Lords of the Water Mark

Zanza · **Joined:** Apr 20, 2009 **Posts:** 2768

Finally awake, Simon stumbled out of bed, his head was killing him. Having no clue where he was or how he got here, Simon decided to leave those answers for someone who actually cared. Stretching all his limbs and shaking his head, he started to explore the house. Noticing a child and a man he quickly leaned against the wall and crouched. Quietly he sneaked around them and exited the house. No need to alert them of his consciousness.

Simon made his way towards the nearest bar, as ungodly site as it was, it had the only thing that would remove his headache. He sat down on a bar stool, raised two fingers and pointed to the whiskey.

"That'll be 12 caps."

Placing the caps on the bar, Simon downed the first glass of whiskey and begun to nurse the second one, wondering if anything exciting would happen in this dump.

Xiao_Caity · **Posted:** Sat Feb 06, 2010 6:17 pm **Post subject:**

"What the ever-loving fuck was all that about?" Liz asked the world in general, before the incessant ticking of the counter got her attention. She knew that noise, all too well, even though it had been an eternity since she'd encountered one that worked...

"Oh, nonononononono... Come on, no... please..." There was a long, deep silence as she checked the levels on the counter. Not fatal, yet, but enough to make her very sick without immediate treatment...

"Shit..."

Wolfsbane · **Joined:** Nov 11, 2005 **Posts:** 4256

Harry inspected the hook in his hands. This peace of metal had seen its share of blood throughout the days of its existance, oh yes. Maybe even more so than himself. There were in fact so man layers of red to brownish dried up liquid that you almost couldn't see the stel gray surface beneath. An instrument of death if he'd ever seen one.

A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do, eh? he said. Then, he went to the shed and did just that.

Having taken care of business, the former Brother walked up to Kyle, a freshly lit cigarette in his mouth, and eyed him closely.

Let's go, amigo.

The_Bob · **Posted:** Mon Feb 08, 2010 2:15 am **Post subject:**

"Hold on tight - this baby's got a temper !" Said Kyle, while keenly inspecting the dials as the engine powered up. A low hum rocked the machinery in its frame, the rest of the bike resonating with it. Lights flashed across the controller assembly, then dimmed as the engine started draining the system. The hum raised in frequency quickly, through several waves, and the rear wheels started turning. And in a cloud of dust, they were off.

The bike (or maybe a trike, since, as harry noticed, the sidecar was also powered) drifted sideways from behind the Atlantis and easily gripped at the firm surface of the main road. The dead ghoul flew from behind the corner, savagely hooked through the back. It bumped off the rusted Corvega, leaving some guts and skin on the person lying next to it.

Kyle missed Liz by inches, slaloming to dodge the mutant, eventually clearing the last building to disappear into the desert. With a gut-wrenching crack of bones, the ghoul bolted behind the bike, causing Liz and Howard to dive for cover. The Geiger counter went nuts as the mutilated corpse flew by.

"If my bearings are right, we'll reach the ruins in about three hours." Kyle quickly glanced if Harry was still where he left him... "And keep your ass off the drive shaft, less you want your balls to be chewed off. It's gonna get bumpy now." It didn't take a second for the words to turn true... Or at least half true as Harry was still a man, despite the inviting pull of the machinery just below his seat.

A sharp tug announced that it was only the two of them riding now - the ghoul plowed through a cactus and crashed into a rock, leaving only the bloodied meat hook bouncing behind them... And a nice mess as well. Kyle leaned back to pull in the chain, then quickly resumed the position, barely evading a dog that jumped out from nowhere.

CRUNCH

The dog was now in ghoul's seat. "This is gonna be one fun ride..."

Wolfsbane · **Joined:** Nov 11, 2005 **Posts:** 4256

Damn, amigo, this bike's got attitude!

Harry was impressed with the speed the seemingly nondescript piece of machinery could muster, and didn't try to hide it in his voice. For the first time in his life, he considered the fact that amongst all the people who weren't in the Brotherhood, there could be a select few who weren't total dickheads. If that was so, then this Kyle person (or whoever built this impressive machine) was one of them.

Settling back in the cart, but nevertheless staying away from the nut-cracker, Harry inhaled the last of the tobacco his now completely spent cigarette had to offer and then flicked it over the side into the sands of the desert wasteland beneath. There, it would remain for days to come before finally getting swallowed by a mutated rat that happened to be passing by. The rat would then choke on the little leftover deathstick and slowly die in the boiling heat of the sun, thus adding to Harrys mutie-killcount. He would never find out about this, but he would've been happy if he had.

Xiao_Caity · **Posted:** Sat Feb 13, 2010 4:16 am **Post subject:**

Still stunned by the revelation of her radiation poisoning, Liz operated on auto-pilot, grabbing the appropriate vial of chems from her satchel and injecting it directly into her neck, flinching as the cold liquid chilled her. It was little more than a stopgap defence until she had time to either mix the right chems together or find someone who could do it for her, but it would at least give her another day or so before she got sick.

She'd start with the apothecary; despite his drugged-up appearance, he'd been selling good quality wares, and if he couldn't help her he might be able to point her in the direction of someone who could.

The_Bob · **Posted:** Sat Feb 13, 2010 10:01 pm **Post subject:**

The trip was bumpy, but generally uneventful... for better or worse. Kyle didn't seem to spare the tires, or any part of the machine for that matter, and maneuvered between rocks and dunes with hasty grace. The other passenger was left behind some minutes ago, spread across a stretch of rocky desert, the meat hook pulled back. It was somewhat unsettling as Kyle wound the chain, controlling the bike with one hand but not slowing down the slightest bit. He passed the meat hook to harry. About ten minutes later he slowed down and turned off the headlight. "We should be close now. In a few minutes we should cross an old highway that was near the town." They did, which was clearly reassuring to Kyle. There were some ruins on the horizon now, bits of metal crunched beneath the tires as they passed a wrecked school bus and rolled off the road.

The bike was surprisingly quiet, its engine reduced to a low hum, only the squeaking of the tired suspension announced their presence. Kyle flinched and flattened himself on the bike, slowing down to a crawl. Flipping a switch he shut off all the indicators on the engine and the feeble lights on his instrument panel, then passed harry a pair of binoculars he produced from the left saddlebag... slowly. "I thought I saw silhouette, big mutant, eleven o'clock... By the gas station ruins." He flattened against the bike again, slowly stopping behind a pile of rocks... A large rocky grave... Then whispered "Might be a look-out... But that would be odd, as far as they know, they're the hunters here. And we're almost an hour from the town itself, makes no sense to camp out here." He pulled out a rifle scope started scanning the horizon.

Wolfsbane · **Joined:** Nov 11, 2005 **Posts:** 4256

Harry scanned the horizon as soon as Kyle slipped him the binoculars, and quickly found the mutant his partner had been talking about. It was an ugly, alright, and by the looks of it, it had seen some serious fighting. Man, standing in the open like that... The fucker just begged for a bullet!

There's a mutie there, alright, he said, Looks roughened-up, too. He's not too far away and... Well, it sure looks like he's alone.

At this point, Harry had put a hand on his gun.

Take him out?

The_Bob · **Posted:** Tue Feb 16, 2010 9:06 pm **Post subject:**

Kyle inspected the mutant for a while and replied "Now that would be too easy, wouldn't' it? Besides, it's awful quiet here, we don't want to alert his friends 'till we know what the odds are. This is strange." Kyle shoved the scope back in his pocket "I'll go talk to him." He answered the surprised look with a smile "You sneak up a bit and take aim, watch my back. I'll go around that pile of wrecks to the left and try to deal with him... Silently. You see anything go wrong or he pulls a weapon - blow his head off." He quietly took the chain from the rack "Oh... And I'll need my hook, didn't see that coming."

The plan went smoothly at first, Kyle moving between the debris with surprising grace and the wounded mutant perfectly unaware of what was coming. He was clearly hurt and just stood there, looking around but not looking for anything in particular. He was clearly alone, or at least Kyle couldn't see any other mutants around. He noticed this one had his right leg supported by splints, which explained why he wasn't walking around much. There were both plasma burns and frag wounds all over the huge creature. From the looks of it, this one was about to die on his own, but Kyle didn't have the time to wait for that.

As the mutant was putting a finger in one of his gaping wounds, a chain flew up above his head, coiled into a loop and whipped down. The hook hit the hole perfectly, the loop closed around the neck. A boot kicked his right leg open. A pained grunt echoed across the ruins and the chain shut off all the other noises the mutant tried to make. There was a bloody bone sticking out from the broken leg, splints broken open under the mutant's weight. It almost sounded like a tree falling down.

The beast tried to pull out the hook, but that only tightened the chain around its neck. It tried to loosen the chain to breathe, but that caused the hook to tear the wound further. Finally it tried to grab Kyle, who was now standing on its back, but he managed to evade these attempts. During the struggle, the hook tore the wound across the chest, a streak of blood running by the mutant's face. Upon seeing its own blood, the mutant was clearly terrified and stopped struggling. Kyle sighed and loosened the chain a bit, clearly worn out by the task, then gestured for Harry to come.

"Now we're going to have a little talk... Why aren't you with the rest of the group ?" The beast coughed up some blood and stuttered with a muffled voice "D-d-dey go www-itout m-meh... Co-Cos I no walk gu-good. Leg hurt-t. Why you mi-mean tto meh?" "oh jezz... Where did your friends go ?" The mutant was unwilling to talk but a sharp tug of the chain was all the motivation he needed "Hurk...! Ugh...! Dey g-go to d-de town. Dey go shhhoot hu-mans...Urk...!" The chain sprung again "Town where !?" Kyle loosened the chain a bit "Point where!" The mutant gasped deeply then supported himself on the left arm, the right one raised to point west-ish "Dere *gasp* to d-de Sun when it dark" The mutant was regaining balance, but Kyle was to busy trying to understand what he was saying "Dey no stop for sleep, me leg hurt b-but dey no stop... Tell m-meh to go to town dere!" Kyle didn't even notice when the mutant managed to throw him off of his back and got up on one knee. The first thing he noticed was the monster trying to get up but the right leg almost splitting under the weight, blood spraying all over the tiny human. It looked like the beast was about to hit him with a piece of debris, yet there was too much ringing in Kyle's head to do anything about it, other then stare at his coming doom.

Wolfsbane · **Joined:** Nov 11, 2005 **Posts:** 4256

Harry acted on instinct and pushed Kyle out of the way, drawing his gun and firing it twice in the same movement. The mutant fell headless to its death, hitting the ground at the same time as Kyle. Harry then picked up his employer and gave him a well practiced slap right across the right side of his face.

You daft, man? Why the hell didn't you move? You've got something to tell me 'bout yourself, son? I think you do, so you better start talking.

He let go of Kyle and quickly looked around them for anything that could involve trouble. Harry suspected the mutant had told them the truth, but you always had to make sure nevertheless. There was no letting your guard down with those fuckers, and that's what bothered him. Kyle had let his guard down.

Well?

The_Bob · **Posted:** Wed Feb 17, 2010 3:49 am **Post subject:**

"Gah... Shit man ! I screwed up, simple as that... Thought I cracked my head..." Kyle wiped mutant brain-matter off his face then kicked a skull he hit with his head... It was cracked "It wasn't mine, but I hit it hard... This kinda bad luck can kill the best of us." The cracked skull flew in a flat arc and fell apart upon hitting a mound of upturned asphalt. Kyle was rubbing the back of his head "So you think there's more to me then this...? Tell you what, if we pull this off, I'll spill my life's story over a couple of drinks... and they're on me" He inspected the head-rubbing hand and saw blood. Judging by the color and quantity, either it wasn't his or he was dead. "Right now, there's been a development and we gotta act fast. The town's about to be in some serious shit." Kyle tried to avoid Harry's eyes, he looked toward the bike "If Jimmy's leaving muties behind, it means he's pissed. It also means he has more then enough, probably started picking them up like crazy after that run-in at scrapwater."

Kyle pulled the hook from the mutant's chest and walked to the bike while winding the chain over his elbow.

Grossenschwamm · **Posted:** Fri Feb 19, 2010 6:29 pm **Post subject:**

Things were getting quiet in town. Was it because it was getting dark or because something was about to happen? Howard was tired, but slightly amused at the vomit on the biased flophouse owner's door. Radioactive spew...always funny. Howard had managed to get himself and Wiggles something light to eat to keep them alert, but he wasn't sure how lucky he'd be in finding a place to sleep.
This settlement...full of scared people just trying to get by. It's the same everywhere I go.
Mutants didn't get any help from the Master...that's part of why everyone seems to hate them. And it doesn't help that so many mutants are still out there giving the more peaceable ones like Howard a bad name. Still, you can't blame the people for trying to protect themselves.
Howard had been walking in personal reflection for some time when he stumbled over something sticking out of a building with some collapsed walls.
Hey! Nobody stumbles over my feet except for me
Howard slightly bowed in apology, and pulled out a note;
Sorry.
...I can't read. The eyes just ain't what they used to be.
The old ghoul's eyes didn't age as well as his body, but that's not saying much.
Wheek!
What the hell is that thing? A bugaboo!? I just woke up thanks to a black man-mountain wearing a bugaboo on his shoulder!?
Howard sighed.
What's your name? Oh, wait, I get it, you're mute. That critter on your shoulder seems nice enough, Mainly because he doesn't want to puke again, and I'm sure a guy like you (being so big) has trouble finding a place to bed down in a place like this. I have space, and I'm a pretty quiet sleeper. Call me Karl. I'll call you...*sniff, sniff* hey, did that bugaboo throw up?

Wolfsbane · **Joined:** Nov 11, 2005 **Posts:** 4256

Hmm. I guess that'll do, Harry said, For now. The worried look didn't leave his face, though.

He went back to Kyles bike and jumped in. Something about the whole mission had begun to feel dodgy, but they hadn't been into any serious accidents yet and... what the hell, if he stayed he'd get to kill uglies. And if that wasn't something worth fighting for, then what was? He'd just have to be more careful from now on.

Whenever you're ready.

Lords of the Water Mark

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