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."

At this Mindy laughed. "Chase man, you're a fucking werewolf. The way I figure it, you had to be born scrappy and fight. You have more of a reason to be how you are, and it works for you. I'm a KID. I could call it whatever the fuck I want, but how many kids do you see around here like me? Kids are supposed to be scared of blood and pain, not revel in it, not wade in the shit. I'm definitely fucked up. I just own it, that's all."

She nodded. "Yeah well, I'm too sick of people and their bullshit to go grab sluts, male or female. I'd just hate myself in the morning. Besides, you get too attached to someone, especially if they're weak, you lose them, whether its because of a mistake you made or one they did. That's just how it works. You're lucky that Julie was as strong as you."

And she listened about the wyrm, and felt at least a little relaxed. If he had flat out said he hated all demons and everything about them, chances were he and the Overlord weren't going to get along, less so when he found out she was thinking of becoming a demon somewhere down the line.

"You know we have demons on the ship, right?"

"Demons and vampires both, yeah. And a lot of the elders back home said we weren't supposed to work with either one. But one of the best weapons we had was turning one greed demon's forces against another through sabotage and misinformation, and letting them fight it out... and vampires, when they weren't out to kill us, were often damned knowledgeable folks, and not necessarily working for the enemy's best interests... since the real enemy wanted to destroy everything, and vampies liked existing.

So, its simple. Long as those demons are on my side in the war, fighting to restore reality, and kick the ohm's ass... fine with me.

As for being fucked up... sure, maybe. But either way, it was a war. My world was fucked up. Yours might have been better, but you were trying to fix shit that went wrong. Far as I've ever seen, heroes don't come from nice, normal places. No one I'd put that label on didn't have issues. If you haven't been through some hell, who knows if you got the fucking backbone to be a hero, right?"

"Hey, when it comes down to it, the enemy of your enemy is your friend, right? I've seen that go down, and chances are, most people on this ship hate the Ohm more than they do anyone else. Honestly, wasting time hating some shmuck on the ship is a perfect waste of time, when you think that the real enemy is coming, and he wants to kill you."

Mindy was silent for a moment, working on her crunches. If eh happened to look at her just at that point, he would have seen a flicker of regret, even mixed with some pain there. Sure, they had gotten D'Amico, but he'd taken both of her parents and come close to killing her too. She had to make sure that never happened again, that she would go down fighting forever and give everything she had.

"Yeah, I hear you," she said, wiping her brow. "And hell, you can see for yourself: got the scars to prove it."

One bullet wound, visible but obviously stopped, on her right side, scars on her back and one on her left calf. Mindy was busy.

"Even when the enemy of my enemy is my enemy, but the enemy fighting a worse one right now and not after me yet, that's just fucking fine with me. Given his threats so far, normally I'd probably be trying to kill that Zedd guy, but right now, he's useful, so he doesn't cause problems, I could care less. I don't even hate the head demon thing - its just fucking nuts and trying to do its job. And my job is to kill its followers and fix shit and save the world.

I definitely don't hate anyone on the ship... but then I'm a real fucking tolerant person too."

He admires the scars, pausing entirely and sitting up on the weight bench. Those are important. "You got guts, talent and resolve. Real good combo. You might be fucked up, kid, but you're my kind of fucked up. You let me know if there's anything I can do for you to help out. I'm used to working with people, prefer it even... especially my kind of people. Back up, extra lessons, anything, ok?"

"Oh you noticed there were a few crazy people on board right?" Mindy said, grinning. "Well, I don't think I heard of a Zedd..."

She stopped, thinking for a moment. "Man, this is the first I heard of thing but this guy Zedd better not be who I'm thinking he is."

Seriously Stacy, you had to be sane. You HAD to be.

"Head demon thing?"

She grinned. "If it can help me, I'll do it. Mo goal is to get strong, Chase. I won't refuse anything. I'll keep going. So yeah, expect to see me more. There is a reason why I'm here."

Edited 2011-04-10 04:26 (UTC)

"They're recruiting people to fight a war, of course there's crazy people on board. Who better? As for the Zedd guy, never heard of him before, but he has some of the people in engineering all up in arms. As for the head demon thing, in my world, the Wyrm. Originally it had a purpose... destroy shit in balance with the other forces of creation. Then it went crazy and got out of balance, and started creating and recruiting the other demons to destroy everything. That's where the trouble started."

He lays back on the bench, resuming the lifts. "Good, we'll start training more often, as soon as you master the instant stand drills. The Knights trained every day we didn't have specific other shit to do, and sometimes even when we did. No reason to be different here, you can be my workout partner and we'll work some training in."

He considers a few moments, then adds, "In a couple weeks, how do you feel about starting some sniper training? I'm going to be exploring in the city, and could use someone to do some spotting for me."

"Now I get it," she said, glad he wasn't talking Overlord Zetta. Still, whoever this wrym guy was, he sounded like the be all and end all of bad guys. That sort of thing always gave her a thrill of excitement and fear. A bad combination, really. But whatever
was creating an imbalance in the world needed to be stopped, and quick.

She nodded. "I'll train with you guys when I'm not doing a simulation from the Overlord or getting some rest from both of those things. I still have training in zero G too. In short, I'm prepared to be a pretty busy girl."

Mindy grinned. "You just said the magic word."

"Good, I hate resources that are willing to be useful, and aren't put to use. A sniper rifle is one of those great eveners - anyone with a good eye and some training can use it. Impress me with your kips within two weeks, and we'll start you on sniper training and spotting."

Mindy grinned. "Yeah, I was bred to be useful, in more ways than one. I even tried to be when I first arrived on this ship, but she didn't think I had the stuff for it. So you could say that I'm still a little sore about that. But maybe she was right, back then."

"Its possible, or she may have just seen you like most folks are going to, as a kid. And there's times you can use that to your advantage." Having already admitted that at least some of the enemy were possessed kids, he probably has some idea how useful that impression can be, in addition to being somewhat jaded where kids in a combat zone are concerned. Go figure.

"And even then, I figure if I put you on spotter duty, keep you off the front lines or in the deep of the city at first, you'll still be real useful right away, and less people are liable to raise holy hell over it until they get used to seeing you as part of combat ops - ease them into the idea. Besides, intel and snipers are every bit as useful as ground pounders."

"I'm pretty sure me being a kid wasn't as issue to her, it was what she thought I believed in. I was still clinging to being a hero and all, and what she wanted me to do, I knew it went beyond that. But being pissed abut that made me determined, so I'm not bitching too much."

Mindy nodded. "I doubt they're gonna care so long as I'm outta sight, to be honest. The people who would likely make a fuss are those that know how I fight, know that I'm pretty devastating on the battlefield."

"Stealth ops are a specialty. I'm not as good as some of my pack were, but still pretty damn good. I don't doubt that you're pretty brutal in a fight. You have great reflexes, looked like good dexterity. All sorts of things I can do with that base. Watching you so far, you remind me of Julie some in a fight. Might even be interesting to find out who knows some about hacking electronic security and electronic timers and see if you took to infiltration and demolitions work."

Earning my keep

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