Assemblage – USMHD

They sat around eating breakfast the next morning when Chris said, “We’re going to have to figure out what we’re going to do now.”

Miya grunted, “Can’t this wait? I’m still booting up.” She is not a morning person.

“No. I want to get this out of the way before everyone wanders off,” said Chris.

Olivia observed, flexing her knee again. It still worked, and it was nice to move it without the accompanying pain once more. That was really weird when the kneecap moved itself. As for the rest of her, it felt like a lower level version of when she woke up after the hospital. Over the course of yesterday she’d been shot (a lot), punched by a guy whose power revolved around punching really hard, knocked out with knockout gas, and hit by a car on a highway. These things hurt.

“Whash thr ou alk bou?” asked Ben around a mouthful a donut. Eww. Come on. I saw flecks of…gahhh. No.

“Want to try that again?” asked Chris.

Ben nodded. “Yeah,” he said, much clearer. “Wha’s there to talk about?”

“A lot of things. First things first though is what we’re going to do now. We don’t have infinite money, as nice as that would be, and none of us currently have a source of income. We can’t just sit in here forever,” Chris stopped to look around to everyone. They considered him thoughtfully. So what are we going to do?

Chris continued, “I know Miya wanted to go back to Arizona. Ben, you had your vigilante thing going on, and a job at the donut place.” Are…are they leaving? “Also, thanks for all the free donuts. I don’t know about you, Amanda, but I’m not exactly eager to rejoin the MHU. But I do know that you could get a nice job in almost any technology company. I have things to take care of in the short term, and I’m assuming Olivia is looking to find out more about her past,” he looked at her questioningly.

She nodded. I was thinking more about short term survival, but now that he brings it up that would be nice. But what is everyone else doing? Chris said, “So big question, so take your time and think this over before responding. So, do we stick together, or not? Now keep in mind, there are logistical things to take care of if we do form a team of sorts, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be worth it. However, rent doesn’t pay itself, and I don’t think we can do what we’ve been doing at our current rate for more than a month or so.”

Everyone was silent after that. Olivia stared at the floor. I didn’t think about… What is everyone going to do? Amanda sat at her desk, she’d been fiddling with a small box before Chris started talking. Everyone else sat on the floor or stood around in a rough circle. Ben got up and grabbed another donut.

When he returned he said, “I’d be game. Could be fun.”

“Seriously, Ben. Put at least a little thought into this,” said Chris.

“I put as much thought inta it as it warranted. I won’ be too cut up if it falls through, but I ain’t against it. Tha’s my vote.”

“This isn’t a vote. We need to see who is doing what, and plan from there.”

Ben shrugged. Miya tentatively said, “I’d be willing to stay.” Amanda, Chris, and Ben acted mildly surprised at this statement. What did I miss?

“What? A: it’s provisional, so long as we have a good plan about what to do; and B: It’s not like I really have anything left in Arizona anyways. Besides, it sucks this time of year,” Miya said defensively. Olivia began to brighten a little. Maybe not everyone is going to leave.

“Alright, no problem,” said Chris. “Amanda? Any thoughts?”

Amanda sat, considering. She stayed quiet for a bit. What? No. Amanda. Eventually she said, “I’m with Miya on this one. So long as we have a good idea of what to do, I’m in.”

Chris turned to Olivia. “Olivia?” he asked.

She blinked, surprised. What else am I going to do? “I, uh, sure?”

“Is that a question or a statement?”

“Um, statement.”

“OK,” said Chris when Ben cut him off.

“Hey, what about you, O Fearless Leader? Or should I call you Blondie? Come to think of it, if we’re gonna do this I’m gonna come up with nicknames for everyone.” He pointed to Chris, “You’re Blondie.” He pointed to Olivia, “Little Bird.” He pointed to Miya. “I don’ know you terribly well, so gimme a couple days.” He pointed to Amanda, “And I’ll keep callin’ ya hon, unless ya prefer Puta, in which case I’m switchin’ to that.”

Miya gave a quick laugh at that, and Ben’s grin was wider than normal. At least Chris and Amanda look confused as well, so it’s not just me. Amanda shot a glance at Miya, who shook her head vigorously and made a cut off motion towards her neck.

Amanda said to Ben, “No, don’t call me that.”

“Dammit, Miya,” said Ben, throwing up his hands in exasperation.

“No, I’m not going to let you call her Bitch when she doesn’t know it.”

“What the fuck, jackass,” said Amanda.

Chris gave a soft sigh. “OK, people. Back on track now. To answer your question, Ben,” said Chris, “provided enough people said yes, so would I, but we don’t have that problem now. The problem we do have is how we go about this. My thinking was a sort of mercenary company. That way we can get paid for doing what we do. Unless anyone has any better suggestions?” He looked around to everyone again.

Wait, this means we’ll be fighting, a lot. I don’t necessarily have the best record. And we’ll be fighting for money? Not helping people? She kept quiet, not wanting to say the wrong thing in front of everyone. They probably know what they’re doing. Probably. She flexed her knee again.

No one else said anything either, so Chris continued, “So the next big question is how do we do this? Can we turn this building into a sort of lair, Amanda?”

“Pft. If I knew how I would have started already. Do you know how much we’d have to go through to turn this into a bona fide underground base? We’ve gotta dig a big enough space without going through cables or pipelines or whatever else is buried under here. We’d need really good ventilation, which none of us know how to do, connect this place to the city water supply or make our own, which none of us know how to make, make sure the base doesn’t collapse on our heads, which none of us know how to prevent, and pay for it all, which none of us are capable of.”

Amanda continued. This isn’t sounding possible. “And if we want to be secret about making this, more money. We want the secret to remain secret long term? More money. I’d need another generator or two to keep all that running, and that’s not including a heavy duty backup generator. We’d need lighting, wiring, plumbing, furnishings, temperature control stuff. Emergency exits, security systems, and I haven’t even touched on the equipment we’d need to get all this working. Do you need me to continue?”

Before Chris could speak, Ben said, “Hey, am I correct in sayin’ that the biggest hurdle is just diggin’ out the damn thing without it collapsin’?”

“Yes, but the other stuff…”

“Is stuff we can work around. My brother’s done some similar stuff to what this is soundin’ like. He’s made about three different underground lairs for his gang out east. I’ll send him a word, he might be able to help.”

“Alright. Thank you, Ben.”

Ben nodded, getting out his phone. Chris continued, “Because I’m a fan of redundancy, we should probably look into other options as well. We could do something similar to what Olivia did, take over an abandoned building for our own purposes.” I didn’t really take it over, just used a room.

Miya said, “Is there any way for us to buy our own building, work from there? Sometimes the police would raid abandoned buildings for squatters in Arizona, don’t know if they do that here or not, but that is something we would have to keep in mind, even if we want to stay here.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem here,” said Amanda. “This building is in some weird bureaucratic limbo due to a clerical error. I could probably make sure it stays that way, or make it so that it’s not listed as abandoned, which is why I took the keys in the first place.”

“As for our own property, we shouldn’t rent it, unless we feel really confident in our ability to cover it up. Otherwise we’ll have an angry landlord to deal with. And we might have to take out a loan in order to buy a place with sufficient room, which could lead to awkward explanations. Still a good idea though, let’s keep it on the table,” said Chris. This is…kind of boring, actually. I don’t really have anything to contribute, either.

Chris continued, “And there is the issue of where everyone is living. I’m guessing Olivia is staying here, along with you, Miya, if you’re staying in state.”

“If we can figure out if they’re watchin’ my old apartment, I’d like to go check on it. Otherwise I’m staying here too. Been meanin’ to move anyways,” said Ben.

“Same with me,” said Olivia. “I mean, watching my old place.”

“Alright,” said Chris, “we can look into that. Hey, pass me one of the Cheerios?” Amanda, closest to the food, tossed a small box of Cheerios to him. He caught it and began to open the box. “I’m probably going to go back to my apartment for a bit. My roommate’s probably freaking out right now.”

“You have a roommate? How does that work?” asked Amanda.

“Oh, he knows I’m a cop, doesn’t know I’m Nomad. Most of my money right now is going to paying off some debts, same with him, so we’re sharing an apartment to split costs.” All his costume is is a normal uniform with a bandana, so I guess that works.

“Huh. I have a small house, on my own. I sell an idea off to the side every now and then for upkeep costs. Most of it is actually taken up by gear and equipment,” said Amanda.

“Wait, you had this place, the workshop at the MHU, and your own house?” asked Chris.

“One: very small, very cheap house. Two: MHU provided all of that stuff at the workshop. Three: most of my stuff is actually at my house, this is just some basic tools and a bunch of computers.”

“Oh fuck! Rob’s callin’. Tha’ was fast,” said Ben suddenly. He put his phone to his ear walked off to the other end of the shop with a grin. “Hey, you son of a bitch! I can one up yer little assault on a state governor now, so suck it!” Assault on a governor? Who is this guy?

The conversation resumed. “I’ll ask Ben about this when he’s done, but there’s the matter of getting you guys stuff,” said Chris.

“Just stuff?” asked Miya.

“Yes.”

“Yeah, fuck the hippies, material objects are the best,” said Miya with a smile.

“No. I’m talking about necessities. Clothes, toiletries, better stuff to sleep on than what we have now, that kind of stuff. Phones for communication. And there’s the issue of how we buy it.”

Simultaneously from Ben, Olivia heard, “So, yeah. Now me an’ a couple others are gonna probably start a team kinda thing. But if it’s a Justice Friends kinda thing, I’m out, but it’s not lookin’ like it’s goin’ tha’ way. You know how to make Batcave kinda things, right?” What is he talking about? I get that bat cave is talking about the lair, but why specifically mention bats?

“I probably have some money left in a bank account of mine. It’s even clean, so unless the cops figured me out, I should be good for now,” said Miya.

“And Olivia…” began Chris, trailing off. “Now that I think about it, how did you get clothes in the first place?”

Olivia cringed a little bit. “I kind of…took some from homeless shelter donations. And tailored them some.” She paused. “I put the rest back, most didn’t fit anyways.”

“OK, since they’re almost definitely watching your old place since you escaped, what do you actually have with you?”

Ben said, “WHAT? Your fellowship of the ring has broken up? The merry men are going their own ways?” Stop trying to keep track of two separate conversations. Talking, especially from someone who lacks an inside voice like Ben, was harder for her to block out than ambient noises.

Olivia plucked at the hem of her shirt, saying, “I think this is it. Everything else is…shredded.”

“Oh please tell me you’ve still got The BAT,” said Ben. What is it with all the bats? After a moment he cackled, “I know! They haven’t seen insanity yet.”

Meanwhile, Chris asked the group at large, “So, we going to pitch in?”

“What? No, it’s OK,” said Olivia, “I can find other stuff.”

“Come on, Olivia. This is a team effort.”

“But, I can’t pay you guys back or…”

“So you want us to just sit back and let you scavenge stuff again, when we are fully capable of helping you out ourselves. This is a team effort, Olivia.”

Her next protest was cut off by Amanda saying, “Yeah, I’ll help out.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” said Miya.

“Alright, I’ll call ya back,” said Ben, off to the side. Just as Olivia was about to protest again, he walked over and said, “Rob might be drivin’ himself up here. His gang recently broke up, an’ he’s lookin’ for a change of scenery, as it were. He’d even be willin’ to fight, if we’ll have him. Also, what’re we talkin’ about?”

“Helping Olivia here out,” said Miya, right as Olivia was about to say ‘nothing’.

“Cool. I think I can send a couple bucks or so her way.”

“But…no. Guys…” Olivia trailed off. You didn’t even really need me for the Freedom Fighter thing. I just got in the way. She slowly flexed her knee again.

“If this is about money, Olivia, don’t worry about it. We’re friends, not everything has to be bought or exchanged for.”

Before she could speak further, Ben held a finger up to his lips and said, “Shhhhh. Jus’ let it happen, Olivia. Jus’ let it happen.”

I don’t think I’m going to win this argument. “OK,” she mumbled, looking down.

“Oh, hey, we’re gonna need a name if we’re gonna do this,” exclaimed Ben, grabbing his second pack of Poptarts. Delicious, delicious chemicals.

“OK, any suggestions?” said Chris.

“Yeah! Wait. Hang on…” said Ben, chewing and looking off in the distance thoughtfully. “OK, so notice a trend with all of us?” Not really. Nothing that particularly stands out anyways. Everyone else shook their heads.

Ben continued, getting excited now, “So we all do nigh impossible shit. You,” he pointed to Miya, “went through Overlord sponsored torture without snappin’ or becomin’ a brain in a box. You,” he pointed to Amanda, “invented a device that blocked out the power of one of the most wanted men in the world without breakin’ a sweat. You,” he pointed to Olivia, “are not tryin’ to kill us, an’ in fact are one of the nicer people I’ve met. I,” he pointed to himself with his thumb, sticking his chest out, “am inconceivably awesome!”

“You’re a real piece of work,” Olivia heard Amanda mutter under her breath.

Ben must have heard that, because he added, “An’ have a rifle that fuckin’ melts concrete, jus’ FYI. An’ you,” he pointed to Chris, then faltered. After a pause he said, “…you exist.”

“Why thank you,” said Chris drily.

“Nah, nah, gimme a sec.” Ben started snapping his fingers. He suddenly stopped, pointed again, and said, “Got it! Ya keep us all from killin’ each other. Ya keep us all focused an’ workin’ an’ pseudo organized an’ everythin’. An’ we are not the easiest group in the world to juggle.”

“While I have to say thank you for that, how does this answer the question of what name we’re going to choose for ourselves?” asked Chris.

Ben shrugged. “I dunno. I got sidetracked.”

Chris sighed. He said, “Alright, the name can wait. I do have some questions about your brother.”

“OK, his real name’s Rob, we’re identical triplets, an’ he goes by Gears in armor. He’s a techie, specializing in ol’ fashioned shit.” Didn’t he just say he was a techie?

“Wait,” said Amanda, “Old fashioned shit?”

“Oh yeah. Plate armor, metallurgy, swords, gears, that kind of stuff. Yer polar opposite, basically.”

“Yeah, but…”

Ben cut her off. He pointed to Chris, saying, “Not all liquids are water.” He pointed to Olivia. “Not all ferals are murderous. Not all technology is flashy shit. He made my mask, he’s got one of his own too. Don’ disparage what he does. A good knife can be worth a good gizmo in the right situations. Of course, you’ll have to ask the man himself for specifics. This is jus’ what I know.”

“But what I’m concerned about is his actual ability to fight. There aren’t that many of us, it would be nice to have another experienced body out there,” said Chris.

“He spent three years givin’ the cops in Pennsylvania a run for their money with some other guys, jus’ like me. No problems there, I don’ think. An’ he’s built bases for his gang, they’ve had to ditch ‘em a couple times.” I would be kind of nervous about inviting a criminal in, but I guess that’s kind of a moot point.

“So, what do we all think?” asked Chris.

Amanda grimaced. Miya shrugged and nodded. Ben hopped up and down slightly on his toes, a smile playing at the edges of his mouth. Sure, why not? I don’t see any problems with this. “OK,” said Olivia.

“Do you have something to say, Amanda?” asked Chris, watching the grimace return once she was called out.

She gave a drawn out sigh. “Fine, I guess,” she said through gritted teeth. I guess she doesn’t want another Skulker around.

Ben pulled out his phone again as Chris said, “Oh, another thing. I doubt this matters at all, but I think harboring Olivia right now is technically illegal. So just in the interest of full disclosure before we start this, I thought everyone should know.”

Olivia was surprised. I’m…illegal? Right as she was about to apologize, Miya gave a derisive snort, while Ben looked up from his phone to give a fantastic ‘seriously’ face to Chris. Amanda rolled her eyes.

With a small smile, Chris said, “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

“Hey, another question,” said Miya. “How exactly are we going to get jobs? We can’t just open our doors for business, kick back our feet, and let the money roll in.” So much talk about money. I guess it is kind of important. Super hero finances. Who knew?

Chris remained silent for a moment. “Well, we are the ones who brought down one of the most wanted men in the world. Just saying. Marcus is probably going to take all the credit in the public eye, but people in the industry are going to be more knowledgeable. Same deal with Olivia. She conducted herself well enough in front of enough officers so that the word will spread that she’s not all bad among the people in the know. She’ll basically get vigilante status.”

“So basically tha’ means don’ do anythin’ stupid, especially not in front of cops,” said Ben to Olivia. “Marcus can rant about you all he likes, the officers are jus’ gonna drag their feet, not search terribly hard unless you hand yerself to them. Of course, that’ll change if you actually do somethin’ bad. Happened to me a couple times but don’ worry ‘bout it too much.” I can live with that. She nodded.

“We will need to do some self advertising in the right circles to get the ball rolling, but that’s fairly easy, all things considered,” said Amanda.

“Yeah, we will need to get you registered at the USMHD, Olivia. It’s just a form or two,” said Chris.

“The what?” asked Olivia.

“The US Meta-Human Department. They keep tabs on the supers in the country. They’re connected with every other department, basically. Immigration, Customs, NSA, FBI, Health and Services, and on and on. It’s just a very general overview of your powers, nothing to specific. All you would have to say is flight, strength, feral, durability, and that’s literally it. No mechanics of how it works or anything. The rest is just cape name if you have one, state and town where you live, and I think that’s it.”

“Weren’t they talking about adding your social security number to it as well?” asked Miya. I don’t think I have one of those.

“I think that got shot down. Not sure though.”

“Let me look it up,” said Amanda, wheeling over to an on computer.

“So, yeah. It’s really easy, nothing to worry about, but they have some pretty severe penalties for not filling it out.”

“I thought you said I technically” wasn’t human in the eyes of the law “couldn’t go to court or something?” said Olivia.

“True, but we’re going for legitimacy here. We’d need it for tax purposes and whatnot. Besides, the government will actually offer jobs based on your powers, and depending on what you’re looking for they can be pretty good. You’re a bit of a special case, but it’s worth a shot in case this doesn’t pan out,” said Chris.

Olivia shrugged. “OK.” Doesn’t sound that bad.

“Yeah, Chris, you were right. No social security needed,” said Amanda.

“Alright,” said Chris. He checked the time on his phone. “If there’s nothing else…” he trailed off, opening up for someone else to fill the blank. No one did. “So, impromptu meeting adjourned, I guess.”

They dispersed. Amanda turned around in her chair and returned to her box thing while Chris went to his section of the floor. Ben pulled his phone out again. Olivia finished off the donut she forgot she held. Now what? She realized that she actually had nothing to do.

Before she could think of something, Miya walked over to her. “Hey, your knee alright? I saw you moving it earlier,” she said.

“Oh, it’s OK now. Thank you.”

“We should probably make sure, this isn’t something that you want coming back to bite you in the ass later. Besides, it’s a bone problem. Bones are my shit. And I can even check to make sure you don’t have a giant tumor somewhere.”

“Really, you can do that?” You use magic, right? Olivia had no idea what the limitations of magic were.

“Yeah. I’ll only really be able to affect the bones, but I can at least take a look at everything else. Oh, and I’ll need to put my hands on you, on, like, the shoulder or arm or something, just FYI.”

“Erm…OK, I guess.”

“Just don’t break contact, that would be annoying,” said Miya, putting her hand on Olivia’s forearm. Why did her eyes just turn dark red? She probably needs to concentrate if something like that happens when she does this. So Olivia stood and waited, trying hard not to feel awkward. And waited.

Should…should I say something? She hasn’t moved. After waiting a couple more moments, she thought, is something wrong? “Hey…Miya? Everything…alright?” asked Olivia hesitantly.

“What the fuck am I looking at?” she exclaimed. Olivia cringed as everyone stopped. Chris had grabbed a jacket and keys, and was just opening the doors. I know, I’m weird.

“Umm…me?” said Olivia.

“Something wrong?” asked Chris, coming to stand by them.

“Maybe?” said Miya. That’s not good. At all. “Hey Olivia, do you feel any pain, at all right now?”

“Ummm…” She considered. “No. Why?”

“Cuz I’m seeing five small fractures on hands down the strongest bones, ever. Just…ever. Three ribs, a shin bone, and a collar bone. You don’t feel those?”

“No…should I?”

“What did you do, ’cause the force to do that should have fucked up a bunch of other things in the process.” Olivia noticed Ben turn the monitor of Amanda’s computer and type something for Amanda only to see.

“I got shot. Some guy punched me through a wall. I got hit by a car.”

“That’ll do it.”

“Can you heal her?” asked Chris.

“Oh yeah, no problem. This might sting.” Olivia suppressed a flinch as five separate parts of her burned under her skin momentarily, then the feeling vanished. “But that’s not all.”

Oh come on. Miya’s eyes returned to normal, and she broke contact. “So…” she said.

“Miya, this is kind of important,” said Chris.

“It’s not…necessarily bad…I don’t think,” she said. I’m really not liking how this is sounding. “Medically, she’s fine, so far as I can tell. But…give me a second, I’ve got to figure out how to say this.” I’m really worried now. Really want you to say something concrete. Any time now. Chris and Olivia watched Miya.

Eventually, she said, “So basically Olivia has, like, some sort of passive magic thing going on. I’m not quite sure how it works, but it’s why she heals so fast, is as strong as she is, etcetera. It’s kind of… inherent, I guess. It’s just something that her body…does. I don’t think the mechanisms for affecting or controlling it are there in any way, kind of like how you can’t really control where your body heat goes. It just…is.” Miya looked at her thoughtfully. I know. I’m super extra weird.

“This isn’t, you know, dangerous at all, is it?” asked Chris.

“No, it shouldn’t be, but I’ve never heard of anything like this before.” Miya caught Olivia’s look. “Hey, it’s nothing to worry about. The more you know, right?”

“So that’s it then,” said Olivia.

“What?”

“Magic. Magic’s the reason for…” she made a vague motion towards herself, “this. Just…just magic. That’s it.”

“What? No. Magic is why you can get shot dozens of times and keep going,” said Miya. “Powers and magic are not mutually exclusive. There’s certain bits of magic that affect only powers. Some powers revolve only around magic. There’s the chance I could trigger, though I doubt it at this point, but I could still do what I do now, provided the power isn’t a null power specific to magic.”

“That seems…overpowered,” said Olivia. Chris snorted. Come on. I’m not that strong. Am I?

“Why? It’s just magic. They’re just powers. Don’t get me wrong, there are scientists who spend their whole lives trying to figure this stuff out with little success. But they’re just things that… happen. They’ve always happened,” said Miya. “Anyways, everything else seemed fine.”

“You don’t seem that…shocked by this,” said Chris.

“Actually, now that I’ve seen it, I could probably do something similar to myself, but it would take, like, all of my concentration. As in, meditate for an hour beforehand, and do nothing else meanwhile kind of concentration.”

“Alright. Thank you Miya,” said Chris. Olivia mumbled something similar. Miya nodded and left to go talk to Amanda. After she left, he asked Olivia, “You alright?”

“I…I guess.” He looked at her skeptically. “Well, it doesn’t really change anything. It’s just… another thing, you know?” I’m magic, I guess, because I’m not weird enough as it is.

***

Sometime later, Ben approached Olivia with large stack of books by the desk she stood next to at his insistence. “I believe the time has come to initiate you into American culture!” he announced. At the hesitant look she gave him he added, “OR sit here, bored out of your skull while the rest of us do stuff. I hear thumb twiddling is not the most productive of activities.”

Ben continued, “So, my bug out bag’s got that which is most precious to me in it, as well as clothes and shit. As such, I have every Calvin and Hobbes book ever printed.” He slapped a large stack of book on the desk with a thud. “Perhaps one of the finest works of literature made by man, an’ I will fight anyone who says otherwise. Or we can watch movies.”

“Ben, what movies?” asked Chris, midway through his second attempt at leaving. “You are not going to ruin movies for her by showing her Silence of the Lambs or Rocky Horror Picture Show or something like that.” I kind of get the horror one, but what’s wrong with lambs?

”Eeeehhh, we’ll start with the old ones, don’ wanna spoil her on CGI shit. Blazing Saddles, ‘cause I refuse to respect the comedic opinion of someone who hasn’t at least watched it. Star Wars, cause I wanna see her reaction at the end of Empire. Dr. Strangelove, a Sean Connery James Bond, Indiana Jones, an’ so on. But they gotta be older.” Olivia sighed. I didn’t really understand most of that. Because of course not.

Ben continued to Olivia, “You have two options: read Calvin and Hobbes or we watch movies until our eyes bleed and our brains melt from our skulls; you get to decide whether that’s figurative or literal,” said Ben.

“Where would we watch the movies? We don’t have a TV” said Olivia, feeling immensely uncomfortable at all the attention she was getting of late.

“Amanda,” said Ben, “has graciously allowed us to use that giant monitor thingy that isn’t quite the size of a TV, an’ a computer to play ‘em on. I got some video streamin’ service thingy, Amanda’s leechin’ offa free WiFi from somewhere, an’ if I ain’t got it we can just pirate ‘em off the internet or somethin’.”

What about pirates? “Sure, I guess.” Olivia watched warily as Ben practically bounced with excitement as he spoke.

“Excellent! Oh, an’ anyone else stayin’?” he asked the group at large.

“I’m driving Miya to a bank and the mall, we’ll probably be back…I don’t know. Eventually, I’m sure,” said Amanda.

“Sorry, I have personal things to attend to,” said Chris curtly.

“Alright!” said Ben, rubbing his hands together and beginning to set up the computer. Chris said his goodbyes and left, followed soon after by Miya and Amanda in the car. I guess movies are better than sitting in here doing nothing.

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