Collab Post: Road Trip
Interactions: Leon @Elle Joyner and Francis @CloudyBlueDay
Where: Outside Miami HQ
Nodding at Devon's words, Francis turned back to Nick and Leon. Orlando wasn't exactly a short trip… but she could work with this group. As much as she appreciated Lucas and Levi's company (sometimes), she wasn't sure how much she would love them after a seven hour car trip.
"Well, gang. Guess we've gotta go hotwire a car." Francis said with a smirk.
"Can you walk, Leon?"
"No one's tryin' to lynch me to a drain pipe. I can make myself walk." Leon mused, standing with a small grimace,
"Either of you lovely folk know how to hotwire?"
"I do," Nick said after a moment, raising his hand a little sheepishly. With two or three things, he could have them in a car in no time. He was tempted to offer up the old SUV he'd been using before Rogue had recruited him, but given everything that had happened today, it was probably better not to. He didn't know what kind of information RIEF had access to, especially if Keegan was not, in fact, Keegan (which still blew his mind a little. Had he ever known the real Keegan?) He'd been in the SUV a little too long anyway; it'd be better to find something different. Maybe they could make a stop to grab his old stuff though...
"I'm sure if you start feeling a little tired, Leon, Francis could give you a lift," Nick added with a cheeky grin. He wouldn't lie; watching her hoist Leon around like a small sack of potatoes had been fun to watch.
She could see Leon grimace, but she didn't feel like spending anymore energy hoisting him around when it could be saved for much worse situations. Letting out a laugh, Francis grinned up at Nick.
"I'm liking this guy more and more. Can hotwire cars and has a sense of humor," She clapped him on the back, perhaps a slight bit too hard,
"What more can you ask for?"
"Oh yeah… he's a riot." Leon mused, but not without a smirk,
"I'm good to walk. Honestly. Not a half bad job on the stitches, even if I will end up lookin' like Frankenstein." Finding his shirt, he made a face at the state of it, but slipped it on anyhow, flinching as he raised his arms. The false Keegan hadn't killed him, but he definitely wasn't gonna be doing morning calisthenics anytime soon.
"Ready to roll."
Nick smiled over at Francis before stumbling forward a step as she clapped him on the back. He tried to discreetly roll his shoulders as Leon put his shirt back on.
"If it makes you feel any better, I'm sure you'll make a lovely brooding monster man," he added, giving Leon a thumbs up. He glanced over at the entrance to Leon's cot area, ready to go if they were.
"Either of you know how to get to the nearest used car lot from here?"
"Glad it kept you in one piece," Was all Francis had to say, a light smile still on her face,
"Dunno 'bout a used car lot… but I'm sure we can find you one to lift." Francis glanced towards the elevator, shaking her head.
"Can't believe… you were right under our noses this whole time."
"To be fair… I wasn't tryin' to be under your noses so much as RIEF." Moving to the bulletin board, Leon began to gather the coded pages, and when he'd finished, he stuffed them into an envelope, turning to the other two,
"All set." Heading for the elevator, he pressed the call button,
"We'll need to be on guard at street level. Watch for drones…"
"Fair enough," Nick said simply as a response to Leon trying to stay out of RIEF's view. The fact Leon was working with them for the moment was proof enough that Rogue could be merciful. RIEF on the other hand...who knew?
Right. Drones. That was a thing Nick wouldn't ever miss. While getting his hands on one could be beneficial, he figured that's the sort of thing he could worry about when they were further down the road towards Orlando. Preferably
in Orlando. Nick snagged a roll of medical tape from the medkit he'd handed Francis earlier, slipping it into his pocket, before following Leon to the elevator. If he was hotwiring a car today, he was definitely going to need it.
Shrugging at Leon's response, Francis stepped up to the elevator. There was a tenseness in her posture, fueled by the fact that she still didn't entirely trust Leon or their plight above ground. He could've easily still been playing the infiltration game; they were, after all, taking him straight to another HQ. She just hoped her gut feeling was right. Francis drummed her fingers on her thigh.
"Our best bet is to head for the closest car. Staying out in the open longer than necessary means drones, and we definitely don't want that."
"Two blocks up from here, we'll hit an area that's got some businesses in it, less occupied then other parts of the city, but we'll still need to be quick about it." Pressing a button on the elevator that would take them to ground level, he leaned back against the walls, pressing a hand to his abdomen where the stitches pulled briefly,
"I can't imagine RIEF is looking for me. Only reason I'm alive is cause you found me, Francis… but that being said, just keep your eyes peeled. Once they find out I'm not dead, well… I will be."
Nick pursed his lips, trying to mentally run through everything he needed to do for this to go smoothly. Time wasn't exactly on their side at the moment, to say the least. He placed a hand on the wall of the elevator to steady himself as it brought them to ground level. He noted that they were hitting an area with businesses; more eyes, but less suspicion when someone sees them wandering around the parking lot. He didn't necessarily trust Leon fully, but if his life was on the line the way he said it was, he had no real reason to lie right now. Especially not if he had someone else he was concerned for.
"I've got one request for when we get out there. Find something long, thin, and study enough to push a button. It can be a car antenna, a stick, a coat hanger, a ruler, anything. Just something I can work with," Nick commented. After all, to hotwire a car, you needed to get into one, and broken windows were a tiny bit conspicuous.
Glancing at Leon out of the corner of her eye, Francis sighed. It was true that if she hadn't come across Leon in that tunnel, he probably would've bled to death. She hoped that down the line she'd feel good about that choice, but now… it only made her stomach queasy. So, kept quiet, not sure if she trusted her own words anymore, only nodding firmly to Nick.
"Try to hang back… your bloody shirt doesn't exactly scream normal." She grumbled, glancing down at her lopsided pants.
"Or these, but… you're worse."
Looking down at his shirt, Leon smirked faintly,
"The one day I decide not to wear black, and it bite me…" But he didn't argue. The less they stood out, the better… for all of them. He did, however, keep his eyes peeled for make-shift slim jim, particularly as they passed by alleyways, where trash bins were piled high with rubbish.
"It gets you every time," Nick snorted.
"You can only avoid it if you wear dark colors all the time." He gestured at his own dark and muted color ensemble. He smiled faintly at how they looked. A guy with a bloody shirt, a girl with ripped up pants, and him, squinting at the light as his concussion reminded him that it was there. They made quite a trio, that was for sure. He did his best to shield his eyes with one hand, searching for a good probe for a door lock. It was odd, but Nick did feel a bit like he was back in his element. On the streets and trying to plan on the fly. It was the life he'd known best for the past few years, after all. It shouldn't be a surprise that despite barely being able to see, he seemed quite comfortable with the situation. He turned, something seeming to catch his eye in one of the garbage bins.
She couldn't help but find herself wondering what kinda life Nick had led that gave him the knowledge to hotwire cars and scavenge trash bins. Francis was lucky she never lead a life on the streets, almost always being apart of some sort of family. She knew plenty of people at Rogue who had gone homeless, travelled alone. Rogue was a team, a tight knit family… and it had been blown to bits.
Following Nick's line of sight, Francis stepped forward. It was a metal clothing hanger.
"Perfect," She hummed, flashing a smirk at Nick as she pulled it out of the trash can.
"Anything else you need to get us a ride, Nick?"
Nick smiled back at her as she pulled out the hanger before pausing, seeming to consider this.
"Maybe a screwdriver, but I don't need that," he mused. It might make him a tiny bit faster, though he could work almost as quickly with the knife sheathed at his hip.
"Maybe that, and for you to pick a car when we get to the parking lot," he added with a teasing smile.
"Try to go for a slightly older one."
"If you don't need it, then you're doin' it without it." Francis harrumphed, scouring the parking lot. They were about to spend the next seven hours in this car… it was gonna be a good one.
"How's this work, Nick?" She called, patting the hood of an older GMC model.
"Did… did you intentionally pick the biggest car in the universe?" Leon asked, half under his breath as he looked at the vehicle that Francis had picked out.
"And if I did?" Francis snapped.
The words
"It's so big" were out of Nick's mouth before he thought better of it. Dear god, that was a big vehicle. He exhaled, shaking his head at Francis and Leon, before peeking inside the vehicle through the window to see what he was dealing with. Lock buttons were on the side of the door, and it was going to be a
fun experience to hotwire this one, sarcasm intended.
"I can do it, but I hope you're aware I'm about to completely mess up the area under the steering wheel. So if you're going for 'something nice for later', you really shouldn't," Nick warned.
"She'd need to rob all the city phone booths of their books before she could see over the dash…" Leon mused with a smirk,
"I'll keep an eye out…"
A scowl crossing Francis' face, she glared at the two men.
"Hey," She announced.
"Let me remind you who was carrying your ass not twenty minutes ago. And you," She levelled her gaze onto Nick. There was still playfulness in her eyes but not exactly in her voice.
"Get a move on. We've got a long drive."
Nick barked a laugh before trying to quickly cover it up with a coughing fit.
"Maybe she's compensating," he murmured with a grin. It fell a little as her gaze fell onto him, though it didn't stop him from making one last smart remark.
"All I ask is that you let me keep my knees until after I've started this thing."
He pulled the roll of medical tape back out from his pocket, wrapping it around the pads of his index finger, middle finger, and thumb on both hands. He gave a cursory look around as he pocketed the tape and stepped up to the vehicle. He'd taken the wire coat hanger, twisting it into a usable probe, before unsheathing his knife. He wedged it at the very top crack of the door, opening it just wide enough to slip the hanger inside towards the lock and unlock buttons. After a few moments of situating the hanger and trial and error, he felt the familiar give of the button, and the knob inside popped up. He grinned as he pulled out the knife and the hanger. He then opened the door.
"Give me three minutes," he said, before slipping inside the older GMC.
His eyes scanned the skies as Nick worked, and he couldn't help the sense of uneasiness. They'd been out in the open too long… too damn long. He'd escaped death once that day, but all they needed was one drone sweeping down and he was done for,
"I'll buy you dinner," Leon muttered,
"If you make it two minutes…"
Sighing a little angrily but arguing no further, Francis tapped her foot. She truthfully had no right to bark at the guy about to save their tails, as frankly, if Nick wasn't here, she'd have been pounding out windows and jamming things into ignitions until something stuck. Still, she was always a little touchy about her height, and so what if she liked big cars?
But seeing Leon's uneasy gaze only reminded her they had bigger fish to fry. Getting shot by a drone now, even non fatally (as if any bullet wounds were non fatal….), would seriously slow down their already long trip to Orlando. Drones meant soldiers and soldiers meant a chase…
"Hurry it up." Was all she growled.
Nick was all but upside down in the driver's seat as he set to work on getting the car started. He popped and pried off sections of plastic covering, unscrewing a few screws with the tip of his knife until he could work them out by hand. He'd set aside the plastic cover and was working on separating the wires he needed when he heard Leon. He wasn't sure if it was the fact he was upside down or due to what Leon had said, but he felt his face grow warm. He swiftly reminded himself it wasn't even remotely like that; guy had a girlfriend, and now was not the time to get goo-goo eyes because somebody offered to buy food.
"Deal," was all he said to Leon, his voice a little steadier than he'd expected. He stripped the wires he needed of small sections of covering before twisting two together and taping them with the medical tape from his pocket. He carefully grabbed a different wire, well aware that tape only did so much to stop electrocution, before splicing it with the other wires. The car sparked to life as he then tied a knot to make it safer and easy to start and stop the car without messing with anything, so long as they didn't do that too often. He reached up, holding the steering column from underneath, before jerking the steering wheel to one side. A pop sounded and he stuck his head out the door, if not a little awkwardly from his position.
"Ready to go. Who's driving?"