some actual progress!

[shuchubi]

Bee: Using his left hand to steady his aim, Gee goes to pick off one of the Dracs that's working over Ray; they're ignoring their weapons, an all-out brawl with kicks to his ribcage. But before he can manage to pull the trigger, the Drac he was aiming at falls away. Gee blinks away his surprise, looking around to see Frank grinning as he pulls another shot at the other Drac on Ray. Frank glances at Gerard and winks, then whips his ray gun around towards him. There's a moment of tension where Gee wonders if Frank's lost it, but then the Drac that's apparently been coming up behind him hits the dust with a loud thud. Frank arches an eyebrow and Gee grins back, impressed.

Bee: Then Mikey jumps, actually fucking jumps and kicks one of the Dracs in a way that Mikey from 5 years ago would have scoffed at. It doesn't take down the Drac entirely, but it does disorient the Drac enough for him to get a grip with the powerglove and enter another code into the glove's panel.

Bee: The electricity rippling over the Drac is distracting, enough Gerard snaps back into the fight and starts shooting at the feet of the trio of remaining Dracs.

Linn: Oh, Gerard. Get it together man

Bee: dude, he can't help being blinded by Frank's Frankness

Bee: It doesn't quite work like it did in cartoons back in the day; they don't so much dance as back away and shoot back at him. Gerard ducks and aims higher. He can't help wishing he was awesome enough to shoot the ray guns right out of their hands, but it's a waste of power to try that.

Linn: Just shoot the fuckers
Linn: Right in the face

Bee: you know Gee, he wants to be merciful. It's kinda his downfall.

Linn: Yeah
Linn: He's gonna have to grow a tougher hide, though

Bee: He has been. Slowly.
Bee: But he never expected to have to do this.

Bee: Ray's face and hair are streaked with blood and dirt, but he's up off the ground now and wielding a second ray gun, taken off one of the fallen Dracs. The shots he aims at the nearest Drac aren't perfect, but they hit well enough to take him down.

Bee: Ray and Mikey start scrounging in the pockets of the fallen, snagging a couple stray batteries and a bottle of water while Gee and Frank finish off those still standing.

Bee: Victory feels weird, almost wrong. Gerard keeps expecting Korse and another dozen of his bland little army to pop up out of nowhere, laughing and mocking and shooting them all.

Bee: He doesn't know how to celebrate actually winning.

Bee: He shakes the keys and they pile into the car, driving off at not quite top speed; there's no running, no adrenaline pushing them to go as fast as possible, but he's too pleased by the success to go anything approaching slow.

Bee: do I need to download the na na na video?
Bee: how much do I love that Mikey's reading a magazine called Murder?
Bee: ok, I need food. Homemade jam, fuck yeah!

Bee: They're not headed to homebase. Instead, Gerard just drives until the sun goes down and they make a camp, building a fire from scrapwood lying around. Even without smiling, everyone seems happier. Like they finally have real hope, like maybe til now every one of them was secretly worrying that all this was futile.

Bee: There's a freedom to just being out on the road. Having a hideout is useful, but it also means there's a place they have things. Like an anchor. And sometimes it feels like that anchor might just pull them under water and drown them.

Bee: Gerard makes a vow to himself to make sure they do this more often, just go out into the desert for a night.

Bee: He stays awake as long as he can, watching the other guys, watching the fire die down. It's nearly dawn before he loses the battle with sleep and when morning hits hard Frankie drags Gee into the backseat, letting him lean against the frame of the car while Ray drives them home. He knows it's too hot to just sleep in the desert in the open like that, but Gerard didn't want to move.

Bee: Even now, pleasantly warm and feeling the thrum of the engine through the metal pressed against his head, Gerard feels like maybe never moving again.

Bee: It's easier to sleep in the car. Far too easy, really; they're pulling into the garage when he finally stirs. There are a couple of magazines on the seat between him and Frank, crumpled because Frank's apparently dozing too, his head half on Gee's lap.

Bee: Yawning, Gerard waves off Ray and Mikey; if Frank's sleeping here, well, at least they're sleeping. Mikey hands him a fork and a can of kibble before walking away with a cryptic little smile and a quiet "Night, Gee."

Bee: Gerard hadn't realized how hungry he was until after that first bite of kibble. Then he's chowing down, polishing off the whole can in probably 5 minutes. The seat of the car is still warm from being on the road all day; stomach full, he leans his head against the frame again and drifts off to sleep again.

Bee: http://www.nanowrimo.org/node/3699304 Neil Gaiman says to get off your ass, babs
Bee: http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_la6qja9H5t1qbfnej.jpg I am going to hell for laughing at this

Bee: After almost a full day of sleep, Gee wakes energetically, the need to do things vibrating under his skin. Frank's still asleep, sitting closer now with an arm snaked around Gerard's waist. "Motherfucker," Gerard sighs. He doesn't want to wake up Frankie, not until Ray and Mikey are up and at it too. Half-heartedly, Gerard starts flipping through the magazines. But there's nothing interesting, too many words and not enough pictures. He brushes back Frank's hair as he drops another magazine to the floorboard.

Linn: Hey, sorry, phone call. Jennie. Her birthday was this week

Bee: It's probably not even dawn yet.

Bee: I remember seeing that on facebook. How's she doing?

Linn: Yeah, I laughed at that too in a sort of horrified I-can't-believe-I-found-this-funny way

Bee: Huzzah, we suck!

Linn: She's good! You know. For a given value of good. Her grandma has leukemia and she's got a cold, but her grandma's doing okay and Jennie's got a birthday bash coming up, so

Bee: that's all good at least

Linn: The top of the page of the NaNo said "Welcome back, LinnIsabell" and for a moment I was like, "NEIL GAIMAN KNOWS MY WRIMO USER O_o"

Bee: HAHAHAHAH
Bee: YES HE IS STALKING YOU
Bee: ...in my head, most days it's still Linn is a bell
Bee: dingalingaling

Linn: Ahahaha

Bee: I think that needs to be part of your Killjoys name

Linn: *snort* Bell?
Linn: Or Belle. OF THE BALL

Bee: HAH NO. LOSER.

Linn: I AM TOO SHUT UP

Bee: Something that makes people think of bells anyway
Bee: YOU ARE A LOSER, YOU'RE RIGHT

Linn: I have a fox mask too. That ought to play in
Linn: A fox mask and a sheriff badge
Linn: BECAUSE I'M TAKING UP THE MANTLE GERARD LAID DOWN. I AM THE SHERIFF OF EMOTOWN

Bee: THAT IS THE BEST THING EVER
Bee: EVER

Linn: Also, I didn't mean for that to rhyme, but it was kind of neat that it did

Bee: __ Vixen
Bee: and ___ is a bell word.

Linn: ...Ringing?
Linn: Ahahaha, no

Bee: not ringing
Bee: ugh
Bee: that sounds shite
Bee: Jingling Vixen *grins* awful, yes

Linn: YES
Linn: *snort*
Linn: Tinker
Linn: As in TinkerBELL

Bee: Tinker Vixen is wrong though
Bee: and Tinker Fox or Tinker Kit sounds weird too

Linn: I like Vixen, though

Bee: it has an edge, yeah
Bee: like kicking a guy in the mouth and him spitting out blood after

Linn: Kit too, but that sounds kinda like... like the difference between Invisible Girl and Invisible Woman
Linn: I was a Kit when I was a Ritalin Rat

Bee: yeah
Bee: You were Clapper Kit

Linn: ...Clapper Kit?

Bee: as in the clap

Linn: I hate you

Bee: I mean, as in the thing in a bell that makes it make sound, the clapper

Linn: Yes, and also the STD

Bee: *grins*
Bee: that is why it is the best name ever

Linn: I hate you still

Bee: I know
Bee: but hey, you get revenge by naming me, right?
Bee: Oh wait, you already did
Bee: the Dingdong Vixen
Bee: Peal-out Vixen

Linn: DING DONG THE WITCH IS DEAD

Bee: WHICH OLD WITCH?

Linn: THE WICKED WITCH

Bee: DING DONG THE WICKED WITCH IS DEAD

Bee: When Frank stirs, he presses his face against Gerard's thighs for a moment before his eyes snap open and he sits up, almost smacking Gerard in the chin because the movement's so fast and unexpected. "Did we get eaten by Godzilla?" he asks.

Bee: Gerard doesn't even try to bite back his laugh. "Not that I remember, but I was asleep pretty much the whole fucking time."

Linn: *snort*

Bee: Frankie smiles, eyes slipping shut again. "That's a fucking relief. I mean, I know I could cut our way out but you smell bad enough as it is."

Bee: He giggles as Gerard shoves him away. "Just telling you the truth, Gee, don't you always tell us to be honest with each other?"

Bee: Gerard's giggling too, pushing him out of the car before climbing out too. "Yeah, but you stink too Frankie, so how's that for honesty." It's true, sort of, but they're all used to it by now. Nobody smells like fucking, roses and baby powder and deodorant and cheap shitty body spray.

Bee: Now it's all the smells of dust and road and hot metal, and mixed with it all is rank, unwashed humanity.

Linn: Hey, no wonder Gee dreamed this up
Linn: It's gotta be his idea of heaven

Bee: I know, right, he can go without bathing and call it method fucking showmanship

Linn: *laughs*

Bee: it explains the unwashed hair too!

Linn: It does
Linn: Doesn't explain how Frank manages to look halfway clean, but hey

Bee: Frank's a freak with a bathing addiction

Linn: True dat

Bee: Gerard reaches in the window of the car, fumbling in the glovebox until he finds the crumpled, nearly empty pack of smokes he'd stashed away for a rainy day. They ration them out, not wanting to admit that one day all the cigarettes might just be gone. Most of the time Gerard makes himself forget where they've been hidden - out of sight, out of mind except for that part of him that always kind of misses the burn.

Bee: But today he feels like he and Frank have earned a smoke. They lounge on the hood of the car as puff by puff the cigarettes burn away to nothing but ash that's just like all the rest of the dirt surrounding them.