4768/Two Mutants Walk Into A Bar

Two Mutants Walk Into A Bar
Date of Scene:	17 January 2021
Location:	Alleyways: Brooklyn
Synopsis:	Ballista and Sally Pride stumble across each other at a dive that serves mutants, but trouble unfolds as a group of local toughs don't like this bar's clientele.
Cast of Characters:	Leena Danvers, Sally Pride

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Leena Danvers has posed:
Finding bars that will actually serve mutants is hard enough. Finding ones that will serve deciedly inhuman mutants is downright impossible. That's why when Ballista found a bar that would serve her, she made it her primary dive. After all, why pass up on something that good? The beer is cheap and cold and the music is heavy and folks don't bother her.

At the moment the raptor appears to be the only patron, sitting at the bar chatting with the bartender, a man in his mid-60s with an eyepatch over his left eye and scars on his face. What they're talking about, who can tell, but they seem to be swapping stories.

Sally Pride has posed:
That sort of bar is hard to find. Even for someone that can arguably dress up to pass as 'human enough'. Sally didn't like having to pretend to be less of something she was, unless it was really necessary for her to get somewhere she otherwise couldn't. That, and the places that were more out of the way tended to have less crowds anyways.

Long story short, it should come to no surprise that the lioness had found the same dive joint, and had somehow not been there at the same time as the raptor until this one time, which is enough to get her to pause in the doorway for a moment.... Then shrugs, shuts the door with a kick of her heel and strolls over the bar all the same. Peers sidelong at Ballista from behind her aviator sunglasses. "I'd say imagine running into you here, but I figure it's for the same reason."

Leena Danvers has posed:
Well there's a familiar voice. Ballista stops mid story and turns to look at Sally, and then she actually smiles, "I could say the same thing to you. Look, I'm off duty." She says, as she pats the stool next to her, "Plus Kurt here wouldn't be a fan of me wrecking up his place, no doubt."

The man behind the bar snorts faintly, "It's not like I could stop either of you if I wanted to, but yeah I'd prefer you not smash up the place."

Sally Pride has posed:
Sally Pride holds up her hands. "Hey you know I have no intent of smashing up one of the few places I can get a proper beer without a hassle." She is the Mutanimal that's least likely to pick a fight with someone, even their supposed 'hunter' unless there's an actual reason to. Instead she sits on the stool and swivels around to face the bar. Really if someone manages to not notice the tail she could be mistaken for just another biker or something with the leather jacket and mohawk cut that had grown out enough to drape over to one side. "Speaking of, Kurt, the usual."

Leena Danvers has posed:
Kurt brings the beer over to Sally and sets it in front of her, before turning back to Ballista, "So you were telling me about when you were over in Afghanistan." He reminds her. She blinks for a second and then ohs! "Right yeah! So anyway, we'd found this massive cache of IED materials. We'd been hunting this guy that was blowing up our guys for months, and had finally managed to pin him down."

She takes a long drink from her beer, "This guy had no intention of being taken alive, so he rigged the whole building to blow. We had a bunch of guys still inside when they found it, so I had to disarm the bomb while our guys evac'd. Managed to get it done with about two seconds left on the timer, but the silence after that egg timer dinged was the best thing I've ever heard in my life."

After a few more minutes, the door opens, and a group of about six guys wander into the bar. They spot the two mutants at the bar, and clearly are unhappy to see them, despite this place's reputation.

Sally Pride has posed:
Sally Pride gives an appreciative nod as she picks up the bottle, pries the cap off with her claws, and takes a good long drink of beer. Then sets it back down and tilts her head to listen to the rest of the stores. "The whole building? Crissakes, and I thought the arms dealers willing to self-destruct their cache to 'remove evidence' were bad." The crack about the egg timer does get her to snicker a bit though. "I wouldn't want to be the shmuck on laundry duty after that!"

An ear swivels a bit at the door opening, but it's behind them so Sally can't see anything. She can tell by the number of footsteps its an unusually large group for this back alley place, but that alone isn't enough to do more than just take another drink of beer casually to keep from looking as alert as she is.

Leena Danvers has posed:
There's a faint chuckle from Kurt as he looks at the group entering in the back. One of them locks the door, and Kurt frowns, "You boys sure you wanna do this?" He asks, as he moves his hands down below the bar, where Ballista knows he keeps a double barrel. She shakes her head a little bit at him.

"C'mon old timer, you can't tell me you actually /want/ to give drinks to these monsters, right?" The one who's clearly the leader of the group says, "We'll tell you what. Why don't you head to the back and we'll deal with these pets for you. You can even pay us for helpin' you out."

Ballista sighs faintly, and pulls her wallet out of her back pocket, taking out a couple hundreds and sliding them across the bar to Kurt, "I hope this'll cover everything but if not you can let me know." She says in a hushed tone, though Sally can undoubtely hear her, "Now head on to the back. I'll clean up." Kurt mutters faintly and takes the money, "Don't kill 'em. I don't need the cops poking around." He says, before he heads to the back room.

Sally Pride has posed:
It's all easy enough to not let get to her... until that 'pet' remark. That gets hackles to raise, as it hits a little too close to what was meant for mutants like her. Sally sighs soft but long. "I swear... just -one- night is too much to ask." She gulps down the rest of the beer, and flicks the bottle into the glass recycling bin behind the bar. One bottle is hardly enough to get her more than maybe a minor start of a buzz, so she'll be fine. Another sidelong glance towards Ballista, and a silent mouthing of 'Truce' before she swivels around her stool.

"Don't kill 'em? Fine." Not that Sally would, but there's a thing to be said for the proper amount of pre-fight trash talking and intimidation being made. "This floor is too good to have the blood of scum spilled on it anyways."

Leena Danvers has posed:
One of the goons pulls a folding knife out of his pocket, and Ballista looks at him and laughs, "You call that a knife? That's not a knife." She taps one of her scythe claws on the ground, "This is a knife."

The goons decide that taking the initive is in their best interest, as they rush the two mutants. Ballista is ready for this and grabs the first one who rushes at her, twisting him around and throwing him over her shoulder into a table in the corner. The table doesn't break, but it does fall over as the guy topples past it.

Sally Pride has posed:
This is exactly why Sally turned to face the goons but didn't actually get up from her stool. As soon as they try to rush the two mutants she leans back against the bar and brings up her legs. The thug runs right into them and before he can realize what's happening Sally kicks out hard, sending him crashing backwards. Being a bunch of street thugs the others step out of the way instead of trying to help their fellow and he crashes into the corner on top of a trash bin.

Then the lioness drops her legs back to the floor and finally gets up, idly cracking knuckles in the opposite palm. "Okay, you boys wanted to do this. So who's next?"

Leena Danvers has posed:
"Get 'em!" The leader yells, because 'get 'em' is always such a great plan. The other three rush at the two mutants, and Ballista grabs one of the bar stools, swinging it like a club to crash into the side of one of the goons. The second one grabs her, and tries to take her to the ground.

That leaves Sally alone with the guy who has the pocket knife. He waves it around in front of him trying to look threatening, but she can tell from his stance and his grip on the knife the only training he has with a weapon like that is watching movies.

Sally Pride has posed:
"Oh, look. A knife." Sally holds up her hands. "I'm so scared." Then fully extends all of her claws. They're not the huge sickles the raptor sports on her feet, but they are apex predator big cat claws all the same. "Oh, that's right, no I'm not."

When the goon actually tries to thrust the knife at her the lioness quickly sidesteps, letting his own awkward attempt at looking cool because he saw it in a movie stumble forward. Then she grabs his wrist and yanks the arm around and up behind his back. She's only using the claws for extra grip, but that's still enough to dig in firm enough to be felt. She grabs the back of his head with her other hand and starts to push forward.

Then realizes getting blood splattered on the bar would be a biohazard technically. That can shut a place down for weeks. She quickly pulls back a bit before pushing down, enough to slam his head into the edge of the stool she had been sitting on instead.

Leena Danvers has posed:
Still being held by one of the goons, Ballista slams the stool into the second one a couple more times, and then finally knocks him down long enough to pin him to the floor with a foot. She uses the extra leverage she gets from holding him down to push herself backwards and slam down on top of the guy holding her, quickly elbowing him in the head a couple of times until he stops moving.

The dude that had decided to grapple with Sally loses his grip on the knife when she twists his arm, quite literally, and then probably loses a couple of teeth when she slams him face first into the bar stool. He's not getting back up anytime soon.

Ballista rises back to her feet, and motions to Sally that the leader is standing there all alone now, "You see, I don't get folks like you." Ballista says, as she moves towards him, "You come in here and cause trouble, and why? We weren't hurting anybody, we just wanted to get some beers without being judged for stuff outside of our control." She scoops up the fallen knife and looks at it for a second, "Really? This thing isn't even sharp." She tosses it over her shoulder and into the same recycling bin that Sally had thrown her beer bottle into, "What do you think, Sally? Should we put this guy out with the trash? Or let him collect his buddies and never come back here."

Sally Pride has posed:
"You heard the lady." Sally pushes the goon towards the door as she let go of him, and moved over to grab a stool and sit on the other side of Ballista so it was at least relatively clean. "Pick up after yourselves and get outta here." Just letting them go is a bit lame, but it's the best way to not stir up trouble for themselves or the bar.

Leena Danvers has posed:
The guys manage to drag themselves out of there, bruised and battered and not dead. Ballista escorts them out of the front door, "Oh and as a quick aside, if I ever catch you guys in here, or even lurking around outside, I will fucking eat you."

She flashes all of her teeth to them, and they pick up the pace a little bit, "Hey Kurt, we're clear!" She calls to the back, before moving over to straighten up the table that got knocked over, "Thanks Sally. Look.." She takes a moment to consider her next words, "I don't think I wanna hunt you anymore, but Null's not really giving me much of a choice. And if I keep screwing up they may not be so forgiving. So I'd appreciate it if word of us being all buddy buddy didn't get out, okay?"

Sally Pride has posed:
Finally, Leena was starting to wise up. "Yeah, I know. That's not just a job you can walk away from, so to speak." Pause. "At least not with raising a ruckus like we did. Better to keep crossing paths on the downlow." Sally settles back on the stool to finish the night. She does smirk a little at the raptor. "... Though if you ever do find a way clear, I'm sure I can keep the rest of the crew from giving you more than a rough ribbing." Ballista was just as much a victim as they were after all, or close enough to it for her.

Leena Danvers has posed:
"But hey for now, no business talk." She says, with a grin as she sits back down, "Looks like we did less damage than I thought, Kurt! So keep that cash and keep the beers flowing!" She slaps a hand on the counter, to emphisize her point. Seems her and Sally have some stories to swap as well.