Summary:The Hunter comes to pay a visit to her pet thief, to ask for her help preparing for Diya's worst nightmare, which she is convinced is coming to Mutant Town, or worse is already there. Log Info:Storyteller: {$storyteller} |
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Not many can reach, let alone enter through, the alley-side window into Alexia's safehouse. Alexia, of course, finds it trivially easy; that's why she set it up this way in the first place. But the woman known as Hunter, with her exceptional senses, her vast training and experience, and her physical enhancements, happens to be one of those few. Which is why, when the mauve mutant comes home this evening, she finds she is not the first to enter.
Hunter is settled in the corner of the room, well away from said window, the door, or any other entrance, her knees tucked against her chest and arms around her legs, her head resting on her knees. She glances up in the darkness, that amber backlight showing in her eyes as Alexia enters. As usual, the woman of very few words says nothing; her presence here should say enough, at least to start. And it would not do to let alone outside hear Alexia addressing anyone, or anyone addressing her. Hunter is capably paranoid like that.
Lexi stills reflexively when she first sees the eyes looking back at her, though she drops to the ground first in a crouch, so she's not highlighted by the city light outside. After a moment, says offers conversationally. "I didn't know I was gonna have guests. Woulda cleaned up or somethin'." To be fair, the place isn't filthy by any means…though it seems Lexi is the sort to put off doing dishes until she's actually completely out of plates and bowls, from the look of it. At least they've been rinsed off of food so not as to attract insects.
She raises gracefully to her feet, sauntering over with a sway of her hips to undo her boots and slip them off on the little shoe tree nearby. "What can I do ya for?"
The Hunter watches Lexi carefully, but doesn't rise to the conversational bait. She is, as ever, very laconic. Once Lexi is away from the window and it is closed to contain the sounds of any speech, the homeless woman does finally offer a few words. Just … not many.
Trouble coming." Hunter offers, in that odd mushy-mouthed accentless goop which passes for her speech pattern. "Need resources." And so she came to the thief living amongst them. "Target. Outside." Because of course they would not rob someone inside Mutant Town. Not unless it was a criminal operation that became a threat to the people, and the Pride.
Lexi hmms, walking back over then dropping smoothly to sit crossleggged opposite the Pride leader, her arms resting on top of her knees as she leans forwards. "Outside? That's rare. I mean, ya comin' ta me for somethin' like this, instead of bein' all disapprovin'."she says, tweaking Hunter slightly as she nods slightly. "What do ya need done?" she says more seriously.
The Hunter shrugs. "Only disapprove, bring attention, danger, to Pride." Honestly, she cares not one whit for what Lexi steals from others, and she welcomes the generosity the young mauve mutant has shown to the Pride and others in Mutant Town since she joined them. But robberies of those inside Mutant Town is anathema; these folks are poor enough, robbing them would just be cruelty compounding the injustices heaped upon them. And robbing others outside Mutant Town generally carries the risk that those robbed, or the authorities, might catch enough of a clue to pursue the thief back to Mutant Town and endanger the people here.
Their safety is and always has been The Hunter's primary concern and motivation.
"Bad coming. Black Armor. Need medical, for Pride, community." Hunter says. She still uses so few words, packing incredibly dense messaging into so little. But even so, Alexia likely has no idea what 'Black Armor' means, as Hunter has never mentioned that before. Context does seem to imply it's a threat, though. A bad one, if Hunter believes she cannot take care of it. She certainly hasn't run into a threat she couldn't handle before.
Which is why on the rare times Lexi actually targets someone inside MutantTown, it tends to be of the criminal variety and usually of the drugpushing variety. Nothing keeps dealers out of the neighborhood like not feeling their bank is secure. "Black…armor?" Lexi says slowly after a moment. "Black armor coming for you, or coming for people here in general?" she says after a moment. "An' general first aid supplies, or soemthing more specific like?"
Hunter splays a hand across her own chest. "Hunter. DarkStar. Others, maybe." she comments aloud. Of course, she has not actually mentioned DarkStar to anyone else; only a few of the Pride know about her. Weather, one of the eldest of the Pride, an African American male in his sixties, is one of those, as he met her first.
As to the question of what they need? "Trauma. Surgical. Critical care." There is a new clinic in Mutant Town, and Hunter has checked it out, approved it for the Pride as safe, not a front for those wanting to exploit mutants. And they have supported it generously with ill-gotten gains redistributed. But it's no ED.
A faint furrow forms at Lexi's brow. "Who's Darkstar? An…yer expectin' blood, then." she says with a deepening frown. "Gunshot wounds mostly?" The younger mutant doesn't know a lot about Hunter, for as much as she follows her so closely…not for lack of trying, as she's tried to cleverly snag information about Hunter out of the older woman, but generally failed because she's not nearly as clever about such things as she thinks she is.
"I can find stuff like that, sure." There's a FEMA warehouse she can probably "borrow" items from, if nothing else. First aid kits and such, at least the ones with primarily bandages and the like, aren't that much in demand.
"Need blood. Surgical." Hunter reiterates, to make sure that was clear. "Will help." she then mentions, pressing her hand to her chest. She won't leave Alexia all on her own in this. She will help gather the supplies her people will need because of her. Because of the lethal danger she now represents to them all.
"Warn. Tunnels. Retreat." Hunter comments, now, as she starts thinking through the rest of her plans.
"Darkstar, new. Helper. Ally. Hunted too." Too? Hunter doesn't retract it. She let that word out. But she doesn't explain.
"Black Armor lethal. Know us. Know fight powers."
Lexi frowns as she thinks. "You'll need a good fridge for blood. Enough to set it to keep and to maintain the temperature. I can probably find a surplus one somewhere? Depends how much we're talkin'." She wrinkles her nose. "So they're comin' ta hunt powered types? That's cheeky of 'em." She shakes her head. "Alright. Do ya got a place in mind ta set up at? Somethin' with regular power ta run th' fridge unit?"
"Generator, fuel, below." Hunter explains. "Clinic." Yep, that's her answer: to equip the clinic they've already cleared as trusted. Makes sense, given the medical skils and experience of those who work there. The homeless veteran woman does not really try to clarify the intentions of this 'black armor', but she doesn't nod to confirm Alexia's conclusions, either. Normally, she would do that if Lexi got it right.
"Quick." Hunter offers, at last. "Little time." She is convinced the threat is already here, even if they have not attacked. If they aren't already here, they will be soon. She's sure of it. There are far too many Russian operatives running around at this point to think they won't show up. And all too many of them 'hunted'.
Hunter touches Lexi once, a finger at her chest. "Careful."
Lexi raises her eyes. "Hey. It's me!" she says cheerfully, flashing short canines. "I'm always as careful as I need ta be." Which is to say, often not as much as she should be, to an objective viewpoint. "I mean, people wanderin' around in black armor kinda draw th' eye too, so I'll put out a word inta some ears ta keep an eye out for 'em, if ya like. Just so ya know roughly where they are an' what they're doing?"
And Hunter reiterates, tapping Alexia on the sternum. "Careful, damnit." That's it. She's not going to lecture' that's way too many words. She has made her point. She doesn't argue about putting out the word on the black armor; she has already told the Pride to be on the lookout and careful, and spread the word to some of their contacts; spreading it further will likely neither hurt nor help, but she sees no reason to stop that. "Prefer," she taps Alexia again, "Breathing."
A roll of the eyes ensues as Lexi huffs out, shaking her head. "They've got not reason to go after me if they're hunting you. It's not like anyone outside of the Pride really knows I'm working with ya." she points out. "I don't know this Darkstar at all, either, so not like they'd know ta hunt me or somethin'." she responds. "But sure, sure, I'll be careful."
"Not Black Armor. Victims." Because for Alexia to get what she wants, she's going to have to steal it from those who have it, and they won't take that kindly. If they catch a whiff of who is responsible, they'll be coming after the woman who stole it all … and that could mean more danger to the Pride.
Lexi looks hurt, fingers on her chest in mock outrage. "Hey, I'm subtle! I can be subtle!" she protests. "I don't haveta, like, permanently drop people." Pause. "Usually." Another pause. "…those Nazis totally didn't count and I didn't know the propane tank was in the closet anyway, so it's not like it was intentional."
As usual, Hunter does not use many words to explain what she means. She shakes her head, as she slides her finger across her throat. So, not speaking of those Alexia kills. "Previous owners." So she's not speaking of victims of Alexia's violence so much as victims of her theivery, and those would be the ones then alive to pursue her, much more dangerous than those she kills, if usually less motivated by vengeance.
"Puh-leze!" Lexi proclaims, a bit cockily. "They never known I'm there when I'm there an' they never know who did it after. I'm a professiona!" She shakes her head. "I mean, it's not like I don't stand th' heck out if I'm not careful, and I can't be like one of those slinky catgirls where they're lookin' at their chest instead of their face. Or th' fact their skin is purple." she points out.
Hunter just sighs in mock defeat, rather than continue the argument. She has done her best to make her point, and that's all she can do. Now, for the last thing she has at hand. She taps Alexia again. "You. Tunnels. Warn." she gently suggests (orders?). Alexia knows their allies below ground and has proven to be a good go-between with them, and so Hunter has decided to task her to deliver the news; she feels it more likely Alexia will escape after telling them, while some of her other messengers would likely end up prisoners in displeasure.
Lexi hesistates at that, frowning again. "…ya think the Morlocks will be a target too? That's…worrisome." she murmurs, shaking her head a little bit. "Yeah, I can go warn 'em. I'll have ta get permission ta move that much stuff through th' tunnels anyway, it'll be faster than doin' it above ground."
Hunter shakes her head. "Not … first. But … evacuation." It's pretty fun the way she manages to pack entire paragraphs of explanation into less than a handfull of mushy-mouthed words. It has long been a plan that if something terrible happens, the Pride would retreat into the tunnels for cover. It's not something they would do lightly, and they haven't had to do it, ever. But this is all apparently bad enough that Hunter is activating that protocol, and wants the Morlocks warned of that possibility ahead of time.
She cannot say what the Black Razors will do when this comes down. And Diya is swamped with guilt over that fact. She at least knows the threat exists, and she knows little else. That helps augment the fear.
The younger mutant hesistates now, looking down. "..y'know, the….the tunnels aren't always safe. You should have a fallback outside of them. Someplace ya can run to. If there are enough bad guys and they can cut you off…you…" Her fingers curl against her thighs into fists. "I mean…it's…it's likely a lot of the Morlocks will evacuate if it gets bad. Like before." Like when her foster family was killed.
The haunted vet eyes Alexia carefully, and shrugs. "Disaster Zone." That is their only other possible point of retreat: overland into the ruins of the warzone around the original UN. But those haunted amber-backlit green eyes peer deep into the mauve mutant's geze with understanding an an echo of her pain.
Lexi's hair shivers back and forth for a moment before she shakes off old memories. "Yeah, that'll work. Like, someplace on the coast. It's not like th' cops will come there if there's trouble, but they notice stuff along the coastline, cuz of smugglers an' stuff, so there's always patrol. Anyone who comes there can't afford to make too big of a mess without attracting official attention. And the cape types."
"Brighton Beach." Hunter confirms with a nod. It was the heart of Russian territory before the Incident, and it's not so 'beachy'. But it does have docks and it is on the shore. Hunter also has plans she will not share, to set up flares and alert fires there, easy to set off and big enough - she hopes - to draw aid if necessary from the authorities. It's not what she wants to do, but if the Pride is forced to retreat into the Disaster Zone, she would rather they go to American prisons than that they die, or are carted off to wherever the Black Razors might take them.
"…I got a friend who owes me. I can probably get a boat for escapes out that way, as a backup." Lexi says thoughfully. "I mean, enough that ya could get people on it an' move out away to where th' Coast Guard is patrolling." She frowns a bit, tilting her head as she leans forward, shifting to where she's sitting back on her haunches instead instead of crosslegged. "…so…uh…can ya tell me more about these…black armor guys? Why are they comin' for ya?"
"Hunting." Hunter answers, calmly, coldly. Bleakly. She has never really explained what she is; most have assumed she is some kind of mutant, given this is Mutant Town. But she is not. This is just the best place for her to hide."DarkStar. Hunter. Others."
"Because they know you? Where are they from? Are they going to hunt others as well?" Lexi asks, curiosity aroused now. "Because if you gotta fake yer death or somethin, we should start figuring that out or somethin'."
Hunter sighs. "Darkstar. Other. Of me." She does not explain how. Or from where. That would be far more words than Hunter can tolerate, even at the risk of her own life or others'. But this much, at least, she has admitted. And if Alexia were to meet Darkstar, and this other, she might, just might, be able to figure out something about Hunter she is keeping very, very secret.
That said, the homeless woman climbs to her feet nimbly and easily, sweeping the area outside with her gaze briefly. "Already hiding." she offers, just before she yanks the window open and leaps out into the night …
"Hey! Ya could at least give me a number or somethin' for this Darkstar so I can get ahold of her in an emergency!" Lexi yells, leaping up to run over and peer out the window. "…dammit." she mutters, folding her arms over her chest as she grumbles. Then sighs, rubbing her face. "Right. So, I'll just get on that…" she says, taking out a burner phone and dialing a number. "Hey, Sammie, what's shakin? Yeah, yeah, I know, I ain't been by but…hey, remember when ya offered ta do me a solid if I needed anything with boats?"