15966/Squadie Reunion

Squadie Reunion
Date of Scene:	27 September 2023
Location:	Powder Keg Gunsmith
Synopsis:	Melissa shows up at Cole's shop to reactivate him back into the Squad. June shows up to discuss CSI. Cole's gonna need more coffee.
Cast of Characters:	Cole Cash, Melissa Gold, June Connor

---

Cole Cash has posed:
It's morning time at the Powder Keg. A fresh pot of coffee is brewing as Cole opens the shop for the day, raising the anti-bugular shades, opening the door to flip around the Closed sign to Open. Releasing the door to come back inside, he stretches, feeling several pops in his back as he goes to the back.

Fishing out a coffee mug and washing it out after sniffing at it, he comes back up to the front of the store to preapre for a day of work, dressed down in a black fitted tee and blue jeans, with leather boots on his feet. After pouring his first cup, he drains some of it back and sighs.

Melissa Gold has posed:
It's less than fifteen minutes after opening that his first customer arrives. Though she's not someone who has visited the shop previously. A slim young woman standing about 5'6" tall. She's wearing a pair of jeans that are comfortable, with a pair of boots, the one inch heel giving her a little boost to her height. For a shirt she has on an Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation shirt, featuring a couple of the Grapplers themselves. It was older, worn, the graphic cracked and faded as they tended to be after years of use. Over this was a gray hoodie, partially zipped up. No sign of any sort of weapons on her, hidden or otherwise. Her hands were out of her pockets as she moved into the shop then paused to get a lay-of-the-land glance around the place.

A nod to the man running the place and she started to peruse at her leisure. Though she did offer a polite, "Good morning."

Cole Cash has posed:
It's a pretty spartan shop, for the most part. Most guns are locked in their cases, because it's Gotham. The rifles are to the left and are mostly shotguns with a few hunting rifles. Home defense items like locks, gun safes and other non-lethal paraphernalia like mace and such are in a glass case. On the other side are the handguns and tasers, portable items for carrying. There are no posters on the wall, or other items that speak to any kind of political information. Just a single TV mounted up playing CCTV from inside the store. The counter is near the back, with a surpiringly updated cash register and various forms to fill out. A few boxes of shipment that has yet to be sorted.

The jangle of the bell announces Melissa's arrival and he glances up from his coffee. "Morning and welcome to the Keg. Looking for something new or something repaired? I can do both." he advertises, before taking another sip of coffee.

If he's recognized Melissa, it doesn't show on his face as Cole pushes him off the stool.

Melissa Gold has posed:
"Something new... but old." And with that answer, Melissa had to grin a little bit. "A long time ago, I had a gun but it was something I've never found since. Was curious if you'd be able to find one for me. Not sure if you do that sort of thing though."

And she walks to that counter containing the handguns, skimming over the contents quickly as she continued speaking. "Colt 1911, but it was modified. Not the classic .45 though. It was changed out to a 9 mil. Thus almost zero recoil. Used to use it for competitive shooting." Maybe not completely honest but close enough. It was more shooting cans in the backyard sort of thing as opposed to something organized.

"And just to confirm, you're the proprietor here? Mr. Cash?" She'd seen the file. Seen the face. But it was always nice to be polite. "I'm Melissa Gold. I believe we have some work associates in common."

Cole Cash has posed:
"Old but not new. Getting married?" Cole asks with some amusement at the question, before he nods. "I can do some acquisition." As he listens to her request, his lips purse in thought as he sets down a pen and peice of paper to jot down notes. "This a gun you grew up with? Got the serial on it? Otherwise, the Competition 1911..." he heads over to the pistol cabinet and unlocks it.

The first one he pulls out has a stainless steel finish, "Colt Gold Cup Trophy. Stainless steel, nine round magazine."

And then she adds in that last paragraph. "I am." And he handles the rest. "And here I was hoping I could get to a point to see if you might want to go to dinner sometime." A smirk as he sets the pistol on the counter. "Nice to meet you, Miss Gold, I am indeed Cole Cash. But you know that. Waller got something needing done?"

Melissa Gold has posed:
"Yeah, I was just a kid when I used it. I don't even know if I have it right that it was modified. Or if it was just something that existed and I got told a tall tale," Melissa admitted with a half shrug. "You know how people do that to try to impress you? Like at that age I needed more than them having a gun to be." A little shake of her head as she remembered those teen years.

As he laid out the gun, she reached out to pick it up. It was already locked open so she could see it wasn't loaded. The magazine wasn't in. She caught the slide and snapped it into place, holding the gun and making sure to keep it pointed away from Cole. "We haven't been on the same work team yet but I was given your name as someone who might be in the future. So I wanted to come by and meet you. Dinner would be fine but it would be a business meeting. If that's what you had in mind. Or even a lunch."

June Connor has posed:
    The door opens again, and a rather small, but rough looking girl walks in. June wears shredded black jeans that show more of her legs than they cover. A black hoody with Pink Floyd's triangle and rainbow covers her top half, and she has that look of someone who, if not in trouble, is likely to change that status in short order. She glances momentarily at the other two, but then back to the guns on display, looking vaguely at them with both hands in the hoody.

Cole Cash has posed:
"Nope, not a tall-tale, they run about thousand a piece. If you like it, I'll see what I can do after some background work." Cole offers congenially. "Coffee? I have some paper cups so you don't have to worry about cooties. No cream or sugar, though."

She politely shuts him down on the dinner front. "Yes. But if it's for /business/..." he starts about the dinner.

A glance up as the bell rings again. "Welcome to the Keg! If you need anything, let me know!"

And then back to Melissa as he takes the gun and locks back after chambering and locking it in open. "...as I was saying, if it's business, we should go all out. Steak and lobster. If it's a business expense, the boss can't complain, right? Just like if someone wanted a competition grade 1911 barreled for 9mm, that doesn't have to be owned by someone who needs a background check if it's charged to the business, like a government organization. Imagine if the government had to keep track of every and pistol they have ever given out. Woo, what a nightmare."

Now his attention turns back to June and he reaches, giving Melissa's hand a light tap and an upnod of his head to get her attention on the newcomer. "She's gonna do something dumb, watch." he whispers to Melissa.

Melissa Gold has posed:
"Point," Melissa admitted with a slight laugh. "Got to love the work credit card." Though she tilted her head at mention of the gun being purchased for work. Something to perhaps discuss later when they didn't have company. "Dinner it is. Might bring the rest of the ...think tank along with so you all can meet even. That could be fun. Or horrible." She considered the squaddies she'd worked with so far. "Maybe a little bit of both."

A glance was given to the door when it opened but then she'd looked back to Cole. Though at his whisper, she arched a brow. "Definitely work up the numbers for me and yeah, coffee would be good. Black is fine."

June Connor has posed:
    June fiddles with something in her pocket. It's not a gun from the movement. It's something much smaller. She frowns, and seems to sense that she's being watched, her green eyes shifting without her head following. She pulls her hand from her pocket, and a rifle casing clatters to the counter top.

    Her hand follows it, stopping it from rolling away.

    "What?" she asks, glancing between Melissa and Cole, as if she expects to already be chewed out for something.

Cole Cash has posed:
Cole chuckles as he watches June. "Just getting a read on you." Grabbing a styrofoam cup, he pours Melissa a cup of coffee and comes around the counter to approach June. He holds out his hand for the casing that was dropped.

"Were you looking for something in paticular?" he asks of June, as he puts the casing back where it belongs. "Self-defense?"

Melissa Gold has posed:
Melissa accepts the cup of coffee and takes a careful sip before glancing curiously at the casing that was dropped. Not a lot she can tell about it at a glance. Unlike someone people in the room, who probably knows the caliber just by looking at it. For her, she'd have to look at the end of it and that was not facing her direction.

Then she went back to looking in the gun case itself, so that she wasn't making the other customer uncomfortable.

June Connor has posed:
    June looks down at the spent casing. "Tryin' to find a gun that matches," she says. "Don't usually do much with guns. I got shitty aim." She returns her hand to her pocket, letting Cole take the casing. "So like, when cops do the study, they can figure out what gun matches a bullet and shit, or at least they do on Dateline. Can you do that?"

Cole Cash has posed:
"So you have the bullet and you're trying to find the gun that matches? I can tell you the caliber and rifling and possible what manufacturer, but I don't have the type of lab you see on CSI where they shoot the pig and all that." Maybe Cole could request that from Waller. No, she'd never go for that no matter what type of good soldier he was.

"Mind showing me what you got, I can take it behind the counter and look it over better. I'm Cole, the young woman over there is Miss Gold."

Melissa Gold has posed:
They were sharing a thought despite the lack of telepathy involved. Should they have a lab like that? Or did they have one available to them? It didn't seem like something the Squad probably would need. They were the ones trying to make sure they didn't leave casings behind, something that was not so simple when two of the team members liked guns entirely too much.

At mention of her name, she glanced back over and did a little wave with a wiggle of fingers to say hello. "I need to get going." She pulled a small card out of her back pocket and put it on the counter, sliding it to the far side. It was face down. When turned over, it just had a phone number on it. The one she used for the Squad. "Let me know when you find out about that?" Meaning the gun she was shopping for, not the casing situation.

June Connor has posed:
    June nods at the casing. "I mean, I just got that. Gotta kick someone's ass. My friend, he got his shop shot up, I'm gonna find the dickheads and make sure there's no repeat performance." Open declaration that she's going to be doing something stupid.

    She looks over at Melissa. "Hey," she says with an inverted nod. "So you work here, too?" she asks. As Melissa states that she has to get going, June seems to pass on from the question. "OK, good to meet you," comes the casual, uncommitted pleasantry.

Cole Cash has posed:
"Naw, she doesn't work here. She works for one of my suppliers and is making sure I'm on the up and up." Cole chuckles as he gives a hand tip to his temple to Melissa. "Let me know when that vendor's dinner is, I'll buy a suit. Unless it's barbeque. All bets are off if it's que. Texas que. Carolina que is shit."

With that, his attention returns to June. "Come on up to the front, I got a program I can look it over with." With that, he's leading his way to the counter. "So you a vigilante, huh? I don't see any bat ears."

June Connor has posed:
    "Vigilante?" June curls her lip a little at the word. "Fuck no. Dumbass bat fetish bastards can keep their creepy cosplay. Just repayin' a favor is all. Not like Batman is gonna give a damn about anybody I know. He's got his fancy toys and shit, you know that guy has to be loaded. Or he's gettin' money protectin' people who are loaded. So you can figure out what kind of gun that is?"

Cole Cash has posed:
"So the very definition of vigilantism." Cole rumbles as he goes behind the counter, carrying the casing with him. He opens up the iPad, turns it to the side and takes the casing to put beneath it, before turning it slightly. He's basically using the iPad to magnify the casing so that he can study it better.

It doesn't take long before he grunts. "It's the home owner's special." he mutters in disdain. He picks up the casing and flicks it back to June. "AR-15. Semi-Automatic, judging by the strike mark, whoever used it needs to clean the thing. The firing pin's damn near worn out."

June Connor has posed:
    June frowns at being reinforced on the vigilante title, but she just sets her jaw and doesn't comment further. Despite her appearance as a common street rat, she shows a bit of dexterity as she catches the casing. She doesn't grab it out of the air with her whole hand, but instead catches it between two fingers. "OK," she says. "So like, that means it might screw up and not fire right?" she asks. "How would I figure out who owns it?" Apparently she lacks the Batman's detective skills. "You got anybody here who has a gun they bring in that is like that? Or...I dunno, bought a shit AR from you?" She's clearly floundering in her process. Mastermind, she is not.

Cole Cash has posed:
"One in every twenty Americans own one of these." Cole gestures to the AR-15 on the wall. "And despite what you may have seen on TV, the thing is -without- the rifle it's attached to test it against, no, I cannot help." he comments with some sympathy, setting his hands on the counter. "Wanna find who shot this? Witnesses. What type of car? License plate? How many? You find the car, you find the gun." he explains. "But to shoot up a place in Gotham and now worry about getting caught. They were either extremely skilled - or extrememly stupid."

June Connor has posed:
    "Yeah, this city is pretty shit, you know," June says. "I'm from the Apple, and even I think this place is a bit much." She sighs. "Shoulda listened to her," she says to herself. "Well, I guess that's all I can get here. You got any blades?" she asks.

Cole Cash has posed:
"It is, but if you can squeeze out a living here without being a Wayne, you can do it anywhere, right?" Cole asks. When she mentions a sword, he chuckles. "I can order some. But I don't usually carry decorative pieces. Are you studying kendo or kenjutsu?" he asks curiously.

June Connor has posed:
    "Really? Damn, I was hoping you'd have some throwing knives or somethin'. Nah not those, I don't need a sword, just blades," she says. She doesn't offer any alternatives that she's studying. "Swords are big and cops get all pissy at you when you carry them around."

Cole Cash has posed:
"Naw, I'm mainly guns. If shooting it doesn't work, blades won't be much use. I know of a couple of shops that deal in those. Mainly dojo suppliers that work with thorwing blades and shurikuen." He does have bladed weapons, they just aren't for sale. That paperwork is much harder than for a gun store. "But you have a place to start at least. I hope you have the best of luck in your search." And hopefully not find a damn thing. She looks well over her head.

June Connor has posed:
    "Aight," June says. She returns the casing to her hoody. "I'll see ya," she comments, and turns to start heading for the door. Out to do something probably stupid, possibly to get her killed.