Author's note: Wow, I seem to be on an updating spree here lately. Or as much of a spree as I ever get on. No profile today either, since I've been a little busy with homework to bother typing one up.
Disclaimer: Roses are red. Violets are blue. Skunks have a school. They call it P.U.
Learning to Breathe
67. Announcements and Introductions
Zandar was not a happy Dreadnok.
Come on. Seriously? Why did he have to come all the way to Chicago to babysit? He could do the same thing with the stooges back home! And if it weren't bad enough being tossed into the proverbial (and literal, if any of these reports were correct) zoo weren't bad enough, he had to show the new guy around! And with a name like Heart-Wrencher, this bloke sounded like he fancied himself a player. Yeah, just what they didn't need; another Thrasher!
"Oh cheer up." Zarana spoke up, dragging his attention back to the fact that she was on the plane too. "You're taking this business way too hard. I think you might actually like this new guy." She drawled the last part out on purpose. Her darling twin had been too preoccupied sulking about having to watch the kids to bother asking what the gender of this newest Dreadnok was. He just assumed that, like the others that came before, this one was male.
"I doubt it." He said. "Bet this one ignores me too." And dammit, he hated being ignored! It was one thing at work, when he was supposed to go unnoticed, but at home it was a running bloody gag! He just couldn't seem to make his opinions count for anything.
His sister smiled mischievously back at him. "Don't be too sure of that. I bet you two get along just fine." She leaned back in her seat as the transport began to descend into the Chicago complex.
He gave her a strange look, but didn't say anything. Women were too hard to figure out, and he wasn't going to waste his precious energy trying to figure out what she was getting at. He'd need that energy to deal with the three new darlings his older brother somehow managed to acquire.
Burn-Out was waiting for them as they stepped off the plane. "Hope you didn't bring any Joes with you." He said bluntly. Zarana offered a carefree smile.
"I doubt the Joes are paying all that much attention to us right now." She replied. "Now, what's this about a new Dreadnok and Gnawgahyde's nephew?"
"You mean that walking garbage dump has siblings?" Zandar groaned. Sure, hygiene wasn't something the Dreadnoks were particularly known for, but Gnawgahyde took it to a whole new level! "God, I hope the kid doesn't smell like him."
"He actually started showering once he came here." Burn Out shrugged.
"By 'started', you mean you threw him into a running shower with a bar of soap, don't you?" Zarana deduced.
"Well, the first time, yes. After that he did it on his own."
"I guess you can teach the old smelly stray dog a new trick after all." Zandar grumbled as he and his sister followed the mechanic into the common room.
"Zandar, have you no shame?" The pink-haired man heard his brother ask from in front of him. Zandar looked up at him, but didn't bother to acknowledge anyone else in the room.
"What's the point? No one remembers me anyway."
"How could they forget a head of hair like that?" A new voice asked, this one female. At first he thought it must be one of the kids, but when he actually got a good look at her…no way that was a kid.
She didn't look very tall, but she wasn't very short either. Her purplish-black hair was cropped into a pixie cut, and her dark brown eyes seemed rather amused by his presence. She wore a short denim jacket with the sleeves torn off over a pink tank-top, torn-up grease-stained jeans with a black belt around her hips, and black motorcycle boots. For a minute he forgot how to speak, or even think coherently. Fortunately his brother and sister were willing to help him out.
"Zandar, this is Heart-Wrencher." Zartan smiled, clearly enjoying the fact that his little brother was opening and closing his mouth like a fish. "She just signed on here."
"You…You're a girl!" Zandar blurted out before his brain could tell his mouth not to. Zarana started cackling like a witch while Heart-Wrencher tried to avoid the same fate.
"Yes, I am a girl and you are a boy. That should have been rather obvious." The female Dreadnok crossed her arms, a smirk growing on her face. "And please, just call me Ren. Everyone else seems to."
The now thoroughly confused Dreadnok looked from Zartan, to Burn Out, and finally back at Ren several times before forming another sentence. "Where did you find her?"
"She found us." Burn Out chuckled. "She's been working in the shop for about six months now."
"Just when I thought our lives couldn't get any weirder." The pink-haired man shook his head as Gnawgahyde spoke up.
"And speaking of our lives, we need to figure out something to do with all these kids." The poacher reminded. "I never imagined there would be so many of them! The six of us all put together couldn't keep track of all of them!"
"Which is why we're re-arranging this whole handlers arrangement so that any one of us only has to deal with two or three kids." Zartan said. "It'll make it easier on them...and us."
"Speak for yourself." Zandar grunted as Ren looked down at her boots.
"Um, I don't know nuthin' about kids…maybe you should ask one of the others?"
"And let Thrasher work with them? Hell no!" Burn Out exclaimed. "You're one of the few sane people on this squad and we need all of them to wrangle these little monsters."
"You even have the luxury of only taking only one kid to start with." Zartan pointed out. "I hadn't intended for you to start working with the team so soon, but since you do live here and we're short on adults, it's unavoidable."
"Which one?" Ren asked warily. "I'm not gonna work with the hyperactive bat!"
"No, you get the new girl." Burn Out said. "She needs a good female role model."
"Good luck finding one here. Ow!" Zandar yelped as Zarana punched him in the arm. "Hey!"
"Just for that, you're next!" She hissed. "Please tell me he got one of the difficult ones!"
"No, please tell me I didn't." He grumbled.
"Well, you'll be working with Thunderbird…" Zartan trailed off.
"Oh. He's not so bad." Zandar shrugged. "Aside from sometimes setting the drapes on fire, that is."
"And you'll also have Mimic."
"Who the hell is that?' Zandar asked. "When did we get a Mimic?"
"Just sent over yesterday." Zartan sighed. "Welcomed in traditional Shadowatch fashion."
"Which means he got beaten to a bloody pulp, I take it?" Zarana remarked. Her older brother nodded. "What did he do to deserve that?"
"Oh, you'll find out soon enough." Gnawgahyde snickered, resulting in a glare from Zartan.
"At any rate, that should work out well. Thunderbird needs to be more confident, and Mimic needs to learn to shut up." Zartan continued. "Now…the Dukes boys."
"I'll take those two." Burn Out spoke up, earning an odd sideways glance from Zarana and outright confusion from Zandar. "What? They ain't bad kids. Destructive, maybe, but they ain't bad."
"Never thought I'd see you taking care of kids." Zarana shook her head.
"Well, Steve is staying with me." Gnawgahyde said. "Papers are all final on that one now."
"This oughta be fun to watch." Zarana commented, absently wondering if this mysterious nephew was anything like his uncle.
"Oh, the fun keeps coming, dear sister." Zartan offered a sweet smile. Entirely too sweet. Uh oh. "You'll be looking after Eventide and Lady Mastermind."
"What?" She gaped. Oh god, not those two! Anyone but them! What was she going to do with a pair of fashion obsessed divas? "Oh come on, can't we trade? Please? I'll even take Virus!"
"He wouldn't listen to you anyway." Zandar griped. "And If I gotta keep the new brat, you can live with the two girls!"
"But why can't one of them be Andi?" Zarana whined. "She's not so bad."
"Because she has enough bad habits as it is!" Zartan pointed out. "Especially that damn mouth of hers! I don't need her learning more ways to be unladylike from you!"
"You saying I don't know when to act all prim and proper?" Zarana asked in a low, cold voice as Zandar scooted away from his two siblings. If they were going to have a fist fight, he didn't want to be in the middle of it! Ironically, it landed him next to the new girl.
"I'm saying that most of the time you don't, and she's starting to copy that." Zartan responded. "It's bad enough that she thinks she can do everything on her own without having to worry about her running her mouth off and getting herself into trouble."
She stared back at her brother, a new understanding in her eyes. "You're wanting to train her as a bloody ninja, aren't you? Just like you tried to do with Zanya."
"I wouldn't call that a 'try'. She's a right decent fighter when she needs to be." Zandar shrugged.
"And right sloppy the rest of the time." Zartan pointed out. "At least Creed fights consistently. Even if it's consistently clumsy."
"Still hasn't grown into those arms and legs yet, has she?" Zarana smirked. "How tall is she now? Five eight?"
"Maybe even taller than that." Her older brother admitted. "I think she's hit yet another growth spurt."
"I wish the kid would stop growing up and start growing out a bit more." Zarana sighed. Poor kid was looking less like a girl and more like a walking stick bug. "There's a nasty rumor at the Terror Dome. Says she's gone anorexic on us."
"If they'd seen how much this kid can put away, they wouldn't be." Burn Out chortled, shaking his head. "You'd think someone as twiggy as she is wouldn't eat much, but no! She gives those boys a run for their money!"
"I don't know where she finds room for it all." Ren shook her head in amazement. She'd had the pleasure of dining with the team for the first time last night.
"I think there's a black hole where her stomach's supposed to be." Zandar quipped.
"More like her metabolism's stuck in high gear." Zartan grumbled. "And I don't see it slowing down until she levels off somewhere."
"She's already an Amazon compared to the others." Ren blinked. "How much taller can she get?"
"Well, considering the file on her dad says he's upwards of 6'4", I'd put her somewhere in the neighborhood of six even." Zarana theorized.
"Call the WNBA, we've got a future star on our hands." Zandar rolled his eyes. Zarana glared at him while Ren let out a soft chuckle.
"You boys never told me we had a comedian." She smiled. "I like him."
Zandar's eyebrows shot straight up. A girl liked him! Oh, wait. She just liked his jokes. Never mind.
"I hope you do. He's moving in here." Zartan stated bluntly.
"Right as you are conveniently moving out." Zarana grumbled crossly, rubbing her forehead."Looks like Creed's temporarily mine after all."
"Wrong again." Zartan shook his head. "Gnawgahyde's going to look after her." The two of them had already talked about that. Although the poacher hadn't at all been sure in his ability to handle a 14-year-old girl, he'd been reassured by the fact that, for the most part, Atlantis took care of herself.
"Ah. So she can get the feeling of having her non-bathing loud-mouthed father around without dealing with his pesky urges to chase balls of yarn." Zandar mocked.
"Goddammit, don't make me tape your mouth shut!" His brother growled.
The following afternoon, all the kids had been gathered into the game room for whatever announcement their boss had cooked up this time.
"I bet its more house rules." Bryan put in.
"I think it's some new guidelines for the TV show." Regan voiced her opinion.
"And I think they finally got that whole handler mess ironed out." Andi rolled her eyes. "That makes the most sense."
"Wonder why Virus ain't here?" Mitch looked around, noticing that the insane English mutant was nowhere to be seen.
"He's not a part of the squad." Andi reminded him. "As far as HQ is concerned, he's a Dreadnok."
"When did Zartan agree to that?" A confused Kristen blinked, scratching her head.
"When the little twerp signed on."
"You sure he knows that?" Regan shot her a look. "Because he seems to get thrown in with us a whole lot here lately."
"I don't think he really cares." Cal admitted. The blond power-imitator winced as he touched a bruise on his cheek, making Steve smirk with pride.
"How's the cheek, punk?" Steve taunted. Cal glared at the reptilian powerhouse.
"Nice of you to care, jackass." Mimic sneered.
"Quiet! Here they come!" Neal hissed as the rest of the chatter in the game room died down.
"You know we can hear you from the hallway, don't you?" A chuckling Burn-Out asked amusedly as the kids looked down at their shoes with sudden fascination.
"I think they were talking about us while we were out of the room." Zarana smirked.
"You act like they have anything else to talk about." Zandar quipped, rolling his eyes in disbelief.
"Oh, stop acting like a grumpy five year old!" She punched him in the arm. "You're ev'ry bit as bad as they are!"
"No, I think they have more tact." Gnawgahyde put in.
"Uh, still here, folks." Corona said, waving an arm in the air in order to get their attention. "Are you gonna tell us what this is about or talk about us like we're not here?"
Zartan smirked at this. The new girl was fitting in a lot better than he expected…which was more than he could say for Mimic, who still sported some absolutely lovely bruises from yesterday. It seemed neither Virus nor Leathersuit were too pleased with the blond teen's attempt to fight Atlantis, and both punished that transgression in their own unique way. "You seem rather eager to get this over with."
"Don't see any point in dragging it out." The brunette teen shrugged. "So, what's going on?"
"You finally came to an agreement on it, didn't you?" Andi looked up at them. "This whole handlers mess. You got it worked out?"
Ten sets of eager eyes lit up as Zartan nodded an affirmative. "Keep in mind there will be no trading off. Whoever you're assigned is who you will remain assigned to. Is that clear."
"Yeah, we get it." Bryan waved. "Just tell us who we get!"
"Well, it just wouldn't be right to separate two brothers." Burn-Out smirked. "So the both of you two will be dealing with me." He looked straight at Bryan and Mitch. Both boys high-fived in excitement. Burn-Out was one of their favorite adults so far.
"Corona's with me." Heart-Wrencher said a little more timidly than she'd intended to. Although, the young energy wielder seemed just as nervous about this whole business as she was, so it all sort of balanced out…if you didn't think too hard about it.
Zandar was much more subtle about letting Thunderbird know who he was assigned to. Eye contact and a quick nod earned the Bangladesh boy's understanding. Calvin, however… "I'm guessin' you must be the new guy?" He said, a somewhat sour expression on his face.
Calvin nodded. "How'd you know?"
"New guy bruises, that's how." The pink-haired man smirked. "And let me tell ya, that attitude of yours is going to be the first thing we work on." He'd gotten the Reader's Digest version of yesterday's events from his older brother.
Calvin stared back, dumbfounded. Zandar's facial expression was unreadable to him, so he had no idea if the man were serious about it, or just yanking his chain. Deciding (unlike his actions the day before) to err on the side of caution, the Mimicry mutate kept his mouth shut.
"Well, we all know who's watching you, Steve." Bryan pointed out, casting a sidelong glance to the reptilian teen's uncle.
"Yeah, no mystery there." Andi rolled her eyes. "So what about the rest of us?"
"Yeah, does 'Rana get all three of us?" Kristen inquired. Zarana shook her head in protest.
"Oh God, no! I'll be doing good to keep up with you and Princess over there." She jerked a thumb in Regan's direction.
"Awesome!" Kris levitated off of her chair a few inches, while Regan merely shrugged.
"…but where does that leave me?" Andi asked, sounding and looking more than a little confused. If her math was correct, they'd already run out of handlers. Of course, she decided to exclude Zartan from those calculations due to the fact that he was already responsible for chasing down Virus in addition to his own daughter, Zanya. No way he had time for her.
An amused smirk settled itself on Zartan's lips. "You mean you haven't figured it out yet?" Apparently not, since she looked just as confused as ever.
"But the only adult left is Thrasher, since I know you don't have the time for it…"
"I think you miscounted there, kiddo." Zarana snickered. "Do you see Thrasher in this room?"
"Well, no, but…" The young blond trailed off. There was no way they could be thinking what she thought they were thinking. No freakin' way…
"I think they're trying to tell you that he's your mentor." Regan gave her teammate a knowing look.
"I think you just broke her, boss." Burn-Out shook his head in amusement as Andi continued to try to wrap her brain around what had just happened.
"Huh?" Was all Andi could think to say. It didn't make any sense to her. Especially with him leaving that night to go back to Florida. How was that going to work?
"Well, since I can't be here all the time, Gnawgahyde will also be someone you deal with on a regular basis." Zartan admitted.
So that was one question answered and many more left unasked. Andi looked up at him, blue eyes still lost in confusion. "But why me? You could have picked any of the rest of them…"
"Let's just call it a personal preference and leave it at that." He smirked back at her. Sure, she was confused now, but it wouldn't take long (especially once the specialized training started up) to figure out what this was all about.
While still confused, Andi raised no further questions. Her teammates, however, still had a few of their own.
"I guess we all know who his favorite is." Calvin grumbled.
"You act as if you're surprised by that." Regan inspected her manicure as Andi whipped her head around to face the other blond.
"How do you figure that?"
"I think the bigger question here is how you didn't." Regan pointed out, gaining many nods from the rest of the team.
"Well, we don't all have time to dwell on it now." Burn-Out spoke up, glancing over at a clock on the wall. "Who was on dinner duty tonight?"
"Last night was Bryan's shift, so one of the adults has to cook tonight." Kristen said, trying to recall how their chore assignment sheet had been written out.
"Aside from Thrasher, since he can't cook." Mitch stipulated.
Zarana let out an amused chuckle. "I'll take over tonight, but one of you lot has got to take care of it tomorrow!"
"Hey! We can cook!" Kris said. "Okay, so some of us do it better than others, but we do know how to make stuff that's actually edible."
"Which is again, more than we can say for Thrasher." Neal commented.
"Much as I hate to admit it, Brownie's a better help around here than he is." Regan sighed as the little brown pot-belly piglet happily plodded around the adults and into the room.
Zarana raised an amused eyebrow while her twin openly gawked at the little thing. Since when did they allow pets? The dog she understood—he'd come with Andi when the team moved in. But a PIG? That was unusual even by their standards.
"If I could get about three more like her to help in the shop, I might be able to retire early." Burn-Out commented, much to Andi's pleasure.
"Don't go giving her ideas like that!" Zartan admonished. "She'd actually go out and find them!"
"Aww." The blue-scaled teen pouted.
"No more pets!" Zartan exclaimed.
"Yeah, between the dog, Brownie, and Thrasher, we already have more than we need." Heart-Wrencher smirked.
"Do not even put my animals in the same comparison as that jackass." Andi said. "At least mine get baths."
"This is true." Bryan pointed out.
"Don't you have a flight to catch or something?" Kristen asked, turning around to look at Zartan.
He sighed. "I can't very well leave the other Dreadnoks home alone, can I?"
"Well, don't let them burn the base down." Zandar grunted. "We actually do want a base to come back home to when we're done here."
"You sure you want him handling these kids?" Zarana asked. "Seems like he might be a bad influence."
"No worse than you." Zandar countered.
"You take that back!" She glared.
"Oh, make me!"
"Now don't go tearing up the base, you two!" Burn-Out shouted. "I did not blow half a year's salary remodeling this damn thing for you to wreck it again!"
"Something tells me we'll be getting a lot more repair bills with those two moving in." Gnawgahyde sighed.
"Are they always like this?" Heart-Wrencher asked curiously as Zartan slipped out of the room in order to meet the transport back to Florida.
"I think the plane ride made them a bit crabby. They're usually not this bad." The poacher shrugged. "Don't worry about it too much. Everything should calm down in about a week."
"And if it doesn't?" She asked as Burn-Out attempted to keep the twins from trading blows.
"Then we have a looong road ahead of us." He sighed.