Amanda.
About a dozen steps away, a lanky woman wearing a thick trenchcoat, baggy cargo pants and sporting a frizzy red ponytail waved at her as her feet touched the ground. The smile on her face about as genuine as Mandy's own, unseen or otherwise, as she waved right back.
"Sorry about Jon over there; he's usually rock solid, but… well, everyone has their nerves get the better of them sometimes, you know?"
"Eh, I get it… Ghouls are freaking scary, am I right?"
"It sucks, but, yeah… I mean, for me, I can always just fly away, but scavenging indoors and with low ceilings? My anxiety goes crazy."
"Totally… you guys part of a settlement nearby?"
Pausing for only a momentary missed beat. The flyer peered to the side, eyes shifting away from Amanda. "Can't answer that until you tell us what you're power is and show us." The girl happily replied, still smiling but offering an apologetic shrug that really didn't reach her eyes. "Thems the rules. Can't have dangerous crazy's we know nothing about finding all the old folk and kids, yeah?"
"I'm really good with guns." Amanda offered pointing at one of the many pistols on her person without drawing any of them.
"Is… that it?"
"Like really good." She reiterated, leaning back on both hands without offering a demonstration.
"So you're an atypical?"
"Pretty much, sort of like a speedster but with firearms! I also don't really run out of bullets."
The other woman merely nodded… still smiling but now also maintaining a respectably uncertain cast about her expression, Mandy not at all missing the fact that the girl was still holding the transmitter on her radio.
Clever.
But it wasn't like Mandy ever tried to hide her powers from people, merely omitting great swaths of the truth! She was very fast with her guns! Even without freezing time! And she didn't really run out of bullets either!
The perfect fib! One that was completely true!
"So… you ever—use that particular talent to take things from unsuspecting folk?"
"Yuuup! All the time! But usually, it only happens after they start shooting at me first."
"Right…" Livi replied, no doubt, wondering just how much danger she was in given that their side had, by her word of mouth, started shooting first…
So far as the other woman's survival instincts went, they were about as prevalent as Amanda's own—which wasn't saying much… The fact she'd flown down to a stand before a masked and unknown stranger who one of their own team members was calling a monster showed—guts. Or, a possible lack of encountering people who were among those she'd call the armpit of the human race…
The problem was that people usually only got the opportunity to make that mistake once. So, either the girl really was as young and naive as she looked, or she had more than basic flight to back herself up.
Honestly, dealing with strangers was an utter shitshow. You just never knew who was packing what, who was lying, who was more dangerous than they let on… etcetera, etcetera…
"I'm not planning on shooting at you, by the way," She earnestly offered a moment later. Still bobbing her feet. "I'm not some maniac that gets off on murdering people!"
"That's—really good to hear…" Livi replied tersely, nodding her head as she did so. "Never can be too careful as I'm sure a loner like you can understand… so if you don't mind sitting here and waiting until Burt comes by to figure out what's going on, that would be mighty useful…"
"You're settlement have any brainiac tech to trade?"
"Why, you've got comparable goods to barter with?"
"I do!" Mandy nodded, smiling beneath her mask. "I've got a sat-phone that works off a still valid network of satellites. An induction cooktop that charges for a full day in under an hour of sunlight… Glasses that let you see through walls…"
"Wait, really?"
"Eh—they're kind of novelty?" Amanda explained, rolling her head from side to side. "They work great for anything up to a foot of concrete, but after that, they kind of fall off… Really useful when trying to figure out if there's a horde of ghouls on the other side of a door—"
"Yeah! No fucking kidding!" the girl exclaimed, just staring at Mandy… "And you want to trade all that?"
"I like collecting cool guns. If you've got a brainiac that can do some upgrades or have any of the old classics, I'd be totally willing to trade! I've got other stuff, too, but that can come later."
"Right… that's fair… So, are you some wandering trader then?"
"Yeah—I mean, I also do a good bit of scavenging, obviously, but I've come all the way up from Florida!"
"On foot?"
"It's been a hike!" Amanda agreed, her head shifting as her gaze fell upon a large and brick-like individual who stomped his way down the road, tight leather pants doing all they could reasonably be expected to do given how snugly they wrapped around his legs. As for the rest of him? Arms the size of damned tree trunks… and not the small kind…
This was a fairly good example of the rule of objectivity when pertaining to mutations.
Some, like Jon, didn't turn into comic-book reflections of their true selves. Remaining as their genes intended from a visual standpoint while others… well, they turned into square-jawed, barrel-chested and chiselled-chin super-stars that could hold a six-pack regardless of eating an entire pizza every night…
The thing was, Amanda had been around the block enough times to know how such things liked to play out. While you couldn't judge a brawn-based mutant by their unassuming looks, you absolutely could judge one that looked like a giant weightlifter on steroids…
Whoever this Burt man was, he immediately jumped to the very top of Amanda's to be concerned about the list in a single instant! All relative of course, such instincts merely being of a kind of vestigial sort for her these days...
"Jon!" The man roared while shoving a car out of his way that very literally went skidding towards the sidewalk! "The fuck you doing out here, you bonehead? Picking fights with travellers willing to trade with brainiac tech? The hell's the matter with you!"
"I—I ain't lying, Burt! I'm honest here! She's—"
"A monster? Where? Are you dead? Is Olivia dead? Had anybody even seen her so much as reach for her guns?"
"The ghouls!"
"What fucking ghouls?" The huge super demanded, one of his thick, concrete block-sized hands gesturing out to the empty street that, admittedly, still had a whole bunch of casings lying around it and errant bits of dubious wet meat…
Mandy did like a bit of risk here and there. What was the fun if there was no chance she could get caught? She almost squirmed with delight while giving the shiny brass a bit of side-eye. Really doing her best not to giggle with abject joy.
"They were there, man! I'm telling you!"
"And the dozen bottles of beer? You gonna tell me they were all empty when you found them?"
"I ain't drunk! You can smell my breath!"
That seemed to make the large brute pause. Though, admittedly, she couldn't see him now that he'd gone behind the RV, Mandy could quite easily imagine the huge leader bending over and taking a good whiff of the other man.
When Burt still didn't say anything, Mandy thought she might just have to shoot her way out!
Not everyone, which was to say, mostly no one, enjoyed being the butt of her little tricks. But, when Big Burt, the man's new nickname in her head, rounded the corner of the RV, his face was not filled with rage, but instead, pensive uncertainty.
"Wow…" She whispered, probably within the confines of her head, "Strong, smart and sexy… the triple threat!" Though Mandy preferred her sexual partners to be a deal—less huge, she'd totally rub her pussy across his rock-hard abs until she squirted all over his face! Not that she was feeling particularly horney at that moment—but, as the saying went, love could always find a way!
"Are you—did you really just say that out loud? A-and, in the third person?" Olivia asked, glancing at Amanda, who merely shrugged.
Who was to say if she truly had?
She'd long ago lost most of her filters in that regard… Either way, who cared if she was overheard? She'd meant what she said. All of it. Though as to which parts of which thoughts and words amidst all the jumbled nonsense had managed to be vocalized—well, she knew she wasn't perfect, so why try?
The face that Burt made, however, was less than flattered. In fact, his expression immediately shrouded behind a curtain of neutrality that told her he either thought she was a loon, lying, wasn't interested in girls, or already had a woman who he loved very dearly in his life.
None of which meant she was likely to get laid. Not unless his lady friend was interested in sharing, which Mandy was down for!
Or, unless he was into the unquestionably insane type, at which point, Mandy would teach him the folly of thinking anybody could fix her! She got right filthy in the pig pen and was willing to drag anyone and everyone near enough in as well! And no matter what anyone wanted to tell themselves, craziness was absolutely contagious!
"She's just a bit of a strange one, boss…" Olivia stated as the large behemoth of a human approached, dwarfing the tall redhead and making Mandy look like a damned child! She hardly even reached his waist! "Seems a little—touched in the old noggin?"
"How the heck do you even fit inside buildings?" Mandy blurted, earnestly needing to crane her neck just to look at the dude's face…
"Carefully. And the same way I deal with those who clearly don't have their shit together…"
"Eh, careful ruins all the fun in life! And you can probably lay off your boy over there… There were, like, fifty zombies out here! Not his fault they all disappeared on him!"
Olivia seemed to jerk at that, flinching away slightly as though Mandy were an unknown bug with too many legs and colours… Burt, by contrast, merely nodded his head…
"And what happened to all those ghouls…"
"Bang!" Mandy chirped, mimicking a gun to the side of her head and pulling the trigger!
"And the bodies?"
"Trade secret."
"Trade secret…" The man parroted… pulling in a deep breath through his teeth. "So, does that mean you're also a gun for hire? Assuming you're primary trade isn't trading."
"It can be if you want to pay me a lot-lot-lot of cool guns! Or, useful brainiac tech—or something else equally interesting… rare food, beverages… fresh fruit… oh! Information also works too! The good stuff, obviously! And I am looking for the keys to a Kawasaki Ninja! Freaking impossible to bloody find…" She lamented, frowning that her dream bike had thus far eluded even her seemingly limitless potential for acquiring cool things…
"That's quite the wish list…"
"Yeah, of a crazy person!" Olivia murmured so softly that Amanda had to read her lips to actually make it out.
Whether he heard her or not, Big Burt didn't so much as twitch an eyelash, still keeping his gaze on her while clearly trying to discern what to make of it all. "What happens if I say we ain't interested in having dealings? That I'd like nothing more than for you to go you're way and for us to go our way. No trading, no visiting the settlement… no violence…"
"Then I just keep going the way I was!"
"And which way was that?"
"I sort of just let the ghouls chase me until I find something neat." She replied, being entirely truthful. It was honestly the best way to travel! When one didn't have a destination in mind, it was always prudent to find ways to let fate take the wheel!
"Yup, she's insane!" Olivia stated, this time, not bothering to be quiet about it.
"I accept that fact!"
"Don't you mean reject? Normal people would reject that."
"Who says I'm normal?"
"Oh fuck… that poor thing ain't even living in reality no more, is she?" A feminine and motherly voice asked, crackling through the speakers.
"I don't know…" Carlos offered, approaching from the side, though at a measured pace and taking great pains to avoid looking like he was trying to flank her. "She says she killed fifty ghouls in the blink of an eye… even without the bodies… you can see the casings littering the street… the wet blood, and bits of gore… Jon said it happened in an instant… and, was might terrified of her to boot…"
"And you think that makes it a good idea to tell her where we are from?"
"No. But I think it makes it a good idea to see if she's interested in a list of our guns. If that's what she wants in exchange for clearing out a few places we haven't wanted to take on, why not bring her on for a job or two? Better her than us, no?"
"Well, not when you say it out loud in front of her, it isn't!" Olivia laughed, though it was a humourless thing at best…
"Eh, that just sounds like good business to me," Mandy shrugged with casual indifference. "If you've got anything interesting and hard to find, why wouldn't I go clear out a few hundred ghouls somewhere? Sounds like a fair trade!"
"Which means it's not a fair trade for us." The large man stated, never yet looking away from her. "If you're talking about wiping out a hoard like that on you're own, it sounds as though we'd be on the losing side of that bargain given the effort involved, no?"
"That's all relative! If I didn't clear out wherever it was we were hypothetically talking about, then it would still be full of ghouls! The amount of effort I put in doesent matter, only how hard it is for you to do versus what you're willing to spend to have me do it! That's why lawyers made so much money!"
Burt didn't immediately reply. The gears in the man's mind seemed to churn with intense consideration while, beside him, Carlos reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a pack of likely stale cigarettes. Still, when there wasn't an alternative, she guessed they'd still hit that nicotine itch…
A moment later, he was sparking a small flame from one of his fingers, which marked him as a pyro as well as a speedster! And either, he had talent at controlling his powers to ensure only a small flame emerged from his finger. That, or his pyrokinetic capabilities, were insanely lame. Yet, she'd learned to err on the side of caution, so she assumed he could do much, much more.
"Ew, Carlos, you really need to smoke that so close to me?"
"Ay, fuck! Sorry, Livi! Shit… let me—I'll just go over here…"
Olivia grimaced at the scent of tobacco in the air while Carlos just started wandering to the middle of the street, staring at the multitude of brass that littered the area and kicking a few of them while huffing on his terrible addiction…
"What exactly is it you're looking for?" The large mutant asked, one hand rubbing at his anvil of a chin while the woman beside him sighed with audible dismay. Much as she'd seemed friendly, it was entirely possible she wasn't quite so helpless as she'd first appeared.
That, Mandy mused, was a sign that she was dealing with something of a crack team, or, however, so far as such a phrase could apply to a group such as their own. In old-world terms? It didn't really stick. But, post-downfall of modern society and elite special forces? Well, they were likely what constituted as their settlement's best of the best.
Maybe there'd be one or two equally potent individuals holding down the fort, as it were, along with a whole bucket load of more normal people. However, their leaders, if the man before her wasn't exactly that, were likely putting together their best talent that had the least chance of dying while operating on their own. And, if that was true, then more than likely, Jon had been the weakest of their bunch.
The guy who watched the cars.
It was a fairly common practice so far as they went, which was to say they weren't anything special. Not to sound mean or anything, but sending the right people for the right job was merely common sense! Not the great tactical genius of Ghengus Khan or Patton…
Yet, for her part, Mandy could only smile beneath her mask. Sure, wholesale slaughter in a life-or-death fight against supers who knew what they were doing was fun! But getting sent to a place where so-called super-humans were afraid to go themselves?
Yeah… That, as it happened, sounded right up Amanda's alley!