Participants:
| Scene Title | Murphy's a Bitch |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Mortimer Jack and Lola track Luke to a diner to try and catch him, but nothing works in their favor. At all. |
| Date | April 9, 2010 |
Jack and Lola have been tracking down Luke Campbell for a while, and after the trailer fire lead, he's finally caught up with the kid. It's afternoon, and he's instructed Lola to stay in the trees with her tranq rifle while Jack tries to lure the boy out of the rural diner on the side of the road.
He heads in, wearing his greyish green trench over black slacks, taking a seat at the counter next to Luke. "Pancakes, madame!" He offers Luke a slight nod. From Lola's vantage point, she'll see that as the signal for him being the person she needs to keep her sights on.
Luke hasn't gotten this far without being highly suspicious and paranoid, so when someone chooses to sit right next to him out of all the seats available, not to mention giving him a greeting, he regards the man with narrowed eyes. So what if feels like everyone is out to get him, what of it? The last person to get near him did something to him. For the moment, Luke stays where he is. But just because you're paranoid doesn't mean people aren't out to get you.
"Dunno why Ah gotta be in the damned jungle," Lola mutters from her vantage point, checking the gun and releasing the lock, lifting the sight to her eye to point at the target. "Seriously, Ah ain' had nothin' but some gummi bears an scotch since yesterday an he puts me in the fuckin' trees." Still, for all her belly-aching, she's doing what she's told - hidden by the foilage, curled around some breanches, watching Luke.
"I'm getting inspired for my book out in this place! It's a working title. Alice and Pooh in Oz, or maybe Pooh the Looking Glass… in Oz." Jack laughs and takes a drink of his tea when he's handed it. "Tea is sweet in these rural areas." He just seems like the randomly chatty type, someone who talks and leaves himself open for other people to join in. He reaches into his pocket, checking his phone, though he keeps it turned in a way that Luke can't see.
I'll buy you a nice meal when we're done, my little Cajun Spice. "My woman."
Luke rolls his eyes as the guy rambles on about stupid stuff, moving one seat over. Great, of all the people in the world, a moron has to come sit next to him. He pulls his plate over as well, since he's still eating, doncha know.
Lola's phone vibrates from her jeans pocket, and she sits up, removing her eye from the sight long enough to look down. And let out a little sound of disgust. With one hand, she types out a little message and flips the phone closed, returning to the firing position as she gazes through the sight.
A few minutes later, Mortimer's phone will beep.
Ur skeeving him out. Can I shoot him?
Gotta get him outside first, Babe. Tranq darts don't shoot through windows.
"Hey, kid." Jack casually calls over, smiling and idly waving a hand. "You a local? I'm trying to find places I can get inspired, take pictures of, do sculptures, art shit." He gets his pancakes, then pours a bunch of syrup on them.
"How about Midtown?" Luke snarks. "Every idiot with a camera took pictures of that place before the dust settled." he's being antisocial, but it seems to be his thing. Thus answered, he turns away to at least try to ignore him. Ugh. Maybe after this he'll steal someone's iPod so he can pretend not to hear anyone talking to him.
Lola checks her phone again, rolling her eyes. Now she uses both hands to angrily type out a message very quickly. The message is simple and quite in Lola's style:
Roofie him.
"I've gotten all the inspiration I could out of Midtown! Can I buy you a coffee or something, kid?" Jack asks, keeping up his artist act while he digs into his pancakes. "I'm telling you, every kid needs to be involved in art, especially writing! What do you do, anyway?"
Working on it, working on it. Should have had you do it, but then I'd have to punch him for looking at you funny
"I'm the world's greatest chess player." ooh, ouch, heavy on the sarcasm much? "Go away, I don't want any coffee." maybe if Luke actually comes out and tells the guy to go away, he would? No? too bad.
Lola shakes her head, flipping her phone closed. She returns her eye to the sight, pressing the base back against her shoulder. She waits. She hates it, but she waits.
"I was on the chess team in high school." Jack stays casual, not seeming much phased by being told to go away, he just shrugs his shoulders. "You seem a bit uptight. But we're all stressed these days, with the snow and that flu going around." Maybe if he talks enough, Luke will just go outside!
I have a plaaaan. Yell for help.
"Good for you. And I'm not afraid of a stupid flu." well, ok, Luke is, but he figures that he could decontaminate stuff well enough. "And the snow doesn't bother me either."
"Fuck me," Lola grumbles, lowering her rifle. "Help help! This crazy man's fuckin' killin me!" Of course, in Lola's mind, he's killing her with bordome, but at least this will be something. "There's all kindsa blood n' shit!" That's just said to add dramatic flair. And then, for the finishing blow? A proper feminine howl and screech.
"What the hell was that?" Jack asks, dialing what he's pretending is 911, then puts it to his ear. "Hello? Police? Yeah, there's a lady in the woods yelling about someone chasing her." before he slides the phone into his pocket. "Wanna go check that out, kid?"
"Not really." the last time he went to help a damsel in distress, he was hurled through the air and got slammed into a metal table. That hurt. "You look like you can handle a thug."
Mortmer's phone buzzes. A text has come through, You suck at this.
"Well the cops will be here soon, but I can't just let the woman get killed. Chivalry and all that." Jack stuffs a pancake into his mouth, then opens the doors and peers out. When he hears his phone buzzing, he checks it, then texts back: I didn't know today's youth were this jaded! Keep your eye on him, I have a plan.
Clearly this is going to take some thinking. He heads into the woods, just enough so that he can't be seen, and walks down the road a bit. He crosses the street when he's no longer in the line of sight of the diner, then sneaks around to the side so he has a hiding spot too. Catching Luke has become a pain in the ass, he won't leave the diner! But the cops will be here soon.
Lola sits up to glance at her cell phone again, groaning and rolling her eyes. A text is sent back and she settles in once more to watch Luke.
Does this plan suck less?
The cops arriving soon is a fact that has been making Luke nervous. He doesn't want to be here when the cops arrive. And so, their plan actually does work… finally. Paying for his meal, Luke heads for the exit, although he's going in an opposite direction from where he heard the screaming. That's where the cops would go, after all.
Start moving, I'm gonna follow him until the people in the diner can't see." And that's what Jack does, //stalk for a few feet. When they pass the diner, he reaches into his coat and pulls out the taser, then suddenly fires it at Luke's back. "Man the harpoons!"
"Ah'm up a feckin' tree!" Lola grumbles at Mortimer's message, seeing him dart after the man seh already can't see. He's on the other side of the diner. "Feck!" She starts to slide down the tree, rifle over her back. But then there's a cop walking by, and the woman wanted for…oh golly gee. Murder? Or maybe just the woman who's supposed to be dead - it doesn't matter. She climbs back up that tree as fast as she can.
The second that Luke gets hit by the taser, he emits a pulse of microwaves around him in pure instict, which shorts out the taser and just makes it a really annoying but useless gun that's attached to his shirt by strings. Also, Mortimer could feel anything from the equivalent to a light sunburn (sans tan) to fullblown welts, depending on how far away he is. And just like that, Luke swerves on Mortimer, punches at his face, then takes off running, likely yanking the taser out of the guy's hands, or else ripping it out of his jacket. And the direction he runs is away from the diner, and likely even farther away from Lola as well.
Jack closes his eyes when he feels the burning sensation, then opens them quick enough to avoid the punch, but gets his taser taken. Some interesting psychological notes are taken in his head. "Hey kid! We just wanna help. Evolved get all sorts of mental disorders, so whatever you've been doing probably isn't your fault! I can relate." he explains as the kid's running away, and reaches into his jacket to grab a black sphere with four small tubes sticking out. "I used to be a spree killer." He knows he's still a spree killer at heart, but he has been cold turkey lately.
"Fuck you!" is all Luke says in response to this. Jesus, everyone is out to get him, even crazy idiots in a diner out in the middle of nowhere. A crazy, homicidal idiot at that, self admitted, even. Luke just keeps running. And hey, he seems to have gotten a free taser out of it even if he seems to have busted it. Oh well, maybe he can sell it.
He suddenly tosses that sphere, which hits the ground near Luke's feet and explodes into a large foamy insulating blob. It doesn't harden, it's the sort of foam meant to smother fires, and it's enough to cover Luke's body. "Did you kill your mother? Sometimes I think I killed my father, but I'm not really sure. Did you do it on purpose, or was it an accident?" He's continuing to follow, but he's keeping his distance. There's no way he's getting close enough to risk a heat blast. "I won't hold it against you if you did it on purpose, killing feels great. But if it was an accident, I know some perfectly sane people who can help."
See, Luke's power isn't really heat blasts. His power doesn't require oxygen to work, so the foam doesn't really do anything but piss him off. "Oh yeah, so how about I just kill you then?" Luke sneers at Mortimer, and lifts his hand, starting a wave but… nothing lethal, he doesn't actually want to kill someone of his own volition, maybe just scare the guy off and show him that the foam didn't work. Your puny tricks do NOTHING! At the most, Mortimer will get really bad blisters and feel like he's about to melt, literally.
Jack starts backing up, then he starts running. He has no idea what Luke's range is, but clearly it's longer than the range he was trying to keep. Either way, he keeps his distance once he no longer feels the heat, and just feels the painful blisters forming on his skin. "And she's still not here! Where the hell is my Southern Belle anyway?" he comments of the two women he's expecting, but Luke's getting away, and at the moment there doesn't seem to be much he can do about it.
Mission failed, for now.
That's right, bitch, Luke's more than you can handle! Satisfied, Luke turns and hurries away. After all, the cops are coming, and he's still got all this foam crap all over him. Annoying.
Checkmate