Disclaimer: Mushrooms, anyone?
A/N: Dear lord, I'm sorry for the delay. I've had a nasty case of writer's block these past few weeks.
Learning to Breathe
Chapter Fifty: Getting to Know You...
"Uh, Boss, why are we going to the garage?" Bryan asked as he and the rest of the team followed Zartan and another Dreadnok—a menacing-looking African-American called Burnout—to the main vehicle hangar.
"So you can see just what goes on here." Zartan said. "Most of the other personnel will be there."
"But weren't we banned from the garage back home?" Regan frowned.
"No, just the one at the Terror Dome." Kristen said. "Any other base is free game."
"How did you get banned?" Burnout asked as the mob of people strode through the automatic doors that lead to the main hangar.
"Bat-brain there wrecked one of the tanks." Mitch said, jerking a thumb at Kristen. The dhampire glared at the back of his skull.
"I didn't do it on purpose!" She huffed. "It's not my fault everyone else are such bad drivers!"
"You shot out two storage buildings, shattered someone's moped, and drove the tank off the loading dock and into the harbor." Andi corrected.
"Which is why you will not be piloting anything today." Zartan said.
"Then why are we even here?" Neal asked.
"Did you not pay attention to the briefing?" Andi asked. "We're fixing vehicles, not driving them."
"Can we drive them after we fix 'em?" Bryan asked.
"Just keep walking." Zartan grumbled, ignoring the the inquisitory look Burnout was shooting his way. "The other two are in here."
The kids followed, and came to stop a few feet from a beat-up Prowler. Working on the vehicle were two large men—one with green-striped black hair, the other in a safari outfit.
"I didn't know Halloween came early this year." Andi jerked her thumb at the khaki-clad man atop the vehicle. The rest of the team snickered as both men looked at their new visitors.
"So these are the twerps that can take down that flying menace?" The one down in the guts of the machine cackled. "Why don't we just give up now?"
"Don't be so quick to judge, Thrasher." The man on the hood chided. "They can probably kick your ass."
"Nice to have a fan." Regan quipped.
"Yeah, that's great, now who are you guys, again?" Andi asked as her pet dog, Laredo, looked up at Thrasher and growled.
"You got some nerve bringin' a mutt like that up here, kid." The man growled, looking Andi straight in the eyes. She stared back defiantly.
"You so much as breathe on my dog, and I will make your life hell. Are we clear?" She said in a low voice as the others watched on.
"He could rip her apart." Burnout mumbled to Zartan.
"Don't underestimate her." The ninja replied. "She's a better scrapper than she looks."
"Bold one, huh?" Thrasher raised an eyebrow.
"You don't know the half of it." Neal groaned.
"Look, can you two stop fighting over territory so we can get our stuff put away?" Kristen said, walking up between the pair.
"And what are you?" Thrasher asked. "Some kind of midget?"
"You're gonna regret that!" Bryan said in a sing-song voice.
"Who are you callin' short? And what did you have for lunch today, roadkill?" Kristen said, crinkling her nose. As a half-vampire, she possessed enhanced senses, particularly those of sound and smell, and the Chicago Dreadnok's breath was quite offensive to her.
"Should we tell him about..." Monkeywrench started "Uh, you know."
"Na." Regan waved. "He's an jerk. Let him learn the hard way."
"Listen here you little... gyaaah!" Thrasher shouted as Laredo lounged forward and bit his hand. "The hell? You're a dead little... Owww!" He screamed as Andi and Kristen tag-teamed the larger biker and bent both his arms around behind his back.
"Can't say I didn't warn you." Andi growled in his ear, twisting his arm further up towards his shoulder. "But, I think that Vampira here will get the point across much better than I could."
"With pleasure." Kristen said, her eyes turning a bloody red. "This is why you should never pick on girls." She grinned, revealing her fanged canine teeth. Thrasher gulped.
"Mommy." He whimpered.
"You know, I may not have the whole telepathy deal that the purebloods have, but I can effect a certain degree of hypnosis." Kristen grinned. "You will do as I ask. Now go and flap like a chicken!" Andi released her hold on the biker, and laughed as he strutted his stuff around the hanger.
"Hey, you actually got it to work that time." Mitch commented.
"Regan helped." Kristen shrugged.
"How very bizzare." The man atop the broken machine said. "In all my years as a poacher, I have never seen creatures quite like you."
"We stay well hidden." Kristen waved.
"Ah, yes, and not one word from you! I want all six of them alive at the end of this mission!" Zartan shouted to the man.
"You think I would pick a fight with them after what happened to him?" The man asked. "You gotta be kidding me!"
"Excuse me, but who is he?" Neal asked.
"Kids, this is Gnawgahyde, one of the most rutheless poachers on the planet." Zartan said.
"You better not touch my dog." Andi growled.
"Have we got to go through that bit again?" Monkeywrench groaned.
"Rest assured, Miss, I intend to stay as far away from trouble as is possible." Gnawgahyde answered. "Actually, aside from the great bonehead over there, most of us don't have a problem with pets."
"How strange." Regan said. "A poacher who likes pets. Go figure."
"Well, at least it shouldn't be too hard to get anyone else on this base to leave us alone." Bryan said. "By the way, who else does live here? Besides you guys?"
"No permanent troops." Burnout replied. "We get rotating guards adn displaced mechanics from other bases, but nobody's stuck it out. Except for the rookie."
"Rookie?" Neal asked. "Who is a rookie?"
"Ask him" Burnout scoffed, jerking his thumb at Gnawgahyde. "The kid's his responsibility, not mine."
"Kid?" Mitch blinked. "You mean somebody our age lives here?"
"For now, at least." Gnawgahyde sighed. "My nephew's been living here for the past few months. Kind of an apprenticeship. He works in the shop, and gets to stay rent-free."
"Sounds like our set-up back in Florida." Andi observed. "Is he here now?"
"Yes. He's probably in the rec room." Gnawgahyde answered. "It's this way. I'll show you."
The gang (minus Thrasher, Burnout, and Monkeywrench: somebody had to watch him) all followed the big game hunter into the recreation room and found a teen relaxing on the couch and watching one of the Lethal Weapon movies. He had green scaley skin; long black and green striped hair; and a long stout tail.
"Hang on, I'm comin'." He groaned, reluctantly sitting upright. "I swear, I didn't know that the break was up... who are all these people?" His yellow eyes swept over each member of the group.
"Steve, these people are from the Dreadnok base in Florida." Gnawgahyde responded. "They'll be staying here for a while."
"Why didn't I know about this?" Steve asked.
"You did know. I told you about it yesterday afternoon. You were watching the wrestling match, remember?" Gnawgahyde said.
"You were talking then?" Steve blinked.
"Nevermind. They're here now, so it's best you learn their names." The poacher stated.
"Whatever." The tall boy grumbled.
"I wonder if we can make him do the chicken dance too?" Kristen "said" to Regan. The blond Italian sighed.
"No, Kristen, I don't think we can. Now let it be." The telepath responded. Kris pouted as Zartan introduced the team.
"I am Zartan, and this is Shadowatch." Zartan said. "Why don't you kids sit in here and get acquainted while we try to pin down Thrasher?"
"No need, I can do that from here." Regan said. "That is, if I'm allowed to."
"Go ahead! It'll make him easier to catch." Gnawgahyde waved. Regan's eyes grew a pale blue for a fleeting moment, then returned to their usual state.
"He's out cold." She said.
"Nice work, Regan." Zartan praised. "Remember, kids, don't destroy anything we can't afford to replace."
"Same rules as we have back home." Bryan shrugged as the adults left the room, leaving the sextet alone with Steve.
"So, you live here with your uncle?" Kristen asked. The taller boy nodded.
"Yeah. My parents freaked over the whole freak thing." He shrugged.
"Oh, trust us, you're not that freaky." Mitch said. "Wait 'til you see Kris suckin' somebody's blood, or Andi doing her whole shapeshifting deal."
"Or Virus's creepy techno-takeover thing." Kris said. "He's not here, by the way."
"Okay." Steve shot the group a funny look. "I'm going to go back to my movie, now."
"Sweet! I love this one!" Bryan exclaimed, pulling up a spot of carpet not far from where Steve settled down.
"Great! Not another action flick!" Regan groaned.
"What's wrong with action films?" Steve asked.
"There's no decent plot, that's what." Regan grumbled. "Besides, none of this stuff really happens."
"Uh, did you see our last mission?" Andi waved. "You know. The one where I got shot!"
"Face it, Reg, this is our life." Bryan said. "Like it or not."
"Wait a minute!" Steve exclaimed, looking at Andi. "You got shot?"
"Twice." Andi winced. "Just got out of the frikkin' wheelchair too."
"You get shot in both legs?" He asked.
"Na. Just a leg and the back of my shoulder." She waved. "Oh, I'm Andi, by the way."
"Yeah, that's nice. Okay, so why did they put you in a wheelchair if you had one working leg?" Steve asked.
"Because the last few times they gave her stitches in strategic locations, she ripped them loose." Kristen answered.
"This coming from the person who once got her arm caught in the trash compactor?" Andi raised an eyebrow.
"Well, I can heal myself, so it was okay." Kristen blushed slightly.
"Okay, let's just say that both of you have gotten some insane injuries, and leave it at that?" Bryan said. "I wanna watch the movie!"
"Chill out, Ry, we'll keep quiet." Andi said. "And if certain people don't like the movie, they can play BS or something. There's a full deck of cards in my backpack."
"Cool." Neal grinned.
"Just don't set them on fire this time, Neal." Regan admonished.
"One flippin' time!" The ruddy-skinned boy shouted.
"Hush!" Andi, Steve, Bryan, and Mitch all shouted. Much mumbling in Hindu followed.
"What did he just say?" Steve asked.
"You probably don't want to know." Andi said, turning her attention to the fight scene on the tube.
And after an aukward pause... "So, Why did you move in with the Dreadnoks?" Steve asked. "I mean, you all seem fairly normal."
"Lets just say we had no place else to go." Bryan said. "Most of us either don't have families—like me an' Mitch—, or have families that can't look out for us."
"That seems to be a common thing with mutants around here." Steve said. The others blinked.
"You know other mutants here?" Mitch said, his eyes wide with amazement.
"Not personally." Steve said. "But there are quite a few around here. Most of them live underground in some abandoned lab that used to be Cobra's, but isn't anymore. The rest live in their own district. Well, except for two of them, but Razor's technically not even a mutant and isn't even from this state."
"True." Andi said. "Hey, have you, by chance, heard of a mutant girl called Corona?"
"That's right!" Neal exclaimed. "I forgot she moved here with her aunt."
"I thought it was her grandmother?" Regan asked.
"Not relevant." Andi said. "Please, Steve, is she here?"
"Yeah." He said hesitantly. "She's a drifter. Don't know where she actually lives in this city, but she shows up wherever the underground mutants get into trouble."
"It's because of Shatter." Andi said. "He's another friend of ours that hooked up with your tunnel-dwellers. She must be helping him get away from the cops."
"Sounds like her." Kristen sighed. "Wonder if she knows we're here?"
"Wait a minute!" Bryan shouted. "Who is Corona?"
"Oh!" Regan said. "Corona and Shatter were both in the labs with us. Shatter left with Corona and her aged relative for the city, then dropped off the radar."
"Unless you talked to Rona." Andi added. "Which I haven't done since last fall. Oh well, Rona's a tough chick and can take care of herself. We need to focus on why Kid Razor's in Chicago and not Cleveland."
"Yeah, that was odd." Mitch said. "But can we watch the rest of the movie first? I wanna see the explosions!"
"Fine, we'll watch the movie." Andi shrugged, sitting down on the couch next to Steve. From then on, all was silent aside from Regan and Neal's game of war. And none of them noticed that the Nintendo in the corner glowed an ominous green.