trans_9 | Earning my keep

Of course, she might be wrong too. This is a gym, and he's been hanging about the sensoriums now and then to get them figured out.

This time though, he's not there as trainer or coach, he's there as another person in for a workout.

He makes no real attempt to hide his presence, heading straight for the weight stacks and starts adding the big weights to one of the bars.

If his coming had changed what she was doing, she made no notice of it: she continued her crunches, going up and down, making a few groans. She'd been at this the last few days, and it had been pretty grueling.

She just hoped the Overlord wasn't going to be pushing them to do an exercise anytime soon. Maybe he was on that stupid mission of theirs?

But she did know Chase was there, because, just as she was getting o an exercise bike, she said, "So what;s your bench press limit?"

He packs on most of the weights that will fit on the bar by the time she gets there, and is settling in on the bench. He glances up at her at the question, getting his hands situated on the bar.

"Trucks and limos." he answers, starting to press the bar. "I just do these for reps."

"You never went to a professional gym?" That was just gettingmore and more impressive. "Well, I can't blame you: they were usually as expensive as fuck. The good thing about the Sensorium is that if I have to do this, so long as I'm the one actually doing the physical activity, it counts."

And for good measure, she started on chin ups, lifting her whole body as she counted down.

"Nah, we never had the money for professional gyms, and everything they had, we could build in the scrapyard. Ok... maybe a couple times after we mugged big drug deals, and Max went to high priced gyms, but not the rest of us. We also didn't have nothing like the sensoriums, so taking advantage of this while I'm here. Most of the time, my heavy lifting was tossing stuff into the wrecker, or hauling wrecks around the scrapyard for Jack. Nice form too on the chin ups, you took some gymnastics, I bet, or someone taught you some."

"That's pretty awesome," she said. "I guess I was sorta lucky that way: dad had some decent savings, and he planned to get me strong to begin with. Most of the money was spent on weapons and bills and stuff. It was a good thing he saved."

She shook her head. "Like I said, I make myself strong. I've been training since I got my ass out of the pods. "

"It worked. Thanks to Max, we always had some kind of cash if we needed it, but had to keep it subtle so we didn't draw notice. My wife worked part time as a dancer, we mugged dealers and robbed corrupt businesses, and Jack had the scrap yard, so we were better off than some, but most of the money went into supplies and materials for the war effort, and maintaining fortified hiding spots."

He pauses to eye her working out. "It shows. I saw how fast you picked up the rolls, I figured you had to have some gymnastics somewhere. Where'd your dad pick up all the weapons skills and stuff to train you with? Military?"

"You have a wife?!" Mindy blurted out, then composed herself. "Oh, I mean, yeah, I guess that makes sense and all. I can understand scrapping by: we all had to do it at one time or another."

She hadn't meant to ask that, but considering the small flirtations she'd seen with him, she wondered exactly what their marriage was like.

"Dad was a cop, actually, but what made him do the vigilante work was that he wasn't a crooked cop. He believed in all that right and wrong bullshit and swore to uphold it, even if it meant jail time. But those beliefs only carry you that far when you have someone you care about. When mom committed suicide, dad changed tactics, became the true face of justice: I just happened to go along for the ride. Now he's gone, so I gotta be even tougher on myself than he was: hence, the chin ups."

"Makes sense... I've heard of non-corrupt cops, but never met one. Every single one I knew of back home was in the enemy's pocket, or possessed by demons to convert them. Still, good way to learn the skills." he replies first.

"Yeah, I'm married. Julie Chase." And, getting the unasked question in there, he adds, "Julie and I work cause we got something in common; neither one of us was willing to give up other women. She brought friends home from the strip club now and then. That, and where we come from, kids aren't viable between two werewolves, and our population was fucking critical - so she had to produce more kids with kinfolk - humans with the gene thing, but not shifters, and I needed to get more kin pregnant. Part of the conditions for being allowed to reproduce at all was the elders insisted I get ten breeders pregnant. That was quite a week."

"Yeah, where I'm from those fucking cops would have sold us for a buck and a quarter to our enemies," Mindy said, venom clearly apparent in her voice. "I knew only one worth knowing, and that was the guy that took me in after dad died. Otherwise, I don't trust those guys farther than I can throw them."

Mindy had to give him a thumbs up. "I think you pretty much score on both counts there, Chase: you get your wife AND share her with other girls? I hear its a guy's wet dream to have that kinda set up. And you got to have ten girls in a week? Sick."

Not that she really understood any of that, not having been in love herself. That was always one of those things she sort of saw like watching a bunch of kids on the playground having fun and knowing you weren't included.

On one hand, wet dream maybe, sure. On the other hand, the resistance to disease was probably good. That, and speaks volumes that the garou were that desperate for numbers.

"Yeah, we were long since criminals back home. At least what they knew about us. It wasn't just the cops, most humans could either be in someone's pockets, or possessed by banes... demons." he adds, as explanation for the term.

"But yeah... my first marriage broke up over that. We stayed friends, but she was never able to trust me, with my history, and I couldn't blame her. I fucking suck at fidelity. Would probably have never tried the marriage thing again had it not been for Julie." he admits readily.

She shrugged. "Wouldn't know a thing about that shit. Besides, even I know I'm fucked up in the head, don't need a head doctor for it. It's like, once you know what I do,how the hell are you going to wanna stick by me? Either the constant danger is gonna make them prematurely bald before their time, or the blood and guts of it will make 'em sick. It probably makes sense, to marry someone who gets you and sticks by you."

Mindy did paused in her crutches a moment. "Demons? What kinda demons?"

"You ain't that fucked up. At least no more'n me, kid. Just the way things go when you live a war. But yeah, you're right - that's kinda the trick. My first wife got me... we're still friends... but that was just it. She got me. I hadn't cheated, but she was probably right, matter of time, and it wasn't working for her. She was still a member of the Knights after that, still a friend... but we weren't meant to get married. Julie an' me... were both warriors, different kinds... she moved a lot like... well, like you probably will when you're a lot further along. Super acrobatic, guns, blades and mobility... and the same kind of sluts. So it worked."

He shifts gears back to the war readily enough. "That was what all started the big shit in my world. A great demon god named the wyrm went insane. Its role was destroying things in their time, sorta. Force of creation, force of shaping, and a force of entropy... in balance, they were fine. It went nuts and started trying to destroy /everything/. It infected people, sent out smaller demons, called other demon things from deep in the spirit world... started polluting everything, wiping out the places that the werewolves lived, since we were the protectors of Gaia - the mother goddess, tied to the world. Preyed on greed and corruption, bought people who could be bought, possessed people that couldn't be bought, used movies, TV, comic books... to convince people we were the monsters and get people on their sides or infect kids with possessing demons. We had demons for every vice... pure physical monsters, possessing spirits in apparently innocent kids, tempters of all sorts, bargainers who preyed on greed... you name it."

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