(NYC) Gambling Time

[avalanche]

The plan was simple, really. They agreed to meet Lucas down the street, at the Afterhours, once they’d disposed of the car.

Because Dom knew Lucas was unaware at the newest, finer points to his mutant abilities, he took a second to illustrate that how he planned on doing it would leave no trace of the vehicle – and that it was an aspect of his mutant power. He didn’t describe more than that, and Lucas didn’t seem to need more than that.

So now Recluse and a grumpy Dominic drove the vehicle a block down the street, looking for a secluded alleyway that wasn’t currently occupied by bums or the like.

“Fuck. I don’t like this…” He said to Recluse, though he was unclear as to whether he meant the getting rid of the car, or the Lucas situation. He sighed, and clenched the wheel. “What do you think?”

[recluse]

They were, it seemed, going on the run.

On the advice of Lucas James, who Gracie still wasn't entirely sure was helping them for reasons entirely... above board. He had no reason to, they weren't young and helpless and it wasn't like he'd ever shown any particular attachment to either of them. Not that she could remember, anyway, but it was possible that she'd forgotten some month-long chunk where Dom and Lucas had become bestest buddies. In some alternate universe. Maybe.

"He doesn't want cash. He doesn't want either of us - well, maybe you, but you can't help it that you're pretty. Honestly, I haven't got any fuckin' idea why we're doing what he says instead of following the plan. Or ringing Sparks and seeing what he thinks, since it's his party we're planning to crash. Is Lucas coming with us?"

She was utterly confused as to the older thug's motivation, and she wasn't overly pleased about it. The fact that he'd called her Dom's girlfriend and neither of them had bothered to correct him bothered her, too. Still, she could deal with that shit later.

"You know me, I've got nothing against going to Afterhours, and spending a few days in Long Island with such a pretty pair of boys isn't going to bother me, but I still want to know what the fuck he wants."

With a slightly amused half smile, Recluse pointed down what looked like an empty alley.

"But whatever. Better than going back to the pen, I doubt they'll let me out this time."

[avalanche]

Pulling the car into the alleyway, and killing it as far down as possible, they got out and scouted for bums and other onlookers. No windows, no witnesses. Dom wasted no time, taking the few moments it took to vibrate the car to a small sheet of thin dust on the ground… it didn’t take very long.

Taking one of the bags of garbage nearby, he scattered the dust until it meshed with the general gross of the alley.

“Yeah, trust me, Recluse – I completely feel ya.” He said, looking over at her, slinging the extra travel pack with the remainder of the cash in it. “I’d like to know exactly what the hell it is he wants. This is Lucas fuckin’ James. He may help out a kid or two, but we’re no charity case.”

They headed up the block, walking briskly towards the titty bar, when he stopped her.

“And hey… you will never, ever go back into the joint, okay? Not for a job that was my set up, alright? I don’t care what it costs, it ain’t happenin’.” He gave her an actual smile after saying this with a completely grave face. “That’s partially why we need to stick with Luke. He’s got nothin’ on me but his word… but if he fingers me to the cops, the odds of us getting’ caught goes up by a few percentage points… and personally? I don’t want to be on the run. Right now we’re on the run from bein’ on the run, we’re not actually on the run.”

[recluse]

"Hey, don't worry about it. I'm no innocent, remember? I make my own decisions - we get caught, we get caught. I take a fall too." Shrugging easily, Gracie tugged at his arm to get him moving again.

"But thanks for the thought." If he said anything that sweet again, she'd have to give him shit about going soft. How much time had he spent training, anyway? Not enough to have an excuse.

"That was a pretty neat trick back there." Adjusting her bag, she smiled wide enough to show her fanglets to anyone that knew they were there. Which Dom did, obviously.

"What else does it work on?" As far as she knew, Dom couldn't disintegrate a person that way. Still, it was a handy trick, would certainly be good to know in the future.

"Hey, do we get to go into the bar, or do we have to leave straight away?"

[avalanche]

Dom had known the girl for quite a while, and he could read her subtle mannerisms quite well. The ‘awww, that’s sweet but don’t be like that again or I’ll kill you’ looks stood out quite prominently, and he snapped his mouth shut before he said something else for her to glare at him for. So he shrugged like a cool guy, and turned to walk to the bar.

“So far it works on everything. I tried it on a squirrel though, and it didn’t work… disintegrated everything around him though. Tried it on a deer, no go. So it doesn’t seem to work on living matter… though it works on leather, which means it’ll probably work on a corpse. Not that we’ll ever need to hide one or anything.”

He smirked at her, and continued. “Neat trick though… found out this worked when I came back. Don’t want to do it now, not so close to the crime, but I call this one the ‘nudifier.’ – I can totally take away someone’s clothing. It’s hilarious.”

He slowed to a stop outside the ruckus that was Afterhours and looked at her. “So here’s my thought. Lucas wants to help me out, maybe he’ll help out the cause too. A guy with his rep on the street sides with the ‘Hood, and it could mean something serious. Besides, he’s got years of criminal experience, and a grip of supernatural power. Maybe if we get him on board, he’ll consider us even Stephen – and the extra muscle could help John out. Whattya think?”

[recluse]

"You nudify me and I will fuck you up, right?"

It was good to know that his power worked on pretty much everything - not that she thought they'd ever have to be disposing of bodies, either, but at least they knew.

Well, you could never be sure what the future held, could you?

They approached the bar, which made her want a beer more than hopping into a car with the two pretty boys, but she made herself concentrate on what Dom was saying instead of her desire for alcohol and nude dancers and shrugged easily in response.

"I dunno, Dom." Recluse was more than a little sceptical that they'd be able to get Lucas on board, but it was worth a try.

"I'm sure he'd be useful... But you're asking him, not me." She didn't want to get broken if anything started. Not that she'd shy away from a tussle most of the time, but Lucas wasn't most people.

Gazing longingly at the window of the titty bar, Gracie shrugged again.

"I'm sure he'll be useful, as long as Sparks is cool with it. Just not sure Lucas'll be into the idea." Then again, the Brotherhood was helping mutants. They were just causing a bit of mayhem while they did it. Which, you know, could have been an up side.

[avalanche]

Dom grinned at the idea of a nudified Gracie beating the crap out of him, and stamped the idea away. Her problem was that she didn't know how bloody attractive she was – and if she really wanted to get him, she could probably talk him into nudifiying himself, and then she could rip his pubes out with some of that web.

He winced at the unnecessarily vivid visualization.

“Yeah, don't worry about me nudifyin' you, Reckles, at least not until you're really, really in an awkward position. Maybe in a crowd.” He chuckled.

He pulled his cell phone out. “I'll give Sparks a ring, and see what he has to say about...” He looked at the screen. “Oh, hold on, speak of the Devil.”

A minute later, having listened to the voice message, he was laughing. “I missed this kid, he really tickles me. Okay – new plan. We're scratching the whole Institute mission and just waiting for him to come get us. Which is good – because if we decided to bring Lucas along and he agreed, I doubt Xavier's could've really been easily attained with his ass in tow.”

This wasn't necessarily true. Lucas fucking James was a lot of things, but Dom doubted he was reckless and stupid.

“Damn, time difference. Don't want to wake him up. I'll have to call him later... until then, we'll see what Lucas thinks.”

He just hoped it didn't entail some kind of massive beating. He liked Afterhours, it was another place he didn't want to have to destroy in a fight.

He turned and walked with her into the bar, thinking that a couple beers sounded nice right now too. He was also thinking it was probably a good time to leave, ASAP... but still. Beers were good. So were tits.

[impact]

Lucas had his eyes on his favourite girl, a cuban girl with long black hair that swished around the back of her knees. His eyes were tilted up at her as he finished his first beer, a second already set down beside him by the barely clothed waitress.

Afterhours was a typical establishment of its calibre- the interior was crimson, unrelentingly- glossy red painted walls, red vinyl seats, red(or rather, faded to pink) lights rimming the u-shaped stage, red neon over the door screaming 'EXIT' in case you had to look for one in a hurry.

Lucas stared at the girl like a lion watching dangling meat, smoke drifting in front of his face as the place had little to no ventilation to speak of.

He didn't address them as they walked in, if he even noticed they were there.

[recluse]

"I will bite you in a place that you really don't want to be bit. First and only warning, love." She was dead serious, too, even though she didn't exactly want to go anywhere near his... Well.

The news that they were no longer going to Xavier's didn't really effect Recluse either way. Unless you counted that small smile that appeared at the idea of not having to see Dom dressed as an X-Man. Cause that was just a little disturbing.

"Yeah, alright. You're still doing the talking though." She wondered where the kid was that they'd have to worry about a time difference, but Recluse knew that she'd find out soon enough. Whether Lucas James tagged along with them or not was entirely in Dom's hands - although she did want to make sure that they got there in one piece. So she'd help if she had to - but her idea of helping could easily make things worse.

They walked into the bar - which clashed horribly with her pink and black shoes - and Gracie went to the bar for a couple of beers before taking a seat beside Dom. Taking a sip of her beer, she found herself looking up at Lucas' girl with a slightly bored look. Hair was too long for her taste - Recluse wasn't interested in anyone that had longer hair than her.

Nice tits, though, there was no denying that.

[avalanche]

Dom still chuckled. She really didn't want to be nudified. That was totally fine by him honestly, it wasn't a complication to their friendship he was really looking for.

Of course if the legends were true, he'd never want to nudify Lucas in front of anyone either... his mammoth wang was a legendary as the power of his punches. That was also a complication in his life he didn't need either.

He knocked back a pull from his beer, leaning against the bar with Recluse... and not wanting to look like he was building up the courage to go ask the big guy. Even if he was.

After a moment he sighed and went over to sit next to Lucas. He was really sighing too much lately for his personal tastes. Maybe he was getting an ulcer.

“So...” He said, not looking at Luke, instead staring at the cute dancer the creepy bastard seemed to be... leering? Was that word? Leering at. “We hit your place. Then you want to come with us on our road trip?”

[impact]

Lucas ashed his cigarette, smirking in a private kind of way as the cuban girl leaned over and showed him something in a private kind of way while grasping a few dollar bills with the tips of her long red nails.

He took a long breath in, broad shoulders flexing with the motion, then let it out in a way that could only be a sigh. His jaw twitched.

Taking a slow drink of beer, he looked at Dom. There was a bit of amusement on his face- just a bit.

"What, you didn't hear me the first time I said I was comin' with you?"

[avalanche]

“Ahhh... That's what you meant by that.” Dom said, thumbing through his wallet looking for some ones. “I wasn't sure what you meant by that... I was kinda hopin' you meant we were going steady.”

He smirked. “Okay, so seriously – I thought you meant outta here, I didn't think you meant all the way to... where ever. Does this mean I should pass along that you want in. Like, in in?”

This was remarkably easier than the thought... if anything with Lucas James could be considered so. Still, dealing with him still felt a bit like dealin' with the Devil.

Not that Dom had a problem with that... his papa always said if anyone could run a loop around the Devil, it was him. He hoped the old man was right.

[impact]

Lucas laughed at the joke, his grin not meeting his eyes, but definitely an improvement. Nodding a bit at the dancer before she disappeared and the club-volume music returned while the girls traded off, Lucas leaned in.

"Yeah. You might want to let your boss know I'm coming." He said it as if he'd be doing the 'boss' a favor- entirely sincere in his seeming helpfulness, entirely unaware that he might be being arrogant. To Lucas, being formidable was a fact, not a feint.

Curling two dollar bills between his fingers, he looked over his shoulder to Recluse. Gesturing the money at her, he raised an eyebrow and smirked, his eyes glittering.

[recluse]

Standing behind the boys, beer in hand, like one of the strangest looking bodyguards you'd ever see, Gracie took one last look at the girl before she was finally gone.

Her hair was definitely too long. She shook her head and took another sip of her beer as Lucas looked over his shoulder and gestured with a couple of dollar bills. Raising one eyebrow above the beer bottle, Gracie swung her free hand around to hold up a single finger and lowered the bottle, swallowing before baring her fangs at him.

Smart ass fuckin' pretty boy.

He better be worth it. Even though she thought that he probably would be an asset to the Brotherhood, she was still tempted to nibble his shoulder while he slept. Or some other part of his anatomy that would be lovely and painful til it healed.

[avalanche]

Dom couldn’t help but smirk at Luke’s teasing of Grace. Sometimes he’d felt like doing the same… hell, he did do the same. He gestured her over to sit next to him on a stool, and looked back to Big’n’Scary.

“Well no shit I’m gonna call my boss, Lucas. I don’t know much about him anymore, but I can probably be sure that he damn well wouldn’t like a surprise of this nature.” He looked at the next dancer, and frowned, putting his wallet back in his pants. “I’ll get to that when we leave. Were you looking to do that sometime soon, or can we sit through a set or two of the girls?”

[impact]

Lucas rubbed the knuckles of one hand, nodding slowly, though it seemed more a gesture of recognition than agreement. “Don’t see how a half hour or so would hurt,” he shrugged. “But it’s your call.”

He would feel a lot less tense once they were on the road, even less so once they’d reached the house. No one had any reason to trace them there, just like no one had any reason to suspect Avalanche and Recluse would be riding in the back of the blue Nissan Altima they’d be driving out to Long Island.

Tension. Aside from moving on with their plans, there was only one decent solution.

Standing, Lucas set a hand on Dom’s shoulder and offered his chair to Recluse. “I’ll be back.” Weaving between tables and patrons, his broad frame nearly disappeared in the cigarette haze near the door to the stage. The Cuban girl with hair too long for Gracie’s taste smiled as she stepped out, putting her arms around Luke’s thick waist.

[recluse]

It was odd to her, that after she'd stood back for so long, both guys were trying to get her to sit down. She took Lucas' seat -because she could, and so that she could refuse to give it back to him when he returned.

Well, it was something that she'd do.

Looking up at the girl that was coming on stage - a little thing with obviously fake tits (another deterrent, in her mind) - Gracie raised an eyebrow and took another sip of her beer.

"We sticking around?" She nudged Dom with her shoulder to make sure that he was listening.

"I mean, I like tits as much as the next person, but d'you think we should get on the road soon, just in case?"

[avalanche]

Dominic looked over at her, and smirked. "I thought you wanted to come inside for a bit... so I figured we'd stay until Dangerwang gets done with his girl. Mabye it'll calm him out a bit."

He looked back at the girl, waiting for her rotation to be over, and knocked back some more of his beer.

"Besides, give us a little bit of fun before we end up shacked together with Lucas. We'll only be here for another twenty or so..."

He looked around the room, eyeing the girls on the floor and on smaller stages. "See anyone you want? Lap Dance, on me."

[recluse]

"I did," Recluse said, "But that was before I saw who was on shift."

Still, who would say no to a free lap dance? Twenty minutes wasn't that long. She looked around the bar, draining her beer as she looked from girl to girl.

"Mmm." Nodding, Gracie swallowed the last of the beer and gestured with the empty bottle.

"Redhead over there." Pale skin, pixie haircut, petite - everything was looking good so far. With another shrug, Gracie gestured to one of the barely-dressed waitresses for another beer.

"What about you, Dom, anyone that tickles your fancy?"

Well, she didn't expect him to sit back while she and Lucas got to have some fun.

[avalanche]

"Well... the dance is more than the looks of the girl." Dom said expertly, "You gotta pick one who'll give you the better show for your money. The girl's really gotta be into it, really make you feel like you have a chance at taking her home - even though you really dont. Unless you're Lucas, of course."

He chuckled, and nodded to an attractive, though not fakely attractive brunette who was pulling off a glasses shtick. "I'm goin' for her."

He held out his beer bottle, clinking with hers in a toast. "Here's to our new life, Recluse. We may not be puttin' the band back together... but we gotta new bag."

He gave her two twenties, and turned to head over to his girl.