps out, proudly holding your glove as he looks around confused. It takes you a moment to recognise him as the surviving gunner from the crashed truck.

Riptide:

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The sun hands low in the sky when you finally see the low wall surrounding Hazelpoint, bathing the land reddish brown and you see the lights of the town twinkle dark. A small group of guards man the town gate but they've been expecting you and let you into the town without difficulty.

Hazelpoint almost reminds of you free town, you know if it had more crazies, random acts of violence and bits of bone lying about as decorations. Down the main street you see a small tavern is just opening while it looks like the other stores are about to close.

Spitfyre:

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

You have to lower your speed a bit as resume your travels towards the Third City. As the sun begins to drop you see the wrecked walls of the city come into view. It's unlikely you'll make the walls before dark. Do you risk searching the ruins in the dark or pull over and wait till morning?

[Meep Meepersons]

Ifri huffs and stands up straight as her victim was left unconscious and unrecognizable from her pummeling his helpless face. "Fucker!" She looks around to see that the rest of the hounds had up and fled from her brutal victor. "Worthless wooorms!" She shouts, cursing their cowardliness. Then the tow vehicle showed up, the little warboy hopping out with her glove. "Your friends ran away from me because they are cowards." She tells him, noticing he's one of the guys who in her vehicle that crashed, a survivor. She smiles and gets her self loose from the bloodied hound boss. "This piece of shit challenged me and chained my arm to his, turns out he's pussy." She says sticking her long tongue out to lick her bruised knuckles to full health. "I said I'd eat his heart if he challenged me and anyone else's if they challenged me. Guess I'm pretty scary..." She says before stretching her mutant hand out, fully extending her long blade lick claws. "I wonder how big they will get...." She says in a dry tone hinted with depression. She figured as she aged her claws would grow, as they did since she was born. "Hand over the glove, you did good back there kid, better then this piece of shit right here. What do you think? Should I rip his heart out here? Or should I tie him up to the pole and do in front of the cowards who ran away?" She asks flicking her claws a few time to work out the cramp she got from being bound to such a large pile of shit.

[spitfyre]

Gew gets in his car and drives off towards the wrecked city, not having any problems besides his damaged car while he was driving. Unfortunately he didn't reach the city in time before it went dark and realized that he would have to pull over before he reached the city. He drove for a bit longer until it got too dark to see well and stopped the car and settled into a light sleep.

[Riptide]

Rip is relieved to finally be inside the relatively sane walls of of Hazelpoint. He assumed that he should just call it quits for the night and worry about the pump tommorrow. He already had to deal with enough bullshit all day, all he wants to do is to drink his troubles away into the night. He waltzes in to the tavern, and tries to find a seat at the bar.

[Gorutsuki]

Lesh stayed silent, letting the man continue to drivel on and on about frames of minds and other such nonsense, fighting back the urge to just punch him straight out. Instead he figured a 'friendly' approach would be a better wa to handle this. Taking a deep breathe in he looked over Lars' shoulder, staring at the other two guards and pointed at him "is he this talkative to everyone who comes in through here, or only those who catch his fancy?"

[exalted]

Meep:

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The warboy, who looks to be in late teens, shrugs his shoulders when you explain the fight as if such occurrences were common place. When you ask his opinion he thoughtfully scratches his chin but doesn't venture forth anything. From behind you hear the unmistakeable metallic click of a weapon being cocked, turning slowly you see Elizabeth leaning out of the truck, pointing at rifle at you and the warboy.

Spitfyre:

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

You find it hard to sleep through the night. The chill winds that blow through the waist howl and shriek in the distant ruins, filling the night terrors as think you see things through the billowing dust. Several times you think you hear distant gunfire, but nothing comes of it.

Morning breaks and you rise stiffly to see the blood rusted walls through the frost on your windscreen.

Rip:

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

You feel thirty sets of eyes bore into you as you walk in the bar, eyes filled with mistrust and damning from the men and intrigue from bored woman stuck in the middle of nowhere. Heading to the counter you see the bartender casually talking lowly to a few of his customers, an old piano sitting unattended in the corner.

"What'll it be?" The man asks through his moustache, looking up from his conversation.

The man rubs the sweat from the red bandanna on his head with end of purple sash around his waist as he explains the menu. It seems to bar primarily sells two different drinks, a light beer and moonshine whiskey. If you plan to drink through the night the beer would be more expensive but you'd get less drunk as you unsure of how hard the shine would hit you.

Gorutsuki:

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

"Nah, you're more type," The other guard sneers, picking at his teeth with a flick knife, "Bend you over this barrel right 'ere and just go to town."

"You see what I have to deal with here?" Lars asks noone in particular,"Negativity and vulgarity day in and day out, what has our world come to? Won't someone think of the children?"

He turns and walks back down the alley, slumping into a folding chair next to the exit.

"You know what I think?" He offers, "Fuck'em, it's all their fault anyway, useless little pricks always running around begging for shit instead of working for it. Now seeing as you've ruined my perfectly positive morning, what te fuck do you want? The Bronze aint got not power here."

[Riptide]

Taking a look around the bar, Rip feels threatened by most of the men, as usual. He remembers Jessi's words, as he looks around at the women. She specifically said "No Ugoes", and Not "No Women" in general. Granted, pretty much every other women is ugly in Jessi's eyes, and only a select few are actually more attractive than her to Rip.

He takes a seat at the bar and thinks about getting the Moonshine, but remembers how "great" that turned out for him last time. He never will trust himself getting that drunk ever again, especially somewhere where he won't be babysitted.
"I'll start with a Beer."

[Meep Meepersons]

Ifri ponders to herself as Chrome Pup remains silent, not offering up an opinion either way. At least he didn't care for the boss she just pummeled, makes things easier when dealing with him. Then a she could hear the tell tale click of a gun coming from behind her. Turning, she sees Elizabeth pointing a rifle at her. "If you are planning on shooting me, you better not miss." She says, looking at Elizabeth sternly. She then turns her attention to the pup, and snatches her glove from him. "Thanks kid, remind me to reward you when we get back to the brothel." With that, if Elizabeth still hadn't shot at her, she'd tell the Chrome Hound Warboy to chain up the beaten boss to one of the trophy poles either on his own truck, or the tow vehicle. If there were no poles for this, she'd tell him to tie him up regardless, and throw him into the back of the tow vehicle. "I think I proved my prowess, do you really wanna shoot your body guard in the back?" She says, turning away from Elizabeth, confident that she would not shoot her in the back. Waiting for the shot, or for the busty broad to put her gun away, she would carefully replace her specialized glove, placing each retracted claw into it's respective sheath, zipping up the long black glove till it nestled upon her forearm, just under her shoulder, completely covering her mutation.

[Gorutsuki]

His eyebrow twitching out of annoyance Lesh began to grin his teeth a little as he stared at these supposed guards. Mentally groaning and wishing he had a grenade to leave behind Lesh just scratches his head in frustration. "Oh I see what you mean Lars, however though I think I made a mistake coming here since it seems that it has only caused me further frustration." Regretting his decision to come down here he begins to turn to leave, making sure to be ready for an attack by any of these guards. "Also why the fuck would ya mention those guys when I just said I was an ex-officer? You think I'm going to bring you in again? Fuck that I'm not an officer of the societal law anymore." Those words being a small reminder to him and the life he had lost and left behind and the nagging feeling of frustration he weighs his options and his current money in his mind before he makes up his mind and go off to the infamous brothel.

[spitfyre]

Gew wakes up after a fitful sleep. Understanding that the sleep he did get was going to have to be enough. He had a man to catch, and waiting around in daylight trying to get more sleep wasn't going to help. So he turned his car on and began to move again, heading into the city. He didn't drive all that fast, because he needed to keep an eye out for anyone of anything that was living there.

[exalted]

Rip:

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

As you sit sipping your beer you hear the seat next to you creek and looking over you see a young woman smiling at you. She seems to be wearing only a tattered set of denim overalls that baggily sit on her slender frames. Her skin tanned dark and covered in freckles and dirt suits her dirty blonde hair.

"Hey Stranger," She smiles, "buy a girl a drink?"

Meep:

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

You don't hear a shot and when you turn around you see Elizabeth grumpily wrapping her torso and face back up with the piece of cloth. You see the warboy dragging the unconscious leader into the back of the tow truck as you climb back on to Elizabeth's truck.

"Which way?" She snaps.

If your plan was still to head back to Brutha Luvs you could either head back the way you came, through the barrens where the rest of the Chrome Hounds probably are or cut across country for the highways and head their directly.

Gorutsuki:

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Forgoing the opportunities of the Cross Roads you head back into the wastes, each mile and hour ticking away taking you farther away from civilization. The sky turns red and then black before you see any signs of life and the first you do see is the shining neon beacon of Brutha Luvs. The compound around the buildings is chaos of activity, crazies and vehicles charging about in every direction. There are meant to be rules protecting travelers around the trade station, back when the MFP and local crazies had an understanding, but the night is meant for hunting.

Do you go on or find some place safe to lay up until morning?

Spitfyre:

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

As you roll towards the walls you get the uneasy feeling of being watched, but don't see anything yourself. The memories come flooding back as the walls loom ever higher the closer you get. Memories you thought you had buried come flooding back, about the last time you saw these walls as the child. The screams and shouts, the press of panicked bodies as people fled, the sound of roaring engines and gunfire as the flames shot over the walls.

Reaching the gate you fled from as a child you see it appears to be blocked off by fallen rubble.

[Riptide]

He takes another sip of his beer, before turning around and smiling back at the girl. He calls the bartender over, and orders her the drink of her choice, whatever it may be.
"Since I'm getting you a drink, why don't you give me something in return. A name sounds like a good start."
He feels the alcohol starting to take effect, and starts fantasizing about getting with the mysterious girl. Hopefully his fantasies can become a reality if he plays his cards right, and Jessi never needs to know. Granted, he doesn't mind if Jessi hooks up with other men that aren't him. As long as the men, or women if she ever changes it up, are people she actually wants to be with, and not people she is forced to be with. He shudders slightly thinking of how his boss acted about her.

[Meep Meepersons]

Ifri smirks and hops up into the back of the truck Elizabeth was in and taps the roof. "We are heading to Brutha Luvs, my bike is there, and I need to see if I can get some ammo. I did this job for Merch so I have to head back to pick it up." She then turns her attention to the warboy and the truck. "Warboy! You are in front, lead the way back to Brutha Luvs! It's time we get our rewards for our hard work!" She shouts, patting the roof of her ride to let Elizabeth know she intended to have her follow the warboys truck back to the brothel of the wastes.