Maxx — Roleplayer Guild

  
Taylor's external security met the Valos as they left the mall. One more of the monsters tried to incur the group on their way out, but the heavily-armed security made quick work of it. In the distance, sirens were blaring, and RAVEN cars were screeching into the lot. In the chaos, the security detail mowing down a monster was nearly unnoticed. Inside, Taylor could hear screams and sounds of gunfire as RAVEN forces clashed with the monsters. So much adrenaline was pumping through Taylor at that moment that she hardly remembered that two of her secuity guards had died in the line of duty. It was a thought in her head, but not a reality quite yet. 

The Valos and Taylor walked to Johnny's Hummer, the security detail guarding them as they walked. Then Taylor bid farewell to Bernard and got in the Hummer's second row. 

"If you need me for any reason," Bernard said. 

"You know I will be safe, Bernard," Taylor replied. Bernard sighed and drooped his head. 

"D'accord," he finally said. "Au revoir." (Okay. Goodbye) 

"A bientot," Taylor said. (See you later)

Soon after the security detail departed, Johnny pulled out of the parking garage and drove away from the mall. They passed a RAVEN blockade, who ensured that they were not injured. Taylor let them know of Bernard's broken hand. Then the Valos and Taylor pulled onto Courtbridge Parkway and drove off. Taylor was sitting directly behind Johnny, to the left of Jake. 

"Where exactly are we going now?" Taylor asked. 

"Far away from this clusterfuck as humanly possible!" Johnny answered with a chuckle, which the rest of the Valos awkwardly joined in on. "But, no really, we're heading back to our little hideout in Oakdell..."

"I'm certain you have a lot of questions." Jake said to Taylor.

"Questions we probably don't have the answer to."

"Well, if you want any explanations, might as well ask now..." Gabe asked as she leaned back in the chair and put her hands behind her head. Letting out a puff of air as she tried to relax. It was hard when her power always burns her own fingers off. Taylor shivered. The Valos family was in sync to a truly scary degree. 

"What do you know so far about the missing members of your family?" Taylor asked. 

"So far?" Johnny asked. "They're being held by what's left of the Founding Family... a small contingent of those stupid motherfuckers that hold onto their beliefs." Well, Johnny hoped they were being held by them. There was no evidence of them still being alive, but he was going to hope for once.

"Say... how familiar are you with the Founding Family?" Johnny asked, with a raised eyebrow as he looked back at Taylor.

"Too familiar," Taylor said. "They've been coming after my family for about a year now. They," she paused. "They killed my fiancee about a year ago, and now they've been coming for me." Taylor seemed a little guarded. In the back of her head, she was panicking. 

"Do you - by chance - know what Mechanized Memories, means?" He asked her.

"No, haven't heard of that before," she said. 

"How about the Secretaries?"

"Or better yet," Gabe said as she leaned forward. "Why the hell do they want to kill you, huh?" She asked.

"I don't see any assassins coming after us." 

"My fiancee was a computer scientist working for the DGMHS," Taylor replied. "I helped him to investigate the Founding Family in France. Together we managed to leak the names of some of their top French members. They didn't appreciate that." Taylor's story was well-rehearsed, but she could feel a pang of guilt lying to old friends. 

There was something off here, but Johnny was going to give Taylor the benefit of the doubt. After all, Taylor was one of their closest allies.

"Okay, now can you answer my question?" Johnny asked, pushing her on it. 

"Secretaries?" Taylor asked. "That one I know. The Founding Family kidnap people, and alter their memories with a power of some kind. They're the most devote to the Blessed Three..." 

"Well..." Johnny let the word hang for a few moments, as Jake and Gabe looked very uncomfortable. "That's what Sylvia, Ivete, and Camille have been turned into...."

He sighed for a moment as this got really awkward for him. Like, he didn't want to say it out loud, but at the same time, he felt it was a little obvious.

"... We were Secretaries. Me and Jake." Gabe just came out and said it. "For months... I don't even remember a thing. Johnny had to tell me the sick things they did to us..." Taylor gasped and put her face in her hands. 

"I'm so sorry," she said. "That must have been absolutely horrible." 

"Yeah, it fuckin' sucks..." Gabe said, trying not to snap at Taylor for not understanding. "Either way, Johnny saved us... but we still got people in there. And we got to get them out."

"It's not going to be easy," Taylor said. "But you already know that. Do you know where they're being held yet?" 

"... And that's the other problem," Johnny said. "We don't know exactly where they are... we just have the location of one of their bases, and that's it."

"I see," Taylor said. "And exactly where might that be?" 

"Somewhere in Old Raygate," Johnny shrugged. They reached a light, and Johnny looked over his shoulder at Taylor. Just so he can see her emotional aura.... Fear... and guilt. He raised an eyebrow as he turned to focus on the road.

"We're gonna go scout it out tonight, then figure out what we can find."

"Alright," Taylor said. "I'm in." The car fell silent. Taylor looked out the window at the cars passing by. A wave of depression sat over her as the adrenaline began to wear off and the thought of the dead men came back. Clemont was an old friend, a member of her detail for almost as long as Bernard. He was a good man, a father of a little girl with the most beautiful green eyes. There wouldn't even be a corpse left to bury. Taylor sighed. 

"Excellent!" Johnny said. "Let's go back to Oakdell to chill."

"Do you know what is causing people to transform into the creatures we saw in the mall?" she asked. "Is it just a metahuman's ability?" She thought of all of the Founding Family members she knew; none of them had a power that ridiculous or she was sure she would've remembered. 

"No fucking idea!" Johnny loudly said. "And it ain't our problem, either! Let's leave that to RAVEN, and the other supermen, shall we?" He asked.

"Aren't you forgetting something, Johnny?" Gabe asked. "Remember, our contact?"

"Miranda?" Johnny asked, before he flagged her off. "Let's forget about that broad, even if she helped us... she worked with the Family, and therefore cannot be trusted."

"Speaking of the Family," Taylor said. "How did you break Gabe and Jake free of the mechanized memories? The DGMHS couldn't even manage to do that." 

"Well," Johnny stopped at another light, and raised his finger up into the air. It glew with a white light, and several different colors pulsed across the light. "As it turned out, my ability can combat other Cerebral types... specifically those damn Domination types."

He started off his explanation, and Jake and Gabe resigned from the conversation again.

"Secretaries are created by the mother of all Domination types," Johnny started off. "So, all I have to do is touch them with a little bit of this to break the trance!"

"That is...amazing," Taylor said. "That could help bring this entire organization down. Does RAVEN know about this?" 

"No, and I don't want them to," Johnny shortly, and bitterly answered. "Know how many of em' were sucking the dicks of the Family?" He asked.

"Yes, but-" she stopped herself and looked down. She wasn't in a position to argue with an empath gunslinger. She looked down at her phone. A text from Jeanne confirmed that Bernard was receiving medical attention. She replied "D'accord. Faites-moi savoir si quelque chose change." (Okay. Let me know if anything changes). She looked out of the window and the car fell silent again. 

"But, what?" Johnny asked with a raised eyebrow. 

"Nothing," she said. "Don't worry about it." 

"Alriiiiiiiight," Johnny shrugged, and the vehicle fell into a deep silence as the rest of the car ride took place. While Johnny was told not to worry about it... he couldn't help but worry about it. He wasn't the type to let things be left unsaid. Especially when the lives of his sisters are on the line. It wasn't long before the Valos left Prince Ed-Field, and went straight back to Oakdell Harbor. They arrived outside their scenic blue beach house, and the hummer came to a stop. The Valos hopped out the vehicle - but Jake opened the door just for Taylor. The four made haste as they entered their beach house, and the first thing Taylor probably laid her eyes upon was the coffee table covered in guns... with Jaska asleep on the sofa. Taylor walked in and gave the room a once-over. As expected, it was as nice, if not nicer, than her hotel room. 

"Jaska, wake up!" Johnny said, as he walked over to the sofa and kicked it. "You were supposed to keep an eye out! Not doze off."

"Oh, sorry," Jaska said as he rubbed the side of his head. Still half asleep. "I got bored..."

Then his eyes rested upon Taylor... first he was surprised because he didn't notice her at first, but then said, "Oh, so you got her to help?"

"Yup!" Johnny said. "There ain't nobody we can trust more than Taylor, Jaska!" Taylor smiled a bit at the boy. She wasn't sure how sarcastic Johnny was being. 

Gabe crossed her arms and narrowed her eye at Johnny. While Jake awkwardly scratched the back of his neck.

"... I can name a few." Gabe bitterly said.

"Oh, speaking of which, Taylor," Jake said. "We do have more allies in this fight."

"Oh?" Taylor asked. "How many others are there?" 

"Oh, just the entire Liu family." Jake casually said with a shrug. Taylor would had to have been living under one hell of a rock if she didn't know who the Lius were. "My girlfriend, Lin, and her older sister, Mika, have been helping us the closet - but, they all want to help us."

"Y'know, the girl that made your good ol' friend Carole go on a warpath." Gabe said with a cocky smile, and Jake once again nervously scratched the back of his neck.

"... Just presently they're busy with other affairs." Johnny answered.

"Oh don't even get me started on that woman," Taylor replied. "Story for another time. Anyways, I can have at least four armed men, three of which are metahuman, on the ground whenever you need them. They might not be useful for tonight and I can't guarantee they will provide any significance when it comes to abilities, but if we need cover fire they will serve us well." Most of the other members of Taylor's detail were metas, but really only Bernard was near Taylor's impressiveness among them. 

"Good. Meat-Shields!" Johnny said completely straight faced. Taylor frowned. 

"Unfortunately, yes," Taylor said. "Let's just try very hard to make sure nobody dies." 

"... Don't pay Johnny any mind, Taylor," Gabe rolled her eyes. "The jackass once crashed a hummer through the front doors of a club."

"And for the last time, Gabe," Johnny answered. "I didn't do it on purpose!"

"Trust me, ma soeur," Taylor said. "I've been around Johnny enough to know how much of a jackass he is." Taylor picked up off the table the absolutely most ludicrous gun she had ever seen. It was three feet long, all metal and black plastic. So many knives jutted out from its exterior that Taylor was certain it was impossible for a normal human to hold. It had at least three magazines, four grips, and three barrels. "What could you possibly ever need this for?" she asked, looking through the scope. There were no less than thirteen crosshairs inside, pointing each to individual objects. 

"Killing people!" Johnny answered.

"But...how is this any better than a normal rifle?!" she exclaimed. "How do you even hold this without stabbing yourself?" She looked down at three five-inch bayonets that literally stuck out of the butt of the gun, right where a shoulder should go. 

"I wear armor, of course," Johnny answered. "And do you see the munitions on this thing? It can't kill anything without armor or something stupid like that!" 

"But so can a...this is stupid," Taylor said. She put the gun down and muttered a French curse under her breath. Then she sat down on the couch and put her feet up on the coffee table, to the left of a quad-barrel shotgun. 

"Maybe you can use it."Taylor was over it. She looked to her right where Jaska was sitting, rubbing his eyes. She waved and said "Bounjour!" 

"... Do you even need sleep?" Gabe asked Taylor, with a hand on her hip. "You're like a robot."

"I'm not a robot!" Taylor snapped back, offended. "I just have metal skin. My insides are just as squishy as yours!" 

"Oh?" Gabe asked with a sly smile. She reached forward, and asked, "Can I see?" Awkwardly, Taylor opened her mouth and stuck her tongue out. It was pink and fleshy. Her teeth, however, were silver like her skin. 

"Shee? Plesh," Taylor said with an open mouth. 

"Oh, sweetheart." Gabe said. "I was only teasin' ya. Ha!" Embarrassed, Taylor closed her mouth and looked at her phone in her lap. 

"So what do we do now?" Taylor asked. 

"We're gonna just chill..." Johnny said, before he looked at the table covered in guns. "Y'know, for all the guns I brought, know what I forgot?"

"If the answer is liquor I'm gonna stab you," Taylor said. 

"Even better!" Johnny said.

"The weed!"

Baarsuth

As Baarsuth stood at attention on the deck of the Phoenix, one thought crossed his mind; holy shit this thing was a wreck. Before entering the ship he gave it a once-over from the outside, and oh boy was it a junker! Outdated thrusters, rust gathering on the hull, transparisteel windows- he might as well have been piloting a garbage truck. Then there was the matter of the model; the 578-R Transport. Baarsuth had never seen one before (not even the Jawas on Tatooine were dumb or desperate enough to use the 578) but he knew it by reputation alone. The ship had been recalled for severe manufacturing defects...three-hundred years ago. As Baarsuth boarded the ship, he took a nervous gulp. If this ship lived up to its reputation, this was going to be a very bumpy ride. 

He stood at attention as Varen talked, keeping his eyes fixed ahead. Though he tried to look professional, he couldn't manage to conceal a frown. Varen's speech was nothing special; this was a one-flight job on a practical garbage truck transporting god-knows-what to a hellish desert. Of course they all had to watch their own asses. Baarsuth recalled giving a few similar speeches on his own ship some years ago. Varen's eyes scanned past Baarsuth like a laser-focused spotlight, resting on him for a moment and then moving on past. This was a motley crew, if nothing else, but Baarsuth wasn't much worried about it. So long as they did their damned jobs he'd be fine with them. After the speech concluded and the crew dispersed, Baarsuth walked right up to the captain. 

"Afternoon, cap'n," Baarsuth said. "You mind if I have a word with ya? I gave this here spacecraft a yours a once-over from outside, and I've got me a fair share a safety concerns. The 578-R, ain't that thing been recalled fer hyperdrive malfunctions? Now I'll fly anything anywhere, but this thing could shoot us into a planet or star real easylike."

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