A/N: FINALLY finishing up the little B-plot with Mimic in this chapter. And no, Zarana isn't here yet. That's next chapter. Now, onto today's profile. Everyone give a warm round of applause for one of the newer Dreadnok recruits: Leathersuit.
Real Name: Steve Garrett
Hair: Black with neon green streaks
Eyes: Yellow
Function: Dreadnok Warrior
Birthplace: Unknown
Motto: ! !
Powers: Leathersuit has alligator-based mutation. His skin is covered in green scales, and he has an alligator-like tail and sharp teeth, but he looks human otherwise. He possesses superhuman strength, night vision, and slight resistance to injury. His jaw and teeth are very strong, and Leathersuit has been known to be able to bite his way through chains.
Bio: Leathersuit is the American nephew of Dreadnok poacher Gnawgahyde. A lot of details about his early life are unknown. It is known that Leathersuit did try to train as a wrestler at the Wildfire Wrestling School in Boston alongside a young Jake Wildfire, the future unofficial Misfit known as Red Dragon. His love of brutality towards his weaker opponents caused him to be expelled. Details of his life from then until his appearance with his Australian uncle in the Dreadnoks are unknown.
Personality: Leathersuit has a dream of being a pro wrestler, and he loves fighting and bringing pain. None too bright, Leathersuit enjoys to break objects and bones. He is an expert on wrestling moves and history, though. He has a rather amicable relationship with the other Dreadnoks and Shadowatch… except Virus. Virus only has eyes for Andi, and unfortunately for him, she seems to prefer Steve, and the feeling is mutual even if their relationship isn't romantic. Yet.
Disclaimer: Women are like angels. We fly until you break our wings. But even then we continue to fly…on broomsticks!
Learning to Breathe
66. New in Town
Calls from Mindbender were a fairly regular occurrence for Zartan, especially since he took over leadership of the team of super-powered teens known as Shadowatch. Usually, such calls centered around blood-work, or possibly a reminder for a dental check-up. Since they'd recently added two new members—Leathersuit and Corona—to the team roster, he'd been rather expecting to hear something about one of the two.
However, neither of those two wound up being the center of this conversation.
"You're sending me a what?" He asked, not sure he completely understood what he'd just been told. ~No. He did not just say what I think he just said. Mindbender doesn't just give away his failed experiments.~
"A mutant." Mindbender replied. "A mutate, if you want to get technical. One of the research egg-heads' son got into an experiment."
Uh huh. And what did this have to do with him? "And what do I owe the honor of having him dumped on my doorstep?" he grumbled.
"Well, he can't go into the Viper program. Big Boa won't take him."
"And you're not taking him because…?" This whole conversation was making less and less sense.
"What the hell would I want with him? I'm short on help and high on very important experiments!"
Translation: He had no room and no one else to watch the brat.
"What does this punk do anyway?" He sighed.
"Power mimic." The mad scientist responded. "Cocky little bastard too. Should be in your area tomorrow."
~Oh, lucky me.~ Zartan thought to himself. "Trial run only." The assassin finally answered. "He screws up, and he's officially your problem."
"Fine by me. Even his corpse would be nice. Just try to send him back in one piece."
"Now, that really depends on how badly he angers the natives, doesn't it?" Zartan quipped.
"Why do we need another teammate?" Atlantis growled. She was not happy about having another egotistical jerk on the team. Virus was enough of a handful!
"I don't like it either, but we don't have much of an option." Zartan grumbled. Despite his plans to already be back in Florida, he'd somehow managed to get himself stuck in Chicago for another week. "If it makes you feel any better, kid, you can kick this guy out if he does something really stupid."
"Like trying to hold a serenade in my bedroom at dark-thirty in the morning?"
"Exactly!"
"That really does make me feel better." Andi smirked as the doorbell rang.
"I got it!" Bryan shouted, flying to the front door. On the other side stood a blond teen in a yellow t-shirt, blue jeans, and a pair of yellow and black checkered canvas shoes. "You must be the new guy. Come on in! I'm Bryan."
"Calvin." The new boy said, trying not to look uncomfortable. He could feel the powers of the mutants in the house, and there were lots of them! More than he'd ever met in his short life up until now. It was actually hurting him not to copy a power…so he borrowed one of Bryan's. "How many other 'special' people live here?" he asked, genuinely curious.
"Right now, 10." Bryan smiled. "All 9 of us kids, plus one of the adults."
~Daang!~ Cal thought. Apparently some had more than one power…okay, 'some' apparently encompassed half the darn team. "Wow. That's a lot of freaks under one roof."
"Takes one to know one." Regan spoke up, walking over to the newcomer. "Welcome to the jungle, boy."
Cal was dumb-struck. A smokin' hot blonde was talking to him! Would have been the high point of his day, if she hadn't called him boy. "I'm no little kid anymore." He folded his arms over his chest in annoyance.
"No, but you're extremely new, so it all balances out!" Kristen's high-pitched voice chirped as she literally dropped in from the ceiling.
~He's a masochist.~ Regan broadcast to Kris. ~No respect for a woman in authority.~
~Which means Andi will kick his butt and Zartan will let her do it.~ The dark-haired girl replied. ~I'll go get the popcorn started.~ And with that, she walked out of the room.
"And why should I listen to a midget?" Calvin growled.
"Because she's the second in command around here." Regan put in. "Word to the wise: Don't get on her bad side. Or Andi's, for that matter."
"This Andy must be a real loose cannon, putting a girl in charge." The blond boy scoffed.
"Let's just say it runs in my family."Calvin whirled around to see a tall girl with piercing dark blue eyes and black-striped blonde hair. "I'm Andi Creed, your new C.O."
"The hell you are!" he bellowed. "No broad is going to give me orders!"
"You might wanna re-think that." Bryan said, a knowing smirk on his face. "Because I'm pretty sure she can beat your sorry butt to a bloody pulp without breaking a sweat."
"As if!" the mimicry mutant snorted as one of the adults walked into the room. Cal didn't need to be told that the man with the strange black facial markings was the leader of the pack. The man's presence in the room told him that much. The entire group respected this guy. And said guy happened to be a mutant.
"Is there a problem, Mr. Rankin?" Zartan asked, staring the boy down.
"Yeah, there's a chick running your team." Calvin stated, sounding much more sure of himself than he actually was. Those eyes were creepy…like they could see into your soul or something.. "I mean, who does that? Chicks don't fight! They're too scared they'll break a nail!"
"And you think that you could beat her in a fight?" Zartan raised an amused eyebrow. Calvin nodded.
"Damn right."
"Very well." Zartan turned to Andi. "Suit up and meet us in the exercise room. Wear you serious face." She nodded and left the area. Strangely, she didn't seem mad about that order. In fact, she was grinning. And so was Zartan. Uh oh.
Apparently Zartan sensed his fear. "Come along, Mimic, we need to get you into something more…combat-appropriate."
"Yes, sir." He replied a little more nervously than he intended. ~Cal, you just dug your own grave.~
Mimic soon found himself wearing a set of blue sweats and waiting for Atlantis in the exercise room. He tried to keep up his cocky attitude, but that proved difficult with the tall girl's teammates betting on the fight and passing around bowls of popcorn. So far, Atlantis was the clear favorite, but he would show them! He could copy their powers and use them to defeat the scrawny blonde chick!
His confidence plummeted when Atlantis finally entered the room.
Gone were the oversized Eagles t-shirt and baggy worn-out jeans. Actually, so was the tan skin. His now blue-skinned opponent donned a black tank top with silver swirl designs on it, black pants with a thin silver stripe up the sides, black boots, and a black-and-silver belt. Everything about the girl's posture screamed "Alpha", an image boosted by the sheathed knife at her side.
~Bet she still doesn't know how to use it.~ He told himself as she walked up. He could still win this if he fought smart.
"Kick his ass good!" Kristen whooped from the sidelines. The blue teen smirked as Zartan beckoned her into the sparring ring…right up until he got a good look at her.
"How many times have I told you not to bring a knife to a fist fight?" The mercenary groaned.
"Never?" The girl rolled her eyes. "You practically encourage it when I'm fighting Kris or Ry!"
"Yes, but they have the training to deal with it and he does not." He pointed back at Calvin. "Hand it off to someone else. I'm not going to spend my afternoon picking up bits and pieces of this punk."
Despite taking offense to that remark, Cal kept his mouth shut…only to have it fall open again. Andi threw- not handed, but threw- the knife in the general direction of Bryan, missing the taller boy's head by merely an inch.
"Good." Zartan said, looking at both of them. "Now, I want a nice, dirty fight. Use your powers along with your fists. First one to pass out or get thrown from the ring wins."
"Sounds simple enough." Cal said, causally "browsing" the powers of his new teammates. Ah, that one sounded promising…
"Very well." The lone adult shared some sort of encouraging glance with Atlantis before taking a step back. "Begin!"
He wasn't sure how she moved that fast or how she got that close, but she was tackling him none the less. Not wanting to be pinned so early in the match, he used borrowed strength to try to rip her off of him. It almost worked, but the girl was ready and dug her nails in so hard that they drew blood. Damn, that hurt! Borrowing another power, he turned his skin into stone to prevent any further bleeding. If he wanted to take her out, he'd have to do it fast.
Using both strength and stone, he tried to land a blow to her head. However, she gracefully ducked under his punches and got in close enough to slice a gash through the rocky skin with a mean-looking arm fin. ~Where did that come from?~ he wondered, deciding to trade off powers again. This time, the strength went away as he tried to use the other blonde's power.
THAT was a mistake. Voices came from everywhere! He couldn't even hear himself think! He got rid of that one as soon as he could, but not before also inadvertently losing his stony protection. Seizing the opportunity, Andi swiftly pinned him to the ground. Using the new-found speed of the slightly-evil-looking pixie-girl, Cal managed to turn the tables and pin her down by straddling her with his legs.
Bad idea when fighting dirty. She brought her knees up and hit him squarely between the legs. Dammit, he should have kept the rock skin! He rolled off of her, curling up in pain, but she wasn't done yet. A swift kick to his stomach illicited a groan of anguish. Without thinking, he stole yet another power in hopes of hiding himself. Apparently it worked, because she stopped in sudden confusion as soon as he activated it. Now free to struggle to his feet, he used another of creepy Goth girl's powers to heal himself.
Now out for blood, he attempted to tackle her from behind. Instead, he found himself hit by a ball of water and thrown on his ass. Before he could protest, he found himself kicked under the ropes and out of the sparring ring. All while he was still supposedly invisible.
"Idiot." Atlantis snorted. "I've seen kids mount a better counter-attack!"
"You've already lost, Mimic." Zartan called out to him. "There's no more reason to hide!"
"Especially when I can smell you!" Kristen called out in a sing-song voice. Mimic growled.
"She kicked me in the balls!"
"Boss wanted a dirty fight." She shrugged. "What? Did you think I'd go easy on you? Please! I can beat damn near everyone on this squad in a fight. Except maybe Kris. Or Bryan…"
"Yeah, there's a reason she's in charge." Mitch said slowly.
"Reason being she kicks our butts." Neal added.
"She had to have frikkin cheated!" Cal declared. "I was invisible for Christ's sake!"
"No, you weren't." Regan glared at him. "You were poorly camouflaged. If you had done your homework and bothered to look at any of our files before you came here, you would know that that ability works best in shadows, not under the lights."
"Also works better if you stay still." Andi put in. "That and you're a f**g loud mouth breather! Face it, Bub, you're sloppy at best."
"Listen up, blondie…"
"No, you shut up before you make an even bigger fool of yourself!" Zartan glared at the boy, finally intervening in the argument. "Now let me make this very clear to you. There is absolutely no room for your ego on this squad. Either you learn to respect your commanding officer, or get a one-way ticket to Mindbender's lab!"
Now that got Calvin's attention. He'd heard a lot about Mindbender from his dad and the other scientists… and none of it was good! And if the look on Zartan's face were any indication, the man wouldn't think twice about shipping him off to certain death-by-experimentation.
It was official. His life now sucked.
"Not much of a choice, is it?" He frowned.
"It's still yours to make." The man said as the other kids happily munched on popcorn, watching the argument with intense interest. Demented punks, getting pleasure from him making a total ass of himself. Of course if they fought as dirty as their squad leader, it wasn't much of a surprise…
"Is she always gonna be in charge?" He asked.
"No." Zartan smirked. "Sometimes you'll work with Eventide. Or Chaos. Or sometimes with one of the adults, which brings me to my next point." He looked back over at the group of kids. "Zarana and Zandar will be here tomorrow morning, so I expect you lot to behave!"
"Zandar's coming too?" Neal looked up in confusion. "I thought only Zarana was flying up here?"
"Change in plans." Zartan told him. "While I'm not here, Zarana will be in charge."
Calving stifled a groan. Great, another woman to boss him around! And if she was anything like this guy, he was in for a lot of pain.
"Cool!" Regan's eyes lit up. "It feels like ages have gone by since we last saw her…"
"Well, we have been gone a month now." Bryan pointed out. "Oh, that reminds me, did you guys ever get the whole handler/guardian thing worked out?"
Calvin and Corona, being the newest on the squad, were totally lost. The rest of the group, however, looked up at Zartan with eager eyes. There had been lots of talk about permanently assigning each kid with one handler, to make the adults' jobs easier. Of course no one knew which adult they would be getting…they just knew they would have someone specific to talk to. And that Heart-Wrencher wouldn't be one of the selected adults, having only just been added as a full-fledged Dreadnok a day ago.
"Yeah, how did that work out anyway?" Kris asked.
"I'll explain in the morning." Zartan said. Apparently the whole situation hadn't been worked out yet. "Now, those of you who are supposed to be working today had better get back to it!" With a series of moans and muttered obscenities, Andi, Bryan, and Mitch all got up and walked out of the room. "The rest of you go back to whatever it was you were doing. Just don't kill each other."
"Spoilsport." Kristen grumbled.