Mutants & Masterminds: The Indigo Children - Chapter 3: The First Dark Clouds

[Ramani]

Cole's hand on her shoulders was soothing and she slowly calmed down. The red haze evaporated completely and more rational thoughts became dominant. Ramani looked at her mate and then to her friends still feeling mostly ashamed for what she had done. The concept of getting rid of the Croc-corpse was alien to her and she didn't waste any thought about it.

Then something totally new and unexpected happened to her. She lacked the courage to actually speak and break the silence that followed after the fight. It was a totally new experience for her and made her mouth dry. Her eyes constantly searched Penny as if the young girl had answers for her unasked quesions and insecurity of the moment but the teen was busy with her own problems and Ramani lacked the empathy to notice it.

[Cole Mulvaney]

Cole noticed all the scars now. "Wally, someone else already found this thing. It's also a whole lot bigger than any of us. Nowhere near as advanced, but still. If we weight it down and sink it in the bay, they might not find it. They will however if we leave it here."

[z-Penny Mann]

Penny, still shaken, looked around. "Um, we didn't bring anything heavy enough to do that. What would you guys suggest-notmycarkthanks?" She avoided looking at the creature she'd killed, because every time she did, she felt sick. She'd done that. She'd taken a life. She was supposed to be a healer. How could she have done that?

[Ramani]

Ramani didn't understand what this was all about. They killed it and it was supposed to be a good thing. The Croc was evil, she saw it in Penny's eyes, she saw the fear the teenager had and knew something had to be done about it. Now everyone was talking about strange things like hiding the kill and maybe even having killed the wrong Croc.

Still trying to understand what was happening Ramani asked Penny with an usual timid voice, "We killed the wrong Croc?"

Everything was so clear when they set out to kill it and now there was only confusion. It was reflected in Ramani's blue eyes all her confusion and lack of understanding.

[SalmonMax]

"Well," Wally replied, reaching up to scratch behind one of his ears. "I dunno about the wrong croc, exactly. I mean, this bloke was huge and clearly pretty dangerous. Could have been unarmed kids that stumbled into this place, after all. But he's not the one that I was asked to get rid of."

He didn't add that he was getting paid for it too. After all, he wasn't going to be keeping the money, so it didn't really matter.

"So...seems like we oughtta bury him if you ask me. Like Penny says, we've nothing to weigh him down with, and besides, he'd float up again eventually. That won't happen if he's underground. Besides, it's the respectful thing to do."

[z-Penny Mann]

"Respectful... yes, we should bury it," Penny said, feeling a slight shaking as shock wore off. "Anyone have a shovel and a few hours to spare?" Her words were sarcastic, but her tone was just shaky and somewhat distant.

She looked at Wally. "What were you asked to do exactly?" she said. "I mean, this thing killed Rodney's dad... right?"

[SalmonMax]

Wally glances at the bull 'gator and scratches at a cheek thoughtfully.

"Don't know anything about Rodney's dad," the kangaroo confesses. "The mice in the sewer want me to stop the 'monster' from attacking them. And I expect they wouldn't cry if the way I did it was to kill said monster. But there's no way this fella could have done it."

"And, uh, you've a point about the burial. He's a big brute. Not to mention that a burial at sea would probably be preferable anyway, due to his aquatic nature, eh?"

[jameson (ST)]

Given the creature's size, both length and mass, they ultimately found no other recourse than to dump it in the river. Fresh bodies sink however, the lungs fill with water and the buoyancy changes; the croc floated maybe forty feet out before filling up and sinking beneath the water. With the corpse gone the foursome headed back to the car to discuss their next step.

They were moving away from the scene when Penny's phone began to ring. She picked up when she saw Randy's name on the screen, and flipped the phone onto speaker phone, "Where have you been?"

"Not now Penny. They're gone, they've taken Dom and Ozzie."

"Who?" Penny asked, fearing that she already knew the answer.

"Who do you think? The men in those black vans. They hit us hard and ... I don't remember, I think they fuckin' tazed me. Where are you guys? Did you find the thing?"

"Yeah we found it. It's ... it's dead." Penny's voice caught in her throat as she said it, knowing that her part in the creature's death was not as innocuous as the others thought. "Where are you? We should meet, Wally thinks this guy wasn't the one attacking those mice who sent him."

Randy sighed, "Well at least it's done. Where you guys headed?"

[Cole Mulvaney]

It was bad, they'd split up and Ozzie and Dom had been taken.

He moved over to Ramani, to help her maintain her calm,, but spared a brief look to Wally upon hearing that Ozzie'd been captured.

"We can't panic, we have to address this rationally."

[z-Penny Mann]

Penny pinched her lips together tightly, sighing. Moving to Wally's side, she murmured, "Wally? I have bad news. Randy and the others were jumped." She wasn't sure how to say it, so she just blurted it out. "Wally, they took him. The men in the black vans took Ozzie. I'm sorry, but we'll get him back."

She realized suddenly that they'd taken Dom, too. But why he wasn't one of the mutated animals... but he was one of the mutated humans. She shivered. That meant... they be after me, too.

[SalmonMax]

Wally seemed oddly calm at the news, though his ears jittered for a second, then laid flat back against his head.

"Heh. They may have their hands full if they took Oz. He's a clever one, he is."

He took a deep breath then briskly said, "Right! Seems we need to find us a black van and track it back to wherever it is they go."

[Ramani]

Ramani instantly perked up again as she heard that her other friends had been kidnapped.

"What?", she said less surprised and more angered by the missfortune they had.

"We must find them!", she insisted the issue about having killed the Crocmonster and her shame instantly forgotten. On many levels Ramani was still more animal than human and she looked at Cole with pleading eyes. She didn't want to lose her new found friends, there weren't many around who accepted her the way she was.

[Cole Mulvaney]

"We will." Cole looked to the others. "Let's meet up with Randy and we can go from there and retrace their route."

"Or we can go to the lair. Whatever you all decide, but we need to stop standing here alone in the open. We're vulnerable like this."

He started heading back to the car and waited for the others, holding Ramani's hand and Dragging her along, mainly to keep her calm and from runing off alone.

[z-Penny Mann]

Penny swallowed, looking out at the water where the croc had sunk. It had taken her secret with her, but she still knew. She still knew what she'd done.

"Let's get to the lair." Cole was right. They shouldn't be in the open. She called Randy again. "Can you get to the lair?"

"Uh, are you ok?" he asked. "You sound odd."

"I'm fine. Can you get to the lair or not?"

[Ramani]

Cole 'dragged' Ramani a few steps before she caught up with him. Her hand squeezing his' in a rather unaccustomed response which was more human than feral. She actually blushed but it didn't show on her face yet Cole could read her bodylanguage.

Insecure she reached the car looking back at the others. Patience wasn't among her best qualities and the creeping nervousity didn't do much to keep her calm.

"Lets go...", she urged as she entered the car with a low growl.

[jameson (ST)]

"Yeah, I can get there. I ... shit. They took Dom's keys when they took Dom. Guess I'm going to walk. See you soonish I guess," Randy said and then hung up the phone. Penny unlocked the car and the group headed back to Raphael's home, it was time to regroup.

*****

An hour later they had gathered within the sewer domicile of their sensei. Penny related their story to Raphael and Randy at the turtle's request. He seemed worried about them all, having been forced to kill another, but also stating that at times events would likely require them to use such levels of force.

"That's rough, but it seems like you guys did what was needed. Wally, are you certain this thing couldn't have been the one eating the mice?" The kangaroo nodded, his mouth stuffed with pizza. "What about the little one then? Maybe the kid is getting snacks while mommy is out getting dinner?"

[SalmonMax]

Wally grimaced at the thought, but nodded as he pulled the pizza slice away from his mouth, trailing a long string of cheese.

"Thought of that. And we haven't seen the mother yet either, so it could be her too. Either way, I'll need to go back there and talk to her again."

He looked over at Penny. "Think you could...ah...translate again?"

[Cole Mulvaney]

Cole shook his head. "I won't kill a child." He took a slice of pizza and devoured it, though just from the way he ate they could see that idea severely agitated him.

[z-Penny Mann]

Penny was quiet for so long that Randy stopped eating to look at her. "Pen?" he asked, his voice gentle.

"Yeah," she said. Her arms were already wrapped around her, but now they tightened. She was in a bit of shock she realized, but she snapped herself out of it. "Yeah, Wally, I can talk to him again."

She looked to Cole. "You won't have to kill him. He's a kid, and it'll be easier to talk him down." I'm sure I can manage to pop his brain too, if we have to.

Penny's stomach turned violently at her thought. She stood up, swaying slightly. "Excuse me." Turning, she hurried into the bathroom and knelt before the toilet. She didn't actually throw up, but part of her wanted to - badly.

[Ramani]

Ramani had taken a comfortable reclining position next to Cole and listened to the others. She was still struggling to understand what went wrong with the large Croq. What Wally said made some more sense to her. If the large one was the father then there was still a mother and her kitten but killing them was something she was reluctant to do, just like Cole said.

When Penny suddenly hurried to the bathroom Ramani perked up, ears following at full attention while her eyes focused on the young teenager. Ramani looked to Cole an unspoken question in her eyes and then slowly went to the bathroom finding the door locked. She carefully scratched at the door with a claw of hers and tentively asked with that scratchy voice of hers, "Penny?

[Cole Mulvaney]

Cole shook his head. "Let her be. I don't think she's ever had to do what we just did. It can't be easy for her."

[Ramani]

"And that's why I'm staying... she is not alone.", Ramani hesitantly scratched at the door again hoping that Penny would say something - even if she told her to go away, at least then the girl new that Ramani was caring for her.

[z-Penny Mann]

Penny sighed at Ramani's plaintive plea. "I'm fine," she said through the door. "You can just go back to your seat. I'm fine, I'll be out soon." She put her forehead against the toilet and sighed, hoping that Ramani would give her a few more moments of privacy before she had to go out there.

[jameson (ST)]

Raphael watched dispassionately as Penny dashed out of the room. After a moment he asked Randy, "Is she ok?"

"I dunno, I guess so. I mean she said she was. Maybe she's just having a delayed reaction to the night's work." He sounded concerned more than anything, concerned and confused.

"You care for her deeply. As a freind, of course." Randy tensed for a moment then relaxed as Raphael relieved him of the need to confront those feelings. "You both, you all, will have to do things that you may be troubled by. Worry not about your conscience until such time as your conscience worries you not, for that is when you will know that your deeds need questioning the most. I hope that none of you become truly comfortable when you need to end a life."

A short time later the tigers returned followed by Penny sometime after that. They ate in silence for a time before Raphael tossed his paper plate away. "This child, if it is indeed the one you seek what will you do?"

[Cole Mulvaney]

"Try to teach it a better way, failing that, Maybe we can relocate it somewhere where it won't be a danger to anyone." Cole said almost dispassionately.

"It would be hard to do that, but it's better than other alternatives."

[z-Penny Mann]

Randy had scooted over to make room for her next to him, and she was grateful for his presence. She could feel him inches away from her, as if his warmth had a physical component to it. Raphael's question drove all Randy's comfort away.

She bit her lip as she considered. "First, Mimi is devoted to the child," Penny said softly. "Anything we do, she's going to fight us on. If we aren't very careful about it, and if Junior is responsible, we're going to have to make him an orphan."

[SalmonMax]

Wally sighed.

"I figured we could just tell the mother that, hey, these mice aren't for eating; please keep your little ones away and there'll be no trouble. By the way, the one who's been abusing you won't be doing that anymore, so as a special favor to us for that, just get your kids to avoid the sewer pipe thing."

"I mean, we did her a solid, grim as that is. She owes us."

[Ramani]

Ramani was trying to wrap her mind around the issue. They just killed the abusive father of the Crocodile-Mutants and now they were debating about killing the mother, too?

Confusion was clearly clouding her eyes as much as it reflected in her bodylanguage. The large tigress looked at Cole very much in agreement with him nodding slowly. "I don't want to kill the mother.", she quietly said. She remembered how her mother died... growing up alone was tough enough, especially for someone like her - caught between a savage and a civilised world. If it wasn't for Cole Ramani would still roam the wilderness never really knowing or understanding who or what she was.

[Cole Mulvaney]

"We won't." He reassured Ramani.

He looked at Wally. "if she understood those words and concepts it'd be great, sadly I don't really think she does."

[jameson (ST)]

Raphael looked about to reply but stopped as Randy piped up, "What bout just making the Mouse House more secure? I mean, we can't be there all the time, and just because we maybe convince the little guy to stop eating the mice doesn't mean some other thing wont take a liking to them. Heck, you said some of them were barely bigger than a normal mouse, even a house cat could be a problem. What if we put bars over the sewer pipe or something after we talk to the crocs?" Raph nodded, apparently pleased at somebody approaching the idea from a different direction.

[Ramani]

Randy’s idea sounded perfectly to Ramani although she wasn’t quiet sure what bars or sewer pipes were. From what he explained she concluded that it must’ve been some kind of protection for the mice and that would solve the problem in a peaceful way.

„I like Randy!“, she said excited actually wanting to say that she liked his idea…

[Cole Mulvaney]

Cole nodded. "It would be a good deal of work, but that's probably easier than relocation. Good idea Randy."

He knew Ramani's body language enough to know she liked the idea, though she also considered him a friend.

"What do you think Wally? Would your rodent friends agree to that?"

[z-Penny Mann]

Penny gave Randy a wan smile. "Good idea," she told him, and everyone in the room saw that of all the praise he'd received, her's pleased him the most.

"Next question, how do we get the bars and how do we put them up?" she asked softly. "I can't weld - can any of you?" As she spoke, she drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.

[SalmonMax]

Wally nods at Randy slowly, almost unwillingly.

At Penny's question he seems to warm to the idea a bit more.

"There's some stuff Oz kept at our place," he says. "I left most of that kind of thing to him, but I could make a go of it and see what happens. I used to watch him, after all. Picked up a thing or two."

[Cole Mulvaney]

Cole Frowned. He held up his pawlike hands. "While I've got natural gloves, the lack of thumbs would be a major hindrance. Besides I have no nexperience welding."

"Ramani and I can hold p the grates and bars and such, and wear blindfolds once the welding starts."

[Ramani]

Ramani listened to the various suggestions how and what they could do but mostly she was interested in Penny. She had given her the privacy she demanded but somehow there was still this feeling that the young teenager needed comfort in one way or another. Wordlessly she carefully „stalked“ over to Penny going down on her fours and taking advantage of yearlong predatory skills.

Penny could feel Ramani’s warm fur at the end of her legs as the large tigress brushed carefully along Penny’s feet, purring peacefully. Ramani’s eyes searched Penny’s hoping she’d approve of the display of affection and if Penny let her, she would climb up next to her and make herself comfortable next to her.

[z-Penny Mann]

Penny watched Ramani, her eyebrows rising as the tigeress practically abased herself at her feet. "Uh, Cole?" she asked her voice tense, "what is she doing? And why is she looking at me like that?"

Penny could have looked into her friend's mind and saw why, but she didn't even consider that possibility. It was still too new for her and she didn't think about it.

[Cole Mulvaney]

Cole looked at Ramani and sighed. "Stop that. You're making her uncomfortable Ramani." He walked over and swatted her back. "Get up and go sit back down. Penny's fine."

He was irritated, clearly he still had alot of work with Ramani on teaching her proper ettiquette left to do.

[Ramani]

Ramani perked up like a pet, ears pointed forward in full attention at Cole. There was a brief moment of irritation and then she quickly shied away from Penny. She didn't mean to cause any trouble and thought if she immitated Sheila's behaviour Penny would understand.

Ramani had watched the cat of the Mulvaney's and learned that she always was around when someone was looking for comfort. Maybe she interpreted Penny's bodylanguage wrong but she was sure the teenager wasn't feeling well.

The large tigress rejoined her mate and assumed a position next to him her eyes glancing sideways avoiding eyecontact. She felt awkward and missunderstood.

[SalmonMax]

Completely missing the subtext of the tiger and girl, Wally frowned deeply as he tried to think it through. What would Ozzie do? What would Ozzie do? Was it possible to make a pizza out of potatos and broccoli? Dripping with cheese sauce? Here now, what about a trap pizza, with gunpowder worked into the dough. It could be one of those cook it yourself pizzas! Pop it in the oven, temperature builds to critical...then BAM!Busted oven! Also a good way to effect gas fires, for houses with natural gas. Wait, wait, right. Ozzie.

"Right then," he decided. "Lets swing past my place, I'll grab Oz's gear, and we'll take a little time to bar off that pipe. That'll solve that problem in a jiff, and we can start tracking whoever took Ozzie!"

(Hee, basically gonna try an untrained roll and hope for the best )