Originally this was not going to be a continuous story, but... I felt like making the scene between Bean and Misty and The Buff. Enjoy. Keep an eye out for more.
Toki


"Bean…." There was no answer…

"Bean!"

The woman tried again, a bit louder this time so that the man would hear her. The tone of her voice calling his name was insistent and getting louder. Though it seemed he was ignoring her.

"BEAN!"

She accompanied the yell straight into his ear, so it was clear he would hear her. But even with her loud call, he still ignored her. With an annoyed huff blowing some of her reddish brown hair out of her face, she balled her fist and swung her fist up and into the air. Bringing it hard upon the top of his head with a dull thwacking sound as her fist hit the top of his black crop of hair. Pain lanced… but not into his head. Her hand smarting against her weak blow compared to the hard thick head of Bean Bandit, though it did get his attention.

"Hm? You say something Misty?"

He looked up at her, a slightly puzzled look on his face. His grin tugging at the edges of his mouth was the only sign he had actually heard her the whole time, but was enjoying messing around with her head. Clutching her hand as it throbbed from her 'brilliant' idea, she scowled down at him.

"I can walk you' know!"

With one arm wrapped lightly around her waist, Misty Brown found herself sitting upon Bean's shoulder, (Also not the most comfortable spot in the world.) After he had exited out of Gunsmith Cats, he had returned her to the sitting position on his shoulder, and he had been walking nonchalantly down the street with her head hovering almost eight feet in the air looking over all who walked past them. It didn't seem to bother in him the slightest, but the stares were starting to get to her. There was nothing wrong with her legs; it just was the fact that he was borrowing her and didn't want her to get away was probably on his list from not letting her down.

"I promise I won't run away." Misty whined, eager to get out of the public's eye as he bore her on his shoulder like a trophy. Bean turned to look where he was going, and gave the idea a ponder. Though he really didn't need to look where he was going; since he looked scary enough on his own to make anyone passing by part for the massive man. The black leather coat, fingerless gloves, red headband, and pair of sunglasses that covered the x scar that crisscrossed his face didn't help make him look any less intimidating.

"Alright, we are almost there anyway."

Being the nice guy Bean was, he made sure to let down Misty gently and softly to the ground, waiting till she got her footing till he let her stand on her own. As tough as Bean Bandit looked, he had a weak spot for kids, and to him Misty was in that range certainly younger then himself. Dusting herself off, she obeyed her promise to him and followed as the man continued towards where ever his car was sitting. But they were not there yet, so Misty felt like conversing as they walked.

"So The Buff eh? Rally and May have talked about it, but I don't think I got to see it."

She tried to recall all the various times she had interacted with the Courier, but most of the time when he showed up things were crazy enough if she had run into his prized car, she might not have been attentive enough to notice it all. Though she did recall when she snuck into his house the one time she saw with her own eyes the massive collection of muscle cars he had collected over the years. It was quite a sight.

"I think you might have seen it, but you'll get your chance now if you didn't." He said with a beaming smile of pride.

With good reason, since The Buff was built from the ground up by the muscle car addict. Based on a Porsche chassis with a Corvette Stingray engine block, he had the engine converted to get up to almost two hundred miles per hour and killer torque. The body is covered in 5mm-thick battleship steel armor plate, and the windows are made of a combination of bulletproof glass and Lexgard plastic. Thus, it is armored sufficiently enough to withstand SMG fire, though it can be taken out by high gauges of rounds and anti-tank shells but standard weapons are playthings to The Buff. It also had several add-ons that add to Bean's skills for driving, like a ninety degree angle rotation for his tires so that he could be able to not just move forward, but sideways. Though it was limited in its speed and no ability to turn in that mode, it was still more equipped then a normal car. To put it lightly, The Buff was a monster vehicle to suit a monster of a man that made it.

The car on the outside didn't look all that different from normal cars. It had enough of a common style that it didn't look as much like the beast it really was. The main thing that appeared different was the big insignia that adorned the hood of an outline of a Cape buffalo; which was the inspiration of the massive car. Though one might simply believe that it was a foreign car, and think nothing more, which was the whole idea. Plus it was a really nice shade of Porsche Red.

A whistle let out as Misty circled the car. Any person with an eye for cars would be impressed at the build and style The Buff had. Bean stood watching, a grin of pride as the girl inspected his car.

"Don't be afraid to touch her." Bean walked over and gave the top of the car a hearty pat that thudded loudly as his hand hit it. The thud echoing in the small alleyway he had parked at. The car could take most ammunition and shrug them off easily; a mere hand was not going to do anything. You couldn't even Key the car if you tried, like the punks the day before had learned the hard way. "She isn't going to break. And if she does, then I think I would be back to the drawing board."

Bean laughed loud enough to spook the mousier girl. Bean was certainly odd to be around, intimidating, but had an odd air about him. He was as impressive as he was scary, making it hard for Misty to know what he was going to do next.

"Alright. Now I want you to break in to her. Do it as if you were trying to steal her." Bean said simply and plainly, a grin upon his face nodding her way. Misty looked up, a bit surprised. She knew he wanted to test his locks of the car, but how he said it so plainly and loudly was enough to through her off balance.

"O…O… Okay."

Reaching into a hidden pocket in her outfit, she pulled out one of her lock pick kits. It wasn't her best one she owned, but he really didn't give her much time to prepare. He didn't seem to even have doubted she had one on her, showing to her that he at least respected her skills. Especially since she was working on his baby, to say the least it was a big compliment.

Pushing ego aside, she got to work. Selecting the right tools, she kneeled and squinted at the lock. With a few testing probes, she counted the tumblers on the lock. It was impressive, but nothing she had not seen before. While most car locks had vastly inferior inner workings that made house doors look complicated, The Buff was outfitted with a lock structure that echoed something with much higher complexity. As she worked, he seemed to have come over to watch her work. So she felt obligated to walk him through, since he seemed curious at what she was doing.

"Now normal locks on modern day cars are extremely easy to get into. Unlike a normal house, it takes fewer tumblers to unlock the car. Also with most generic locks on cars, the more you used it, the easier it would get worn to the point some older cars just needed like a well placed knife to open the lock." She was taking her time, since the owner of the car was right there; it wasn't like she would get caught for it all.

"Also some cars could be opened with a Slim Jim, a flat piece of metal that you could slide into the gap between the windows at the car. Though…" She stopped her work and ran a hand at the gap between his window and the glass, but the stuff he had made the car out of didn't have enough give to get a Slim Jim past it. Bean nodded, since he knew about that and took precautions against it, but he didn't interrupt her as she continued.

"Also how it's mounted and how much force and wear the lock can take is important. If the lock is not secure into the body panel, then it might be easier to jiggle it till it opens. You're guy did a good job mounting it into the panel, making the lock unmoving. Which is one thing to prevent it from being picked, an average person off the street would struggle to get this open if it was possible for them. The more disks, the harder it is to unlock, your guy had that idea which adds to the difficulty of this lock."

Going back to fiddling with the lock, she counted the sections she had to crack. It was a little more then double what a normal car had. Since she now had gathered enough information with playing with it earlier that she went to work seriously. With little then a half a minute, she twisted the lock and slid back to open the door. A raised eyebrow appeared over the top of his sunglasses as he nodded for her to continue. She looked up at him, seeing that he was letting her continue she plopped herself into the seat.

"Eeps!" She squeaked as she misjudged the bucket seat and fell into it. Pushing herself up on her arms, she was barely able to see over the dash, and it was nearly impossible for her to reach his peddles. Well, besides the fact she 'could' get into the vehicle, it was apparent she would have a hard time getting away with it being the short stature she was. Blinking, she shrugged and moved to the ignition. Applying similar techniques, The Buff roared to life under her skilled fingers. A whistle was let out from Bean.

"I didn't doubt your abilities, but I have to say I'm a bit upset she was so easy to get into."

"It wasn't exactly easy." Misty commented, letting the car die down as she took out her picks and put them away. "It is far harder to pick then a normal car. A normal person it would be impossible to get into, a person who knew what they were doing and had enough time could get in. People like me, this would still take a while of prodding, but it would not take longer then ten minutes tops. Though there are a few things you could do to make this harder. One is rounding off the tumblers. It prevents the wear of the pins, and makes it harder to get a pick to push it up. Also beveling the outsides of each pin section increases the distance the pick has to push up on, so when having to deal with a large amount of tumblers will make it harder to get all the correct spots at once. You could also alter the head of the pin to different shapes. The most common is a mushroom, spool or serrated driver. These odder shapes make it harder to pick and you have to get them just right in order to not get the shapes caught on the sheer line. A mixture of shapes one the different pins would certainly mess up even someone like me."

Misty suggested, Bean brought up a thoughtful hand to his wide chin and seemed deep in thought over what she had said. After a while, he seemed satisfied and waved for her to get out.

"You are a great help! Thanks." He grinned at her, his teeth looking almost wolf-like. He offered his hand and helped pulled her out of the deep driver's chair. Patting her on the head, he was more cheery for a person whose car could have been stolen right then and there.

"How about I treat you to some pizza? My treat! The least I could do for having you help me out." Bean offered, still with a smile on his face. Who was she to refuse an offer from him…. And free food. With him gesturing to the other side of the car, he got into the drivers seat and unlocked the lock so she could get into the passengers side. Sliding into the seat, Misty found that unlike his side, hers was built for a normal person. With The Buff coming alive under her real key, Bean eased her out of the alleyway and off to a nearby pizza place.