Road Trip (open)

[Austin Feltz]

Austin moved slowly, uncurling himself from the rather uncomfortable position he'd squeezed himself into. The small section of the sewers he was in was dark, only dimly lit by an antique lantern that had survived time itself in the basement of some nameless, worthless human. Once he’d wedged himself up from the ledge he’d curled up on he looked briefly at the lantern watching the flame dance behind its glass crystal cover. He stood up in the dark stretching out his hands touching the grime covered walls on either side of him. Feeling the walls he quickly pulled his hands back slightly disgusted.

The smell of the sewer wasn’t as bad as it could have been that or his breath just smelled worst. He despised hiding in the sewers just to get a full night sleep but it was the only way he felt he’d make it through the night. Not many people walked the streets of New York anymore and most that did were mutants. So it was one of those situations of better safe than sorry. As the morning slowly passed Austin began gathering the small amount of things he had. It was becoming rarer and rarer to actually find something in this city suitable to eat. It was rumored that somewhere in the sewers there was actually a farm where they raised cattle and such though he highly doubted it. Though the sewers wouldn’t smell any different if someone smuggled in a hundred cattle or even a thousand, it’d still smell like someone had died.

Once the last of his things had been gathered in a rather small backpack he slung it over his shoulder and around his other arm as he headed for the ladder leading to a manhole above. Grabbing hold of the rusty bars he began making his way up to the manhole. Once he’d made it to the highest rung he could without hitting his head he easily lifted the metal cover with one hand. There was a small sound and a jingle almost like change as his dog jumped from a top the cover. As light graced his face his skin rippled like a puddle that had just been stepped in. His skin tone changed, his bald head grew dark blond hair, his eyes turned a dark grey. If anyone saw him they would know he was a mutant but as he stepped above ground he looked as human as they came. Not only that but he appeared well groomed, his hair looked like he had just brushed it, his teeth were clean, and he even smelled like soap.

Replacing the cover back over the hole he looked down at his dog who had obviously been roaming around for food in the dark of the night. He calmly knelt down giving his dog a smile as he pulled a small plastic wrapped Twinkie from his pocket. “Here you go boy,” he said unwrapping the package and holding it out to the dog. To which the dog eagerly took a bite and then another until he’d finished it. Austin smiled and rubbed the dog’s head standing back up and tossing the wrapper on the ground. He began walking calmly on the side walk, his dog close behind him sniffing every crack in the ground as they made there way toward the highway.

[Piper]

It has been a year or two after her escape from the death camp, she had little supply of her own. Little water and hardly any food was in her bag. She wore a white tank, black leather jacket and blue jeans. On her feet she wore black combat boots and she wearing gold rimmed glasses to protect her eyes, mostly likely got off a dead cop. Her clothes were stolen of course and something in her ears. Loud noises hurt her, like a dog with a loud whistle. She was in New York now, it had been a rough ride for her on the way here.

She walked through the dead streets, the place looking a bit grim, could use a woman's touch. She pulled out the water bottle bottle in her pack and took a small drink from it. Putting back the bottle she continued walking into the hot sun, her boots heavy on her feet. Her legs fell like concrete blocks, feeling like she was about to collapse here on the ground. It seemed like forever she had been walking, her hair wasn't helping much either, should have had to cut off. So she stopped under some shade for a bit of rest off her legs.

She hasn't been there for a moment and she heard something, foot steps, patter of four legs and another set of two. Damnit, why now, of all the places get be found sitting on your ass. Having no real energy to fight, she ducked under some cover and hoped they would pass soon, who ever it was walking toward her. The scavengers better not have followed her all the way out here.

[Austin Feltz]

His eyes focused on the ground he walked silently. His dog seemed to have found something, Austin though it was food seeing as he seemed so excited going off on his own trail. The dog had successfully found what he'd been looking for but Austin wasn't paying much attention to him. It wasn't unlike the dog to run off to investigate something, he was normally only gone ten to fifteen minutes then he'd be back under his heals trying to heard him, as it was bred into him.

Austin continued on his way lifting a hand and resting it against the strap of the backpack. He'd gone quiet a distance from his pet now and was wondering why the normally panting hadn't resumed.He turned on his heel in a rather odd fashion to turn and see his dog standing anxiously sniffing at something. He remained silent for a moment. Stories had been told of scavengers and small tribes that lived along the roads stealing from people.

He always considered those rumors to keep people underground much like the myth about underground cattle. Though this one seemed a lot more likely, especially considering how his dog was acting. A feint wind blew through the empty streets throwing trash about along with dust. His dark blue shirt ruffled in the wind as he stared at the figure he could just barely make out. "There's no use in hiding, if you're going to try and attack me I'd prefer we'd get this over with.", he said sternly before letting out a quick whistle the rang down the empty streets to get the dog back to him.

[Piper]

She could hear the dogs pants coming closer and closer toward her. She never expected a dog to be here, much less a live one. It had been some time since she had seen a dog. But this one was cute, black and white fur, fluffy like a poodle. However, seeing the dog coming toward her, eyes growing wide under the glasses. Damnit, she was found and by a dog no less. She stood up after hearing the mans voice and placed a hand to her hip.

She walked into the light, the dog trotting over to him as she stood there. "I would have jumped you as you were passing me up. Never really planned on attacking you." she told him "Well, unless you attacked me." she added with a smirk and then raised her hand to block the strong sun, the sun glasses weren't not strong enough to block a lot of the sun out. She then hissed and then walked a little closer to the two, the dog starting to growl at her as she got closer to the dogs master. This made her stop and smiled at the dog and bent down holding her hand out so the dog could smell her first.

She smiled as the dog licked her hand and she looked at him and said "I'm Piper." she then looked around and dusted herself off and said "Who are you?" she asked him as she took out her bottled water and took a drink. Sweat running down her brow as she stood there, needed to find some shade. Strands of hair in her face as she wiped her brow off and looked at him as she waited.

[Austin Feltz]

Austin had to admit he was surprised to see a single women emerge from where his dog had been sniffing. It was obvious then that she wasn't going to jump him, or at least it seemed more reassuring that she was a woman instead of some large man with a scraggly beard. After all those guys are way creepier than she was and probably smelt worse. Then she flashed him a smirk after saying she wouldn’t if he didn’t. It seemed they’d reached a peaceful moment then, well at least for now. When his dog began to growl he rubbed his head lightly.

“It’s okay, she’s one of us,” he said taking a guess that she was also a mutant by the way she seemed to be affected by the sun. She had sunglasses on and she still shielded her eyes from the rays of the sun. Perhaps Austin was just used to it but he didn’t think it was that hot out. “My names Austin. Why were you hiding?” he asked curiously because it was still possible she was lying to him. If she was a mutant there was no way of telling just how dangerous she was, for all he knew she could call in an army of sentinels. No he’d not trust this woman just yet.

He watched her drink the water she had slightly jealous to the fact she had a bottle, though he may have had more his was certainly not as clear. He’d had to catch rain water and boil it then put it in a large jug. It wasn’t that it was heavy just hard to drink from, the bright side was that he probably had more. “You’d probably be cooler if you took off that jacket, it’s not like you need it in the middle of the day here at Ground Zero,” he added watching her as she wiped her brow. He was being extremely observant with her for the moment, and he would continue to be until she prved she wasn’t a threat.

[Piper]

Piper tucked away what was left of her water and said "I thought perhaps you may have been the MRD's. I was gonna jump them and take their water. I was thinking about jumping the next group of MRD's take their weapons and water." she told him and took off her jacket. he was right it did make it worse but sometimes it would get cold at night. So she placed the jacket on her shoulder and said "Nice to meet ya Austin, so where is it you are going? We could headed in the same direction." she smiled.

Sighing she looked at him and said "Gah it's so hot." she started to walk to the shade, it may have been to late to take the jacket off "I think I'm just gonna rest here for right now and keep moving at night, where it is cooler." she then took a power bar out her hand and tossed it to Austin and ate one herself and said "I grabbed these and the water out of a gas station I found a few miles back." Takes out a bottled water and tosses it to him as well. "Only found three bottles of water. you have the second one. third on is still in my bag." she told him and then sat down, in the shade, she took off her glasses rubbed her eyes and slipped the glasses back one.

Why did she have to come out here, oh yea she was running away. She was good at that. "I was caught by the MRD a long time ago, landing myself in a Death Camp. about a year or two ago, I escaped using my abilities, I knew their work schedule's like clock work. That is how I was able to escape." she explained looking at him now.

[Austin Feltz]

Austin was silent for a moment, he was looking her over, specifically for weapons of any kind but with the jacket off her only choice would be a knife and she’d find out quickly that her blade would be shorter than his. He caught the bar and the bottle of water and listening to her story after she’d walked over to the shade and sat down. He took the bar and stuffed it in his bag and stood there quietly. He slid his bag off his back as he headed toward her; he put his back against the wall and slid down slowly sitting next to her.

He held the water back out to her. “I’ve got plenty of water, you’ll need this more,” he said calmly as he set his bag next to him and pulled his legs in close. “I don’t have a destination, just out of here, been here most of my life so figured I’d go see the world and such,” he said the last part a bit overly dramatic, he’d be caught if he went anywhere to populated but a nice no name town in Wisconsin had to be better than this place.

“I’ve heard about those death camps, but seeing as you’re here and you don’t seem to have a whole lot of scars I’m going to say that most of ‘em aren’t true,” he said tilting his head back and looking up at the sky. He was trying to listen but the concrete walls of the city, even with no one there making any noise, still seemed to hide things. “So what are you powers?” he asked the question burning at him, he’d let his guard down slightly but wasn’t one to trust anyone just because they said they were a mutant. Though it was farm more likely he’d trust her eventually if she was a mutant, though that’s mostly because he would never trust a human.

His dog paced over and laid his butt in between the two of them. He knew the heat of this place was getting to him and he’d probably prefer to travel at night to. The asphalt was probably rough on his pads day in and day out. Maybe he’d take a break to he’d walked most of the day away and maybe this woman’s powers would come in useful if they ran into some MRD’s or God forbid a sentinel.

[Piper]

It had been so long since she has spoken to anyone about the death camp. Yea there were scares, just no noticeable right now. She sat there and chewed on the bar and drank a little water and looked at the dog and smiled, seeing how he just came over and parked his butt there. She placed a hand on his head and scratched behind his ears. She then looked at the man and sighed, she has weapons just not on the out side. She had them inside her bag as she looked at him "I have super vision, hearing and speed." she explained and then looked at the dog again.

She drank from the water bottle and then looked at Austin again and said "My vision is limited in the sun, that is why I have the glasses on. They are sensitive in the sun that's why i wear them. I also have ear plugs in my ears 'cause they are sensitive to sounds. As for running, I can run for miles (all too tempting) without getting tired and come back before the ice cream melts." she smiled and regretting saying the word ice cream and her tummy growled and her throat dried up at the mere mention of something cold and delicious.

They both could use something cold and satisfying at the same time. She then moved and leaning on to the concrete wall and said "Yea, that this my powers. so what can you do?" she asked looking at him through her gold rimmed glasses, her green hazel hues never leaving his.

[Austin Feltz]

Austin stayed quiet until the end of her explanation. He suddenly realized he’d put himself in a immature measuring contest so to say. Seeing which was more powerful, surely she’d be able to track him down in a second with those set of powers but as to combat he wasn’t sure, because he wasn’t too confident in his own powers. He smiled somewhat at the mention of ice cream. When she’d said it he could almost remember the taste of it when he was younger, it was a delicious treat and every now and then he’d find a frozen bar of some sorts, with which he normally shared with his dog.

“I can shape shift,” he said taking a moment to convert his head into a very close version of hers but keeping his hair the same rendering a rather awkward appearance. He took a moment to contemplate about whether or not to tell her the fact he could see others deepest desires and decided against it. “I can control the shape of my bones and even make them grow, which isn’t to pretty, or comfortable, but useful as hell. My body heals quickly from cuts and bruises don’t really ever show up. I only got one scar and I don’t know why it won’t heal, maybe somewhere in this thick head of mine I don’t want it too, looks kinda bad ass after all. I’m also pretty strong; I lifted a car once on a dare.”

He looked back at her quietly trying to look past the glasses and into her eyes. He was curios as to if her eyes appeared any different given her mutant abilities. He looked at the glasses, his grey- blue eyes scanning for any trace of her eyes being abnormal. He was curios what she would say if she saw him for what he really was, though that didn’t matter, she was just some women he’d just met. No reason in getting that close to her, it didn’t matter what she thought of his real self. The conversation having been handed onto her like a baton in one of those silly races he took his free moment of silence to close his eyes and let out a low sigh. “Mind if I wait here with ya?” he asked just a split second after his sigh had ended.

[Piper]

Piper looked at the ground for some time now, listening to him and nodding. She hated that humans put fear into the mutants at the camp she was in for a long time. Her hate for them grew everyday, watching as her friends nearly beaten to death, others experimented on or killed. She herself was in that situation, though her torture was far worse, she was cut, the humans seeing if she had a healing factor. But she always failed and was always sent back to her room a bloody heap. Her scares mostly on her chest and legs, which is why she wore long pants in the heat.

"Shape shift, that is better than what I have. Must be nice to be able to change into someone else, I wish that we could just escape from it all and live on a beach and rub sun tan lotion on my skin. I wish I didn't have to wear these damn glasses." she said a little frustrated. "I wish I didn't have to wear ear plugs, though the running fast is nice. I was always good at running away." she sighed and then looked at him "Being strong is a good ability too. I tested those waters and I got nada." smiles some "What would be cool if is I could fly." she sighed and looked down.

The sun was going down behind them and took this time to take her glasses off. They looked normal, pupils dilated so they could take in more light but not too much. While she was looking at something from far away, her eyes would shrink down to a pin point. But the sun is going down, meaning she could take them off safely and without hurting her eyes, but right now they looked normal, like any human. Her green hazel eyes looking at him and said "Healing and you can control your bones, healing part sounds cool but the bones growing sounds kind of creepy." smiles and shivers "I can't imagine that happening to me." she added. "So I can assume since you can grow your bones, you can change your size, what is the max size you can grow into?" she asked him sipping on some water.

[Austin Feltz]

He sat there listening to her for what she had to say. He didn’t see anything wrong with having to wear sunglasses during the day, the ear plug part must have been something she had to be used to though. “I’m guessing they didn’t let you have sunglasses or those ear plugs in that camp huh? Must’a been hard,” he said glancing over at her. “It all seems to come at a price, but it’s worth it. Rather be here than in the city with those pathetic humans, and yeah flying would be pretty cool, well… it would depend on how fast I could fly,” he said with a bit of a smile imagining him self just hovering in the air.

“Eh healing got me out of a few tough situations, but this bone thing I can do has been pretty useful to. My skin don’t move with my bones so really it’d just be really painful and pretty crazy lookin’ for me to do that. It’d be pretty sweet to mess with a doc though, try to get an X-ray of me, freak ‘em out for sure,” he said using his imagination again. Though one thing she’d said stuck in his mind, it was something about tanning or something but he had a very active imagination, though somehow that good thought went wrong somewhere he began to think of if he fell asleep in the sun and how he’d turn into him real self. He’d probably wake up in one of those camps for sure, being experimented on and what not. That or he’d just never wake up.

His dog had turned around and slid one slobbery doggy tongue right across his left cheek snatching him out of his rather unpleasant dream of being in one of those hell holes. “Ugh right on the face come on!” he said wiping the slobber off his face, it was hot enough without his panting dog sliding his hot tongue on his cheek. The dog seemed to whimper to which Austin gently rubbed his head. “It’s okay bud.”

[Piper]

"Yea, it was hard at the camp, barely anything good to eat, always had to hide some food on you because they wouldn't even feed us most nights. As for my sight, I would just keep my eyes closed when we were able to go outside, my hearing was worse off but I was able to control that a little bit while I stayed there. I don't know if I was the only one to escape but I was able to get out there that to my powers. I never really had any friends there, most kids stayed to themselves. Yea you had a gang or two, but they all mostly stayed away from other kids." she looked down and then off into the distance for a little bit.

"I hated being there, humans are afraid of what they don't understand and they don't understand us. So they will do anything to understand us like the experiments, the dissections, it drove some of the kids mad, insane. I don't even know how I stayed sane staying there. I guess it's because I knew that I was going to get out there alive or broken If I had to. That is one reason why they were pissed off at me is because they couldn't break me, couldn't break my spirit. I tried to make it hard for them too, always cursing, rebelling against them. It was my life and they had no right to it, so I hatched a plan and escaped. I have been on the run ever since then. Always watching my back, never trusting anyone." she sighed as sipped some water out of the bottle.

She looked at the dog as he licked his masters face and started laughing. She hasn't laughed like this in a while and placed her hand on the dogs head and scratched at his ears and smiled and then looked at Austin and said "He is so loyal and he cares about you." she smiled now looking at the dog again, petting him.

[Austin Feltz]

“Yeah, that’s the good thing ‘bout animals, shape, hair color, skin color, nothing like that matters to them,” he said smiling at him rubbing his hand through the thick fur on his chest jingling the collar with the tags that had long since been worn off, only a few digits from a phone number remained near the bottom. He stopped for a moment and pulled the large jug of water from his back and a small plastic container. He took the lid off and poured it in setting it down for the dog. “There you go boy,” he said petting him once more then looking over to Piper.

“Is that what they say? The humans?” he asked curiously. He let out a disappointed sigh before continuing, “They’ve found the cause, they know more about us then we do. We don’t understand them, why don’t they have a power? If we started gathering and making camps like that we’d be killed in an instant but it makes it okay for them?! Nothing justifies this…this genocide. It’s completely pointless they could of accepted us, helped us even! No they made there choice. I just wish I could make ‘em regret it…get back at ‘em ya know?” He was getting agitated now, thinking of all those people in the camps, women, and children.

“There’s too few of us though…they’ve made sure of that, but it doesn’t mean we have to roll over and die,” he finished and found that his fist were clinched, the veins in his wrist protruding in an awful manner. He was past agitated now, he was furious. “Least you got away…” he said sighing letting out all his held back anger. He screwed the lid back on the jug of water and put it back in his bag, his fluffy friend had finished his water and he placed the plastic container back in his bag.

[Piper]

She looked at him and smiled some said "Yes and all the more reason to gather the remaining mutants. The humans won't stand a chance if there is group of mutants, other than the x men against them. Besides, the x men or goody goods, only to protect their beloved humans." Makes a face of disgust. "These humans need to fear us, they need to know what we are capable of. They underestimate our numbers and abilities. Strike fear into their hearts, make them understand that we are not to be taken lightly." she saw his anger and frustration and felt the same way.

Damn no good humans, always treating us like dirt, like shit. She pounded her fist onto her leg, not really hurting herself. Getting all worked up over these god forsaken humans. But she was never really raised to kill unless she had to, unless she had to defend herself. She then looked at Austin and said "Yea, I got away and too bad I couldn't bring anyone else with me. Then I wouldn't have to travel alone feeling myself go insane." smiles "Would have been nice to have a companion with me, laughing and sharing stories." she then took out her water and drank some and then put it back. "Well I am here and I'm glad we found each other. I think we could have both went insane." she laughed a little at the thought and took her pony tail out, running her hand through it and shaking her head a bit.

[Austin Feltz]

He waited for her to finish what she was saying before he would continue seeing as he seemed to have cut her off. What she was saying was strange, as if it had come from him. The thoughts running through his had matched with her words almost exactly. He was nodding his head slightly as she mentioned that they need to show them what they were capable of. It was too bad she couldn’t of gotten at least one other person out with her but one person out of the camps was better than none. “Yeah..” he said quietly as she reached back and let her hair loose. He watched quietly, he had to admit she had a certain appeal with her hair let loose like that.

“Well what are we waiting for?” he said after listening to her. “We’ve though of it and we can’t be the only ones that want to show the humans what we can do. We just need to find other people like us willing to give everything for freedom. Willing to show those humans just what we can do. We need to do something in this crazy world,” he said, his voice full of spirit and boldness. After his small speech like ordeal he stood up slowly leaning himself off the wall, “If we are going to do something we need to start finding mutants for our cause. That is…if you’re really up to it?”

He didn’t want to force her to do anything she didn’t want to, after all she had free will, or at least she should have. He still didn’t exactly have a plan but he knew what he was saying would possibly make his life even harder than it already was living as a mutant. He wouldn’t just force her to help him, not only was that cruel, or at least too cruel for him to do to a mutant, but she’d end up resenting him if he did. Though whether or not she said yes he was going to do it, it was just whether or not he’d be on his own or not from the beginning. Plus having more numbers toward a cause help convince people willing and unwilling to help them.