12677/UrbEx pun go here

UrbEx pun go here
Date of Scene:	04 September 2022
Location:	New York Abandoned Nuclear Power Plant
Synopsis:	No description
Cast of Characters:	Tommy Shepherd, Gabby Kinney

---

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    Trespassing on possibly-irradiated government land is either a terrible or fantastic idea for a date. Admittedly Tommy never said it was a date, just texted the coordinates and an invitation to possibly go develop more mutant powers. The selfie of him posing by the "WARNING: RADIOACTIVE WASTE" sign with a big thumbs-up was probably unnecessary, but yes, he ran all the way out here a couple of days ago just to do that. Sometimes superspeed has its uses.

    He's back now, this time with a backpack slung over one shoulder and his Albuquerue Isotopes hat pulled down low on his brow. Because no other hat would have been appropriate. He's been saving this one for a special occasion.

    "Y'know, I was gonna get us some of those radiation monitoring badges they wear in hospitals, but turns out you can't just buy those on Amazon," Tommy says as he stares down the fence barring them access to the site. The wind coming off the water is chilly, and he drops his bag onto the ground long enough to untie the jacket from his waist and actually put it on. "Anyway, we're probably fine. But if you see anything that looks vaguely like an elephant's foot, run away."

Gabby Kinney has posed:
"You mean theeeese?" Gabby grins broadly as she reaches into her hoodie pocket to pull out two of the little clip on badges which had a large color block on it. She wiggles them in her grasp offering one out to Tommy with a broad grin. "You're right, they don't sell them on Amazon, but I know people. Helps having some folks that are a bit... Unconventional."

Her gaze sweeps over to the ruins of the plant with a bit of excitement evident as she bounces on the balls of her feet. After all she's been through lately with demons and Old Gods and nightmares, doing something mundane was much needed. Even if this was dangerous in it's own right.

Looking back to Tommy she informs, "Once it goes black we need to get out though. I mean, I can probably survive a dose or two of radiation but I dunno about you. Best not to risk too much even if we're... Well." Her head tips in the direction of the plant. Even if they were risking a lot anyway.

"It's just too bad you can't take a photo of an elephants foot. Irradiates the film."

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    When Gabby produces the radioactivity badges, Tommy can't help but mirror her grin with one of his own. "Hell yeah!" He puts his on and looks down at it against his chest. "Sweet. Okay, this is perfect!"

    Backpack on once more, Tommy even goes so far as to clip the straps together, because they're about to do ~URBAN EXPLORATION~ and he's taking this very seriously, and then he holds up a hand. "One mo." Zip, off he goes, leaving behind an empty space and a gust of wind that sends gravel and dirt up in a little puff around where his feet just were. To say nothing of the gust of wind that goes along with it! But then he's back not a second after it's died down. "Found a place we can squeeze through. Guess we're not the first people to take a look around this place."

    He holds out a hand to Gabby, presumably an offer to take the fast way around.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney grins triumphantly when she sees his reaction to the badges. As soon as she saw the sign for the plant it was an obvious thing to snag in her mind. Tim would likely question her later, but at least he couldn't claim she wasn't being careful. In their line of work 'urban exploration' was pretty much part of the job to begin with. Still, it was nice knowing he was as excited as she was.

Just as he tells her to hold on she glances to the fence intending to offer to cut their way in--but of course when he returns she considers it a half second. "Yeah probably best to work with a spot already made. So they can't claim we did property damage or something," she agrees. Reaching bag she adjusts a small bag she has strapped to her back as well.

Reaching out she grasps hold of his hand again grinning. "Ready when you are! This is gonna be awesome!"

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    From Gabby's perspective, they basically teleport halfway across the island. She'll feel Tommy's hand at the back of her head -- the reason being "Unless you want whiplash" as Tommy's said previously -- and a rush of wind and then they're there!

    For Tommy, it goes a little differently. The human body is not particularly aerodynamic, even someone Gabby's size, and maneuvering over the rocks and untamed land that surrounds the site isn't an easy task. It's never quite so easy as point A to point B. Good thing he does a lot of cardio.

    "Shit, hold on, think there's a piece of gravel in my shoe," he says after, and grabs hold of the fence not far from where a discrete cut has been made (well-concealed by the fence post) to fish it out. "Ow." He flicks the rock at superspeed so that it pings off the ground and then far, far into the distance. Then he pushes against the chainlink until there's a sizeable opening for them to fit through. "After you, ma'am," Tommy says.

    He only snorts a little bit as he says it. Moreso because when does Tommy ever have manners?

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney can only blink a single time against the wind. She FELT it, the wind slap against her and the sudden lurch of motion all compressed into one heartbeat of time. The fact that he held the back of her head helps a lot but it was still a bit disorientating. It earns a quick shake of her head when they come to a stop so that she can refocus her eyes properly.

"Oof yeah, that would suck for running. Get that out of there," she agrees with a solemn nod while reaching up to pull her hair back into a quick ponytail. Probably should have done that before the run. Even if she wasn't the runner. "You know I could just ride you piggyback next time," she suggests not realizing how bad the first part of her remark started to sound. The thought is set aside for now when the fence is pushed aside to let her duck through.

"Why thank you, my good sir," she quips back with a chuckle as she comes out the other side stepping forward to give him room, too. Reaching into the pocket of her hoodie she pulls out an energy meal replacement bar, peanut butter and chocolate fudge, to offer to him. Apparently she came prepared for potential snack needs.

"Okay so we find a way in, and maybe find a good spot to leave a signature. I've got paint pens with me, too," she informs. "And flashlights. Obvs."

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    Well, Tommy definitely snorts again, though this time it's at the unintended double entendre. He doesn't directly call Gabby out on it, though, especially not after she bribes him with a calorie bar. Not that she necessarily intended it to be a bribe, but Tommy takes it as one anyway. The bar is gone in less than a second, the wrapper crumpled up and stuffed into a side pocket of Tommy's backpack after.

    Leave it better than you found it. Even if "it" is a nuclear power plant.

    "Yeah, maybe there's a broken window or something. Or we could try the roof?" He doesn't make any final determination, though; they still have a ways to hoof it before they're near any of the facility's buildings. And for now they're walking at regular human speed. "What's your street name?" he asks, since they're talking about signatures. "Mine's "Speed" for, uh, obvious reasons."

    Pause for dramatic effect. "Also it's my favorite Keanu movie of the nineties, but uh, I don't advertise that."

Gabby Kinney has posed:
"Nah, just find a door. I can get us in from there, trust me," Gabby assures while she turns to start walking for the building alongside him. The light crunch of overgrown asphalt and dried weeds that had grown through. A little tug to the straps of her bag are given only for her hand to twist back fishing out some of those heavy duty metal flashlights. Hopefully they wouldn't be here long enough for it to iradiate.

"Speed's a good name," she assures even if the mention of the Keanu Reeves movie earns a sly grin from her. "I've had a few. Dropbear -- Which isn't actually a thing, it's a joke thing, but I thought it was amusing. Honey Badger otherwise. Cuz Honey Badger don't give a damn."

A moment after this exclamation her gaze sweeps over the side of the building. There in the shadow of one tower she spots a door which she points out. Not the tower itself thankfully. Even she was a bit hesitant about that. "Ah, there we go. Looks like it's chained up but that won't be a problem." With that said she starts jogging in that direction with long loping strides that were very easy to keep up with given she was short.

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    "Five letters, one syllable, tells you all you need to know." Tommy's head bobs up and down, clearly pleased with himself on this one. Many hours spent in juvenile hall coming up with it, that's for sure. Once he's got one of the flashlights, he gives it a little flip in his hand, testing the weight, before he slips it into the front pocket of his hoodie.

    He kicks a dirt clod off to the side and then cranes his neck up to peer at the stacks. "We should find a really improbable place to sign our names, somewhere people will spend days thinking "how the hell did they get up there?"" This is the thought that has his brain occupied when Gabby reveals her codenames, but he tunes back in just in time to add--"Honey Badger don't care! Oh my god, I love that video!"

    He's still laughing as they approach the door, jogging after Gabby. Cardio! "Okay, what other cool gadget thing do you have up your sleeve?" he asks.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney spreads her hands wide with a laugh. "I know right?! I heal so not much bothers me it's all 'Psssh whatever!'" He was the first one she'd met who actually admitted to having seen that video. Or at least known it right off the bat. Though she was certain others had of course, there was no way half the Outsiders hadn't seen it. No one remarked on it though.

Dropping her hands back to her sides she tucks the little flashlight into what was supposed to be a cellphone holder on the strap of her bag, in front of her shoulder. Now if only she'd gotten the military angle flashlights that would be where it would stay. For now it just frees up her hands as she comes up to the door.

"Gadget? I mean I *could* pick the lock, I know how, but that takes too long." Both hands are brought up in front of her again to clench her fists.

It's a sound hard to describe. Both a rip, a tear, a bit of wetness. A snikt. And both claws come out the back of her hands. One long single claw on each and currently glowing with just a faint light. It was still bright enough outside that the sunlight outshone the enchantment put on the bone. With that she just steps forward slashing through the chains in one sweeping cut that leaves a gouge in the metal door itself as well.

"WAY easier this way."

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    Tommy stands back but to the side, eager to see what Gabby has in store for the door. He's got his flashlight out still, as well as his cell phone, to get that first shot as they open the door. Though all plans on taking video are forgotten as--

    "Holy shit are those comin' out of you?!"

    Mouth fully agape, he looks back and forth between Gabby and her claws and then back to Gabby and then back to the claws and then--"Gabby, you have claws?!"

    The pieces take a moment to fall into place, but thankfully it's from Tommy's perspective, so he only looks like a dumbass if you have superspeed. "WAITAREYOURELATEDTOWOLVERINE?"

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney waits for it to sink in while grinning broad enough that the scars on her cheeks crease from the dimpling. "Yep," she agrees simply to the first question. To prove it she holds up her fist in front of her, facing toward him, so he can see that it is indeed coming out of the back of her hand. It's followed up with another, "Yup!" about having claws.

"I don't use them as often as some of my relatives, but... Yeah," she agrees at last with a rather warm and easy laugh that was so far unlike Wolverine it might make him second-guess the question in the first place.

"He's my dad, yeah. Or genetic donor at least," she explains while dropping her hand back to her side letting the claws pop back into hiding. The little injury from them is already healing. "I'm a clone, technically, but he took me in as his daughter. I've got a few sisters, too."

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    The shock wears off quickly thanks to Tommy's processing speed, and then he's stepped in closer to peer at where the claw pierces through Gabby's skin. "Yo, Gabby... that's metal as fuck," he says after, and leans back, hand on his hip. "That's wild."

    Despite the initial freakout about Wolverine -- who is famous enough in mutant circles that even Tommy, who basically never watches the news and doesn't care about superhero stuff like at all, knows about -- he's already calmed down, just nodding in appropriate places as Gabby explains. Until the clone part, which has his expression going vaguely green and panicked before he surpresses it.

    "That's wild," he repeats again, like a broken record, and then shoulders his way through the door into the building. Which is dark. So he flicks his flashlight on and sweeps the beam across. "Huh. Oh look, a desk. Wow." Lucky them, they've found the lobby.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
The initial reaction was pretty cool to watch as the emotions play over Tommy's face. Gabby's rather riding high enjoying it and the attention. It wasn't often she got to surprise people anymore, much less someone she already knew a bit. It's precisely because she does know him some that the secondary reaction causes her to tilt her head to the side.

"Hey... wait. Tommy." He's already inside, so she follows after reaching a hand out to rest on his shoulder. "You okay? You looked a bit upset there for a moment. If you need to talk you know I'm good for it."

Pausing a beat she regards the abandoned desk quietly just a second or two. Long enough for him to process the suggestion. "Or we could just explore if you need to get your mind OFF something, too. Just. You know, whatever helps. I've got more snacks too if we need." Naturally.

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    The hand on his shoulder makes him jump a little, but when Tommy spins around to face Gabby his eyebrows are pulled down and he's frowning, apologetic. "Sorry, sorry--fuck, I'm just jumpy, it's fine." He looks away, briefly lifting his cap off of his head to sweep a hand through his hair, before he returns to scanning the room with his flashlight.

    "Nah, I'm fine," he says as he makes his way over to the desk. Rattling the drawers reveals that they're all, surprisingly, unlocked.

    But also empty. Tommy frowns, and crouches down to peer into the back of them. "Hey, wait!" He reaches in, and pulls out a--

    --wait for it--

    --paperclip. "How radioactive do you think this is now?" he asks, tossing it onto the desktop. Then he looks at his hand, frowns, and rubs it against the fabric of his jeans. "Anyway," he adds, voice too obviously faking a casual tone, "How common is it for, like, famous mutants to be cloned?"

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney opens her mouth then shuts it again. At least he's temporarily distracted by the hunt for the paperclip. "Probably a lot," she has to admit thoughtfully. "I'm not sure how much aluminum holds but I know it's not microwave safe. Stands to reason." Then again there wasn't a meltdown here. Just a moving of the plant. Maybe it was safe.

Reaching up to the pocket where her own flash light resides she flips it out to feed the beam around the room while picking her way further in. The question earns a sidelong glance toward Tommy considering it.

"Not too much. Wolverine's a special case. He was tested on by the government to be a military weapon way back when. The labs that made me and my sisters were an off shoot of that project's remnants."

A slow, deep breath is drawn in recalling. The light is flicked toward an open doorway behind what was apparently the reception area they'd come into. Starting that way she pauses to carefully glance down wathcing her step as she goes.

"I'm technically a clone OF the clone that they originally made of him. The DNA was stolen... anyway, it's not *super* common. There's so many of him around because of that government project."

She wasn't entirely sure why he was asking. The nervousness though? That was making her get an inkling of why he might be worried. "I was raised in a lab, Tommy. Kind of hard to not know you're a clone."

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    Technically Tommy could stealthily check the x-ray badge without Gabby seeing, on account of the whole superspeed thing. That he makes a show of pulling his jacket away from himself slightly to peer down at it with his flashlight means he's doing it for comedic effect. They're not radioactive yet, at least.

    "So if they've been captured by the government, they might have been cloned?" is what Tommy takes away from the explanation Gabby's providing him, it seems. He starts pointing his flashlight beam at the wall, looking for "Bathroom, bathroom, uh..." He finds the placard sign next to the door he's focused on, "Supply closet." Not what he's looking for, so instead he starts towards a hallway that heads off from the lobby.

    And here his flashlight focus down on the ground, scanning for potential tripping hazards. A constant concern for a speedster. "But what if, okay, theoretically, hear me out--," though he goes quiet as he comes across an overturned desk chair (maybe from the desk in the lobby) sitting in the middle of the hallway. "Okay, that's weird. Anyway, what if the clones were switched with newborns and taken home by random families so they could be activated as, like, sleeper agents or something someday?"

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney blows out a bit of air between her lips making a 'pbbbttt' noise at the suggestion he gives. A wry grin comes over as she watches him check the badge, then looks to her own just to make sure. So far so good though. They were fine yet. "Why are we looking for a bathroom?" Reasonable question.

Picking her way around the desk and chair with a suspicious glance she starts to respond. "I mean, sleeper agents are a thing, but newborns not so much. You need training and brain washing to be a sleeper agent. Not to mention placement and assistance to get where you need to BE. If they did that to a baby, then whose to say the kid would even grow up to exercise much less be trained enough to do... whatever it is they want them to do? Could end up being a gamer nerd."

"Not to mention clones aren't auto-guaranteed to be mutants. Got to hit puberty for that. Out of the ten of us, only I got the active X-Gene."

Lightly she clears her throat debating if this is something she ought to share. "I do know another clone. Superboy, he's a clone of Superman. Half human though. They programmed him with false memories, BUT... He also has memories of the labs. He knows he's a clone. And they only did the false memories because they grew him super fast and not at normal speed. He's like, six yeaers old."

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    "Okay, so, unlikely that you can randomly be a clone without knowing about it, in real life," Tommy says with a slow nod. "You see a lot of crazy shit in tv shows sometimes, is all." And it has nothing to do with anything going on in his personal life at all right now!

    He circles around the chair and continues down the hallway. "I don't know what we're looking for. Something cool? Getting the sense that all we're going to find is office furniture and dust, though." He comes to a t-junction and pauses there, swinging his flashlight beam back and forth between their two options forward. The light illuminates dust particles in the air and a whole lot of nothing else.

    The atmosphere is certainly oppressive, though that might just be because they're in an office building with no windows and no lights. Office buildings are depressing even in the daylight.

    "Jesus christ, false memories are a thing for real?" he wheezes. That's, uh, definitely just the dust in the air and not real panic in his voice.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
"Yeah, but like..." Gabby pauses flashing her light over to Tommy considering a moment. The beam is swept away down the hall again. "Let's see if we can find an ID badge or something left behind, maybe."

With that she ducks into another room only to backepdal out again with a grimace. "Okay found the break room." The room in question had those round tables and shitty plastic chairs, most of which had been piled in one corner of the room. There was some graffiti in here as well making it obvious they weren't the first to find this room.

"Ah, anyway, as I was saying. He knows the fake memories are fake. He says it's like... he knows them, but can't focus or recall details of it. Peoples faces. How he felt. He says it's like remembering a TV show you watched. Confusing when you first think back but on closer examination you realize that it's maybe not your memory."

Deciding this 'friend of a friend' curiosity had gone on long enough she turns back to Tommy entirely. "Listen, Tommy. I know there's a ton of 'what if' scenarios to make someone uncertain. But most of them fail in the real world. Every clone I've met has known they're a clone. And being a clone doesn't make you any less of a 'real person'," she adds quickly, emphatically, as this was apparently something she HAD faced before.

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    Tommy is still Tommy even when he's freaking out about some internal struggle, so he first approaches the vending machine in the break room. Which is empty. Probably a good thing, because eating snacks left for a decade in a nuclear reactor site is not exactly a great idea.

    Might actually earn Tommy a new mutation, though.

    "They think I'm related to the royal family of Genosha," he says, without turning to face Gabby. His flashlight is pointed down, at the ground. "I mean, it makes sense. White hair, superspeed, I'm basically Quicksilver if you copy-pasted him into Jersey." He sighs and knocks the butt of his flashlight against the glass front of the vending machine, before he steps away and hops up onto a table, resting his weight on his hands. "It's not about, like... a person is a person, however they came about, okay? But what the fuck. Royalty? Me?"

    He lets out a chuckle that rises sharply in pitch before he covers his mouth with his hand. "It's just fucked up, is all," he adds, muffled.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
"Oh." Well that's something to take in. Gabby steps over next to Tommy, and just turns to lean against the counter beside him. Exploring is over for the moment in favor of talking. He was clearly upset a bit now that she knew.

Her head tips down regarding a ceiling tile on the floor that had fallen who-knew-when. "I mean. Yeah. Could be. Powers sometimes run in families," she has to agree. "As for royalty, well you know they weren't until like ten years ago. Before that they were just..." She spreads her hands in a shrug.

"And Magneto's as old as my dad if not moreso. They were both around in WWII. It's possible you're related directly, or heck, maybe even from some secondary relative that lost touch with them years ago. Doesn't have to be a clone thing."

Here she pauses to lean to the side, bumping her shoulder into Tommy's. "Every royal family's gotta have a bad boy though, yeah?" A light tease hoping to ease the mood.

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    "Yeah."

    Tommy leaves it at that, because even just saying it aloud is a lot for him, and he's been living with it for months now. He pushes himself forward so that he can sit back up. "Wish I could've gotten the magnet powers. Kinda lost the genetic lottery if it turns out I'm actually a Maximoff." His legs kick back and forth, though they go still as Gabby leans in, and he reciprocates the elbow bump with one of his own lightly. "Not so much a bad boy as a forever fuckup, but I think that's under-represented in the family too. Guess I have my niche."

    He scrubs his face with one hand and then slides back onto his feet, steadying the table as it wobbles from the upset. "Sorry. Over it now, don't worry. Back to the search?"

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney pushes back to her feet properly once he seems to shake himself out of things. "I don't think you're a fuck up. I think you're just trying to figure things out, like a lot of people." She decides to leave it at that though, flashing him a grin. "Right, onward!"

Though she does pause to check her badge since they'd been here for a few minutes. Never hurt to keep up on it. "Let's go mess with the cooling towers. If we can't find anything neat inside we can at least decorate it a bit." Besides those things were huge, really, like amphitheaters inside.

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    At least with superspeed, Tommy's fast at processing his emotions. In real-time terms at least, just gotta hit fast-forward on the thinking until you've figured it all out.

    Okay, occasionally it can backfire on him. But he's standing upright, no sign of true panic lingering in his body language. Maybe a little discomfort, which could just be attributed to them hanging out in a nuclear power plant, who knows.

    "Yeah, figuring things out..." he says as they return back to the hallway, Tommy taking the lead moreso due to longer strides than anything intentional. At a crossroads he pauses to consider, but he's got a good sense of direction, and after a moment of continued walking the faded signs on the wall indicate they are indeed headed towards the cooling towers. Or at least the access point for the cooling towers.

    There's an overturned filing cabinet spilled across the floor. No contents except for a few stray manilla envelopes (all empty) but it's enough to make Tommy slow to a stop. "Once I get my diploma, I'm out at Happy Harbor. Not sure what I'm going to do with myself afterwards."

Gabby Kinney has posed:
"That's fair," Gabby agrees at mention of getting his diploma. The downed cabinet is conquered with a little hop over it, narrowly missing stepping on one of those dusty folders. That could have ended up in an unpleasant slip and potential fall. Disaster averted!

"I've got my team to work with, but I don't really have a plan for a normal job. I mean... I don't know. I could always do a security gig for someone but then that means them knowing all of my history. Somehow I don't see myself working at an icecream shop like some of the other kids at Xavier's have."

A grin is flashed at Tommy's back while she hurries to keep up. "I know someone that works as a zoo keeper. Maybe they need someone who can handle the dangerous jobs."

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    Tommy steps over the cabinet with less grace than Gabby, but slightly more care in where he puts his feet. Again, speedsters always have to make sure the ground's clear of tripping hazards. It's practically an ingrained habit even when he's not running around at the speed of sound.

    "Normal's boring," he says, with enough frustration in his voice (fueled by all those gig jobs he works) that there's no doubting he means it. "Just the thought of it. Wouldn't it drive you crazy? Even running security or something... I can't see you settling for a nine to five." That he wouldn't be able to make it either is an unspoken insinutation. Signage on the wall points them towards a set of double doors that don't quite budge when Tommy nudges at it, and then when he hipchecks it with some force it makes a really horrendous creaking screech as the door grinds against the floor. The noise rebounds off the walls and fades slowly into silence.

    Pause. Cough. "Well, if there's anyone here with us they know they're not alone now."

Gabby Kinney has posed:
"Oh, I don't intend to make a life out of it. Just got to find a way to make money. Even if it's just to get a small bit saved up and ask someone to invest it for me that knows better than me, you know?" Gabby grins as they walk along, her gaze raking over the room. It was odd getting to see inside one of these places. "I'm probably going to always be a vigilante or a hero type of some kind."

As that door skreeeeeaks open, there's a quieter noise from just behind Tommy. It was such a jarring noise, echoing around, and Gabby finds herself reacting. Not in pain. Just... intense discomfort. It was overwhelming. The sound reverberates in ear ears, her head, sending dizzying stars in front of her vision. A little whimper comes as she claps her hands over her ears while shutting her eyes tight. Deep breaths. Slow, deep breaths.

There's no immediate response to Tommy for this very reason as she just tries to focus back on herself.

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    The whole superhero thing only gets a gruff, noncommittal noise from Tommy. He hasn't bought into the whole hero thing yet. You won't even catch him in a certain green and silver getup that he may or may not technically possess. It's just not his bag.

    He sticks his head through the gap now made in the door and looks back and forth before ducking back out, turning to shine his light back at Gabby. Which is when he notices her silence and the deep breaths she's taking. And maybe there might be an expectation of a "Hey, you okay?" or a pat on the shoulder or something, but what Tommy actually does is keep watch over their surroundings, standing close but not too close, and let Gabby do what she needs to do without interruption.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney draws a deep breath catching the scent of the building. Dusty, old, industrial, ozone. All those awful things. And Tommy. It's the one thing that stands out among all this mess: Just Tommy.

Another few breaths, and she risks lowering her hands away from her ears as she straightens blinking at him quietly. "Thanks," she offers in a strained voice. Though with another few breaths she starts to regain her color as well as composure seeming as if nothing had happened soon enough.

"That was like nails on a chalkboard times a million." With that explanation offered she bounces onto the balls of her feet, rolls her head side to side. "I'm good. Let's go. Hopefully no squatters or... or bats or something here. Though I think that would have murdered the bats."

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    Tommy only nods. It's not until Gabby doesn't look like she's about to pass out that he says "Hey, it's no problem." He returns to the door, though this time he just sucks in a breath and squeezes into the gap, very careful not to so much as brush against the door as he shuffles his way through. And then he waits on the other side, doing a careful side-to-side sweep of the place with the beam of his flashlight.

    "Well, if something flies at us out of the darkness, you can protect me with your claws, right?" He's only like... maybe sixty percent serious, judging by the uptick of his eyebrows and the faint twitching at the corner of his mouth. "I mean, seriously though, the more I learn about you the more certain I am that you could absolutely kick my ass."

    There's nothing spilled across the floor here, no ominous office furniture to be seen. It's actually just a straight corridor leading to another set of doors, with what looks like some sort of security checkpoint set up between. Or rather, what was once a security checkpoint. The metal detectors probably don't work any more.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Thankfully the door was open enough they could slip through. Gabby could potentially deal with it now that she expected such a reaction. That didn't mean she *wanted* to though. Slipping by was perfectly all right for her.

The question of taking care of anything that flies his way earns a self-assured wink, and grin. "Of course. I'll make sure you don't end up with any bats in your pretty hair." She's teasing of course. I mean, really, her sister had similar hair to begin with.

Though her eyesight was doing pretty good in low light conditions these days she still flips out her flashlight again to sweep the beam over the area. "Huh. Kind of. Kind of not what I expected."

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    Gabby's comment prompts Tommy to lift the Albequerque Isotopes hat off his head to run a hand through his hair, almost habitually. Then he snorts. "Yeah, yeah. That's good, rabies is fucking terrifying." A shiver runs up his spine and he takes a moment to rub his free hand against his arm, like he's trying to warm himself up. The jacket apparently isn't doing enough.

    He jumps over the security desk rather than going through the disabled metal detectors, for whatever reason. In fact, he's eyeing them suspiciously, before he turns towards the desk.

    "Oh, hey!"

    Suddenly he has a, very dusty, security guard hat on his head. On top of the hat he's already wearing. "This is probably super irradiated, right?"