Scott packed, said his goodbyes to his family, and headed out the door of the apartment. He made it a few steps when the door reopened, and Jeanie stepped out and walked over to him.
"One more kiss." She demanded, and he happily obliged. She turned to head back to the apartment and stopped.
"Also, if that tramp Alexia tries anything, I will cut her." And with that, she walked into the apartment and closed the door.
He stood there for a minute, trying to take everything in. There had been no time to consider Jeanie’s feelings towards Scott heading out of town to work on a job with his ex-girlfriend. Sure, they had still worked jobs together after he got together with Jeanie, but those were quick local things. He thought maybe that it was a tad insensitive to overlook something that big. There was no point in dwelling on it now. All he could do was get the job done as quickly as possible and get back home to his family.
Scott bounded the stairs leading to the apartment building's exit and swung the door open. A honking horn greeted him, emanating from a raised black pickup truck with huge wheels and a pair of iron testicles dangling from the hitch. He jogged to the truck, climbed up the passenger side, and threw his stuff in the back. The truck continued to beep.
"You can stop beeping now, Bricks. Not everyone thinks that your charm outweighs your annoyances."
"Well, if they don't, then they pretty much suck." Bricks tipped his cowboy hat towards Scott and laid off the horn.
Scott and Bricks had known each other pretty much their whole life. They grew up in what was Washington DC. Scott remembered when Bricks chose his cowboy persona after watching Young Guns when they were 10 years old at James Pearson’s sleepover birthday party. Scott always thought it was a phase, but it became who Bricks was after a couple of years. Some people didn’t like Brick’s crude humor and abrasive tendencies, but Scott knew better than anyone that he was a big softy at heart. He was the one member of his old crew he had stayed in touch with after his release from prison. Hell, Bricks was the only one that visited him in prison other than Jeanie. He knew this job was difficult, but he felt better with Bricks by his side.
The pair drove to an address Paul provided them, near what was once The Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. They reached a parking garage, parked on the 4th level as instructed, and took the stairs up to the roof. The garage’s roof was empty, save for a sizeable Recreational Vehicle. Scott examined the burgundy RV and its swirling gold pattern running from the bottom part of the front grill and tapering off towards the back. He thought it an odd choice of color scheme for a covert mission. Scott subscribed to the hide in plain sight methodology, but this RV screamed ’Notice Me!’.
“I call dibs on driving that bad boy.” Bricks nudged Scott in the ribs. Scott thought the RV and Bricks shared the same level of subtlety. A giant black cowboy driving a burgundy and gold RV into a small mountain town, who would possibly pay notice to that?
As they walked towards the RV, the side door opened, and a slender woman with black hair in pigtails stepped out. One pigtail had a red bow on top of it, and the other had a blue bow. She was wearing overall shorts with one strap unbuttoned and a black tank top with a yellow classic Batman logo. Dark leggings covered her legs, flowing into a pair of black converse. A giant Cheshire cat grin flashed across the small woman's face, and she waved to the approaching duo.
“Hi! I’m Yumi!” the pigtailed girl said with enthusiasm.
“Well, hello there, little lady, you sure are a sight for these cowboy's sore eyes." Bricks said as he removed his cowboy hat and dipped it towards the woman. He made sure to play up the southern twang.
"Well, aren't you a little charmer?" Yumi smiled at Bricks
"I'm Bricks, truly a pleasure to meet you." Bricks extended his hand, and Yumi reached out and shook it.
"Well, then you must be Scott since there are only two boys on the team." Yumi pivoted from Bricks to Scott, maintaining her wide grin.
"That would be me." Scott said, "It's nice to meet you, Yumi."
"Do you guys want to wait for the other members or go check out our ride now?" Yumi asked as she crossed her legs with one foot behind the other and cutely pivoted between the two men.
“I want to check more than the ride, little lady.” Bricks said
Yumi giggled. “You're cute; oh, look, the girls are here.” Yumi pointed towards the stairwell's door.
“What up, Party people!” Vanessa yelled and held her hands in the air as Alexia strolled next to her.
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A dark SUV pulled up the ramp and onto the roof, parking next to the RV. Paul Jackson stepped out of the passenger side, looking as dapper as during their first meeting. He wore a suit almost identical to the one he wore to their briefing, but it was slightly darker, and his tie was different. Designer sunglasses covered his eyes, and he strolled effortlessly towards the RV.
“Hello, Paul. I was afraid you had already given up on us and weren’t going to show.” Scott said
“My apologies, I try to be early, but I had a meeting with our fearless leader that ran over.” Paul’s tone changed ever so slightly with the words fearless leader. It was barely noticeable but swam very close to mocking.
“Nothing bad, I hope,” Vanessa said
“Just laying out expectations for this mission.” Paul smiled slightly
“I never did ask, what exactly is your role in N.E.T? Aside from making all us non-male model types look bad.” Scott inquired
“Well, I don’t like to talk about myself too much.” Paul gave a slight grin, one that screamed of someone that very much liked talking about themselves. “I guess you could say I run the day-to-day operations. In general, the Overseer is more a big picture person, and I help keep the wheels moving.”
“If he is such a big picture guy, then why would he want to be so involved with us?” Scott asked
“Sometimes he finds pet projects that he takes great interest in, for various reasons. I can’t tell you what attracts him to yours specifically, but he is always a big fan of covert operations. He was an avid reader of spy novels, in the pre-super powered human days; maybe that plays into this. I really don’t know for sure. His interest puts a pretty big spotlight on your group, though.”
“And what exactly is his super ability?” Vanessa asked
“Now, now, Ms. Carlton. You know better than to think I could or would answer that.” Paul flashed his brilliantly white smile.
“Can’t blame a girl for trying.”
“I surely cannot, Ms. Carlton. Now small talk aside, Yumi, perhaps you would like to give everyone a tour of the RV that will be your home for the near future?”
Yumi nodded and led the group into the RV. At first glance, it looked like any other RV, but Yumi was quick to point out that “it’s like a transformer, and there was more than meets the eye.” She was spot on about that. Entering the correct code into the microwave, slide open a fingerprint scanner from the molding beneath it. Yumi scanned her fingerprint, and the team watched in amazement as the dining room table folded into the floor and a large touch screen came up to replace it. Jaws hit the floor as the padded bench surrounding the dining room table sank into the wall and was replaced by a single chair surrounded by monitors, keyboards, and many buttons that surely did important things. Silence filled the RV while the team attempted to wrap their minds around what they witnessed.
“So, this is where I set up the command center,” Yumi said, slicing through the veil of silence. “From here, I can communicate with you guys through almost invisible earpieces that also serve as GPS, so I can always know where you are. I will be able to search and relay any information that you guys need.”
“This is dope!” Vanessa shot out, “Are you some kind of adorable mad scientist, Yumi?”
Yumi giggled in what seemed to be her trademark way. “I know my way around computers and this sort of equipment, but I certainly did not build it. Anyone could master this equipment with a little practice. It's not so hard.” Yumi was motioning to all the equipment that had sprung out of nowhere.
“Don’t let her fool you. Yumi is quite the technical wizard. One of our better operatives if the reports I read are correct.” Paul said
“I do alright. I think I was really assigned to mission for my, uh, power.” Yumi was a little uncomfortable with this line of discussion. “I am a healer.”
With that bomb, you could hear a pin drop in the RV. Healing was almost as rare as Scott’s power. People discussed healers the same way they discussed Bigfoot or leprechauns. People often told stories of them, but few ever held up to scrutiny.
“Beautiful and rare? Damn girl, you are a real-life unicorn. That is sexy as all get out!” Brick’s half-shouted, throwing both hands up in the air.
“Um, thanks. I guess.” Yumi replied.
“Please pay no mind to that Neanderthal Yumi. What sort of healing are we talking about? Like, speed up your body’s natural process? Or you return someone from the brink of death, in a few minutes healing?” Alexia queried, sounding very interested suddenly.
“I ain’t no Neanderthal! I have never even been to the Netherlands. I’m pure 100% grade American beef.” Bricks looked at Yumi and winked.
Despite the looks of bewilderment from everyone else in the RV, Yumi seemed unfazed by Brick's words, “I guess probably closer to the latter, but I still need your body to do some of the work.”
Yumi continued, “For example, if your shot, I can restore your vitals to normal and even stop the bleeding, but I can’t replace lost blood or expel the bullet. You will almost certainly have a small scar also.”
“What about a broken bone or a muscle injury?” Alexia asked
“I can heal the break, but not quite to full strength. You still need time to regain full stability, but I shorten that time from weeks or months to days or hours. Muscle stuff, like strains or pulls, I can usually knock out pretty quickly.” Yumi answered
“Well, it’s good to have you on the team Yumi. I’m sure Alexia will become besties with you; she gets a lot of minor bumps and bruises with her power set.” Scott said
Alexia rolled her eyes in Scott’s direction and flashed a smile to Yumi. “Happy to have you onboard, Yumi.”
“Thanks, you guys all seem really cool so far.” Yumi replied, “I think we should probably hit the road. I figured we could make it in about 29 hours with minimal stops. There are RV-friendly campgrounds within a few miles of the meeting place. We can set up shop there.”
“Sounds good. That will give us four or so days before the meeting to get our stuff in order.” Scott said
“I got first dibs on driving!” Bricks exclaimed, “Shotgun has your name on it, Yumi.”
“I suppose that is my signal to depart. Yumi has my information on the comm channels, and here is my phone number.” Paul handed a card to Scott. “It’s my direct line, but again, be very judicious of its use outside of the N.E.T territory.”
Scott nodded and held his hand out to Paul, which Paul met with a handshake. “Thank you.” Scott mouthed.
“I wish you all success, and please let me know if I can help in any way.” Paul smiled at all of them and exited the RV. Brick’s turned the key in the ignition, and the large vehicle roared to life. Time to hit the road.