[Plot Thread 2.1] Fear and Loathing

[Exile_Jeane]

Eh? Oh, the athlete. Velma hadn't heard Pennsylvanians had the famous New York levels of touchiness, but attention was gained it seemed. She turned on one booted heel and closed the distance to avoid having to shout.

 

"Not quite. A client needed something here, and I'm not seeing them. Didn't mean to disturb your conversation. Saw your face in an article once and couldn't quite place it for a second," she responded, scanning past the duo briefly in the futile hope she had missed the red-haired Professor Carlyle somehow, "Annnd not there either. Probably gonna have to call it in and run this back."

 

The petite brunette was less than pleased and it showed in her eyes, forcing herself to think of the upside of mirroring her route back to the professor's office and shaving a few seconds off her time, "Anyway. I'll let you enjoy your drinks..."  

[SalmonMax]

Renata shrugged at that and took a quick look of her own around Ground Zero. Not that she had any idea who she was looking for.

 

"You might want to hang out a minute," she advised the courier. "There's a restroom around the corner there. They might just be occupied, you know?"

 

She frowned a little as a question occurred to her. "Is it a normal thing, delivering to a coffee shop? I'd figure usually people order stuff for their office or whatever."

[Exile_Jeane]

Most of the time. And those non-office runs were the kind to drag a young courier into the shady world of legally grey deliveries, but this young woman didn't need to hear that.

 

"And you wouldn't be wrong, Miss. Most of my clients have designated people to sign for their deliveries, and I'm on my way to the next pick up. Always something to see and do and go," Velma explained, fishing out her phone and typing out a text to her dispatcher back at the office. 'CLIENT MIA AT THE COFFEE SHOP. PLEASE REACH OUT TO THEM OR WILL HAVE TO RETURN PACKAGE BACK TO PICKUP' went out the message, and she didn't like even the possibility of adding a blackmark to her record but couriers weren't paid to stand around and waste time. Needs must though, and they had arranged this delivery like any other she'd take up during her shifts.

 

"Oh. Name's Velma Olsen. Didn't mean to disturb your coffee. Soon as my office gets back to me, I'll be out of your hair, Miss..?"   

[Nina]

"Hi Velma, I'm Renata," She glances across the table at Beckett, " and this is Beckett. No need to apologize, we're just chilling."

 

Beckett shakes her head at Renata, then glances back at Velma, "Hi Velma, there's another room... "

 

"Excuse me," The voice from behind catches Velma off guard, "If your the courier, I think you have my files"

 

Velma looks at the owner of the voice and sees a tall thin man probably in his mid forties, handsome dressed in well to do casual clothes. he is drying his hands with a paper towel.

 

"Benton Carlyle." He tosses the paper towel onto a passing waitresses tray and digs out a wallet and displays his Faculty ID, looks past Velma at Beckett whom he nods at, "Miss James, missed you in Humanities 2350, this semester. I hope you haven't given up."

 

He turns his attention back to Velma without waiting for an answer from Beckett.

 

Spoiler

Professor Benton Carlyle

 

[Exile_Jeane]

"Sign here, please, Professor," Velma responded after firing a quick 'NM' message to the office and bringing up the appropriate app. She preferred paper slips to be honest, but she wasn't the boss, not yet, so she'd do what she was told for now, and hadn't been burned by the apps yet.  The brunette courier was familiar enough with Benton Carlyle's appearance even without an ID, but it certainly helped.

 

She extended one hand to match her words, offering up her phone and stylet to let him do exactly that. 

 

One he did so with a practiced signature that betrayed a familiarity using a stylet, she pocketed her phone, and claimed a near-by empty table, shrugging off her pack with a thud. She unzipped her biking leather ever so slightly to fish out a key on a chain round her neck. The key was inserted into the lock at the top of the backpack zipper. Shrrrrip. Out came an inner waterproof bag from the impact-resistant liner. Finally came the thick bundle of files assembled by the Professor's own assistant and secured together with rubber bands.

 

All this was done with a deft, almost ceremonial assurance of a task done a thousand times before. Very briefly, the faint blue-glow of something along the base of her neck could be seen before she re-zipped her top, all professional smile, "Thank you very much for your business. Will that be all, Professor? 

[Nina]

Benton had been watching the woman, something about her had seemed familiar but it wasn't until she had finished redoing her pack and went to zip her jacket closed that he saw the faint blue line glowing at the base o fher neck that he finally hit on where he had seen her.

 

The giant and the truck.

 

"What's your name," he asked her?

 

The question caught Velma off guard. She was a courier, she had made her delivery, now it was time to go. She had asked if he needed anything else because she was a professional. His reply should have been 'No thank you, here, have a good day' as he gave her a small gratuity. Not 'What's your name?' He was looking at her, direct contact eye to eye, she couldn't tell if it was recognition, or indifference. Don't play poker with this guy. "Velma, Velma Olsen."

 

The corners of his mout quirked up a little before flattening out again, "Velma Olsen." He said her name slowly, like it was some sort of ancient text he was deciphering.

 

"Well, Velma, I am throwing a little dinner and discussion tomorrow night, and you are invited." He pulls out a business card, "Call my office tomorrow and Sandy, my aide, will give you  the details and directions." He holds up the file, "Thanks." Then turns to walk out but he see Beckett and Renata watching them, both girls look embarrassed at being caught eavesdropping. "Miss Beckett , You and your charming friend are invited too," and without another word he is out the door.

 

Beckett and Renata exchange looks before both turning to stare at the bike courier still standing there.

[SalmonMax]

Renata met Beckett's eyes, then burst into a giggle as she shook her head and took refuge in a drink of her coffee.

 

"Okay Professor Creepypants, we'll be sure to show up to your 'dinner and discussion' that you invited total strangers to."

 

She looked over at Velma, grinning.

 

"I'd just like to apologize on behalf of the college I'm going to for that. Not all the professors are that desperate for people to go to their parties. Just him."

[Nina]

Beckett rolled her eyes but giggled herself nonetheless, "He isn't that bad, really."

 

She glanced up at Velma, "Would you like to join us for a coffee?  If you're not in a hurry that is."

[Exile_Jeane]

"I've got five minutes, and you deserve to know exactly what you're walking into if you go to this thing with me," Velma responded conversationally, off the clock and running the calculus of time vs profit through her head. Yeah. Yeah. It'd be fine.

 

She pulled a chair over to the table, and settled down with a laugh, "I've had worse come-ons, Girls, so no worries. It's something I've developed a thick-skin for, especially since two months ago."

 

By way of preempting the likely question, she pulled up her sleeve a little, revealing a bioilluminescent circle of skin on her wrist, a line of the same continuing out of it and under her black clothing. The brunette courier let her sleeve cover the mark again, an amused smile on her lips, "Mark of the storm. Got a party trick or two out of the deal, too. Didn't die when I should have, and just enough fame to consider moving across country and try learning a new city, build something for myself. Gets me recognized from time to time. Probably happened just now, so I fully expect to be used to up his rep or provide a blood sample tomorrow."

 

She chuckled again, voice low, "I draw the line at the latter. Someone's probably trying to brew up a powers in a bottle somewhere." 

 

 

[SalmonMax]

Renata felt a stab of unease in spite of herself, and her eyes riveted on the strange, luminous marking.

 

"Mark of the storm?" she asked. "Is that a thing? Do all the Stormers have marks like that? What is it?"

 

She waved Velma over. "I mean, it's cool looking, but I never heard of a mark like that on anyone before."

[Exile_Jeane]

"Don't know, and haven't had the time and inclination to look it up to be honest," the brunette courier confessed, laughing inside at what the girl's expression might be if she knew it was a lot more than just 'a' mark, more like a full body tattoo to make even the most jaded blink, "You two girls are in a position to know better than I. Academics was never my scene, much to my parent's eternal disappointment."

 

There wasn't a whole lot of shame in that last statement, little love lost in the relationship.

 

"Anyway, part of the reason I *did* move out here because of your local Stormer, 'Mask Girl'. Was hoping to have a chat with her, compare notes on the Stormer experience. You're locals. Or close enough for a college town. Are there any landmarks or routes she's known to favor? Seen more at dusk or later? Local parkour enthusiast organizations who might have a better idea?" she wrapped, up openly digging for information no internet search would turn up, not the way it should. Street information was best found in street chatter, and she hadn't had the time to get in with those yet. Not fully.

[Nina]

"The mask is pretty elusive. you should try to get a hold of Evo if you can break through his fan club." Beckett cut in with a chuckle, then got a serious look on her face.

 

"But seriously, you need to be careful with who you tell or show that too. There is a whack-job out there who is all stormers are the master race and he's killed and done some serious damage to some students here."

 

Beckett concluded by scooting over and making room for Velma to sit.

[SalmonMax]

"Not to mention the religious whackjobs who think the Stormers are from the devil," Renata added irritably. That cloud almost immediately passed though as she leaned forward a little.

 

"Why 'mask girl' though? There's higher profile Stormers in town, or in the area." She nodded at Beckett. "Evo for one. Or are you just, like...collecting the whole set?"

[Exile_Jeane]

Velma nodded at the double-edged extremes rocking the city's attitude regarding Stormers. Something like it, if less extreme, was going on everywhere, and San Francisco was home to it's own crop of weirdos.

 

"Honestly? Seems like she's in a place between wanting to be 'normal' and embracing the whole Stormer package, not quite sure what she wants to do with it, but still wanting to do something with it. Might make an interesting conversation. If I wanted assured and famous, all I'd have had to do is hop on my bike and hit LA. Plenty flocking to that trap for their fifteen minutes," she chuckled warmly, remembering her short-lived bouts of being internet famous and how much better it felt when one of her peers recognized her for being consistently awesome.

 

She looked down at her watch, and laughed at herself, pushing her chair away from the table, "And I need to get back on the clock. Those packages won't deliver themselves. Perhaps I'll see you tomorrow, Renata, Beckett. Should to be entertaining."   

[Nina]

After Velma left, Beckett leaned across the table, "That was wild, have you ever met a stormer before, I hadn't."

 

Just then Renata's phone went off with a text, she shrugged and pulled it from her back pocket. "Just a sec," she said to Beckett

 

** Did my errand, we should meet. 7:45 at Uncle Chen's

                                                                                              Donald **

 

Spoiler

uncle chens is chinese take out here in town/campus

 

[SalmonMax]

"Yeah, it kinda blows me away she has literal super powers and everyone knows it, but she's still making a living delivering..."

 

Renata trailed off as she silently read Donald's message. "...stuff." With a nod she texted back, **Ok CU there.**

 

"Sorry about that, dinner plans with a friend." Ren put her phone away and gave Beckett a look.

 

"Speaking of friends, you want to exchange numbers? This has been fun."

[Nina]

Beckett smiled and thumbed her phone over to the dial page and handed it over to Renata to put her number in.

 

“Yeah this is cool,” she took the phone back and dialed Renata’s number so her would be in her phone. “So you want to go to Carlyle’s party. He might seem a bit elitist at first but he’s ok and I’m fairly sure he’s gay so no worry about him hitting on you. His parties are not wild. I went to a couple last year. Mostly wine and discussions about literature and other stuff, You know pop culture stuff.”

 

She slid out of the booth. “Anyway, think it over call me tomorrow if you want to go and I’ll pick you up.” She heads toward the door and turns back, “Oh Ren, if it matters there’s always one or two eligible guys there,” then she grins, “or girls. See ya!”

 

 

Velma glided right up to the door to the delivery service and hopped off her bike and pushed it inside “Hey Velma,  you got a package from Fedex while you were out,” Kim the after hours dispatcher said putting a fedex express envelope on the counter and sliding it toward her. “Thanks.”

 

V picked it up, it was heavier than she would have thought, she looked at the label to see where it was from but it the just showed the Fedex Office address. Which was double strange…

 

Spoiler

renata has about an two and a half hours before she needs to meet Evo.  you can fill it in or I'll get to it soon

 

[Exile_Jeane]

"Thanks, Kim," Velma answered, hefting the package. Weird. Wouldn't be the first weird package sent her way since getting her powers. Part of the reason she'd moved this far east. She signed out for the night, resolving to set her alarm forward an hour or two to make up for for it with the Professor's party invite standing and chipping into her evening drive. She *just* the outfit hanging in her closet for that shindig. Long as she played ball most of the time and made her deliveries in a quick way, she could flex it a little. One the perks of being the best at what she did.

 

The envelope went into her pack after clocking out, just another delivery, this time to herself.

 

She loved driving through the city at night. Assuming she stayed off the freeway with it's sleep deprived truckers and people weren't feeling like assholes, she could really just get into the zen of it, leaning into the turns and watching the storefronts flash by from the corner of her eyes. Moving for the sake of moving. This city was going to be amazing to free run once she learned it's secret roads from the locals, stuff that would make Google Maps go green with envy. Wind whistling over her leathers, stop lights flashing off of the attention-catching white stripes, the brunette courier made her way home for a meal and a few hours shut eye. 

 

She loved this gig Honestly. If her plan worked, and Big Deal Bike Couriers got off the ground, she'd hopefully make more money at it, but she'd still want to keep in the saddle, much as she could anyway.

 

 The envelope remained forgotten until much later when she was ensconced in her 2nd floor apartment, a can of beans bubbling on her stove towards edibility, hot chocolate steaming on the counter. Her leathers were airing out in a closet, Velma's glowing marks visible on her arms and legs where her clothing didn't obscure the network of circles and lines. She stretched, knowing the folly of not doing so after a day on the move, that much stiffer and sensitive no matter how she denied it. The mysterious package came to mind and she interrupted her ritual to pad over to it. Still no return address. Still heavy. Hmmm. Mind fogged by late-night tiredness, she opened the envelope.

 

Hsss..!

 

That woke her up right quick, and seeing nothing to dive for cover behind, she fell back on her party trick, pushing it to respond faster then it's usual wont. There was a flare of her outline for a moment and then the room was filled with Velma, over twenty feet tall and curled into the fetal position around something she really hoped wasn't designed to kill elephants. The muffled thump around her midsection and subsequent ache akin to tumbling from a bike at decent speeds brought a deep grunt of relief from her. Good. Not Dead. She'd take Not Dead. The creaking of the floor underneath her bulk and the feel of furniture pressed against her sides brought her back to herself. She let the growth go and staggered to her feet, wincing as she looked down at arms and a belly that promised near-future bruises. Ow. Ow ow ow. 

 

...That was not what she meant about blowing up.   

 

 

[Nina]

Velma

 

The blast had done no damage to Velma's little apartment, her growing to the size of an elephant however, had badly mistreated her furniture. She looked at the remains of the envelope surprised at how much of it there was left and wondered if there was any evidence she could use, like a fingerprint or even some DNA.

 

Renata

 

It took Renata a minut to get her mind off the wonderful aromas coming fro the kitchen at Uncle Chens. There were several people in line for take out and only two booths with customers, one was a group of five young kids certainly not collage age but High school, they were eatting and being noisy teenagers. The other booth held a white guy in his mid twenties.

 

Donald was not in sight, she looked outside then at the line again then her eyes came back to the twenty something guy, he grinned at her, and gave a little wave, Very Evo.

 

"Why the get up," She asked after she scooted into the booth.

 

"Just in case I was being watched. this way it looks like Clyde Barrow is just meeting his girlfriend for Chinese."

 

"Clyde Barrow?"

 

"Yeah, that's the name I gave the cops."  "You...told the cops you were Clyde Barrow?"   "Yeah, I had to give them a name so I just made it up."

 

Renata stared across the table at Donald's made up face, and wandered if he were pulling her leg, she decided he wasn't. "Donald you don't know who Clyde Barrow was do you?"

 

He looked at her and shook his head.

 

"Bonnie and Clyde,' she said as she watched understanding dawn on her friends face. "Well that explains some of the looks..."

 

 

 

 

[SalmonMax]

Renata shook her head with a grin and stabbed a tater from the pile she'd made of them on her plate.

 

"Awright, 'Clyde,'" she said, affecting her best impression of a 20's era gangster voice, "What's the woid from the speakeasy? We running moonshine and hootch over state lines? Is that G-man rat Ness after us again?"

 

At Evo's expression Renata laughed and shrugged. "Okay, I actually have no idea what any of that is. Seriously though, what's up? What did you find out?"

[Nina]

"Really what I basically found out is the cops have no clue what to do and that according to them they aren't even allowed to do anything Stormer related without going through the fed liaison.," Evo, said a she used his chopsticks deftly to pluck a piece of chicken out of his bowl and pop it into his mouth.

 

"Fed Liaison?" Renata was puzzled.

 

"Yeah seems congress in their infinite wisdom decided that letting local or even state law enforcement handle situations involving Stormers was not a good idea and would lead to unwanted escalations. So they have appointed a temporary federal task force to oversee any Stormer related crimes. However that task force is still in the formative stage and only apparently consists of like two guys to cover the whole country. 

 

Basically what i gathered is that, at least for now stormer vigilantes are getting a pass and might even be being encourage to police other stormers. If something happens the police aren't going to wade in they will just try to get civilians out of the way and limit damages I guess.

 

Looks like we are on our own. But at least we don't have to worry about the cops trying to bust us for setting up a trap to take this asshole down."

[SalmonMax]

Renata considered that and nodded. "Yeah...I guess so. Makes sense if you think about it. Most Stormers...what's a cop realistically going to do?"

 

"Okay then, I guess the next step is to try to get a meeting with this guy. I still would really rather not have a big public display of violence though. Even if no one gets hurt, people don't forget that kind of thing. I'll be living it down...I don't know, for a long time. Maybe there's something else we can do to get his attention though? Something less public?"

 

"I like this trap idea. What do you have in mind?"

[Nina]

Evo took a deep breath then blew it out as he shook his head, "I really don't know. I don't see how we can meet the requirement without attacking some innocent kid but I really don't like that idea. I wish there was someone we could trust with this, who could help."

 

[SalmonMax]

Renata sat up straighter at that and her eyes flicked sideways as something occurred to her.

 

"Actually...I met some people that might be able to help," she said slowly. "I mean, I don't know how on board they'd be, but...one's a Stormer and one's not. I think between the two of them, maybe we could stage something."

 

She looked back at Evo. "Is there like a confidentiality thing here? Oh, and...you said Stormers are allowed to pull this kind of thing off, but if we involve non-Stormers is it okay? I'm thinking it might help us sell this."

[Nina]

Evo looked thoughtful, then nodded, "If you think they can be trusted I say go for it I got no other Ideas. As for getting away with it, they have some new homeland security thing called EPIC, that who the police are supposed to call.

 

The part about involving non-stormers," he shrugs, "I would assume as long as they are okay with it the law should be."

 

Spoiler

If you want we can skip over to the upcoming party, unless your going to act that night. let me know