Alma Wade will not give up (its_my_nature) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2012-05-19 15:11:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, alice liddell, alma wade, montgomery scott |
I suggest ye let her go
Who: Alma Wade, Scotty, with a bit of Alice and her cat
What: Bus shenanigans! The further adventures of Alma in 'run the frak away' land.
Where: A bus
When: Some time after Alma had lunch with Roy
Status: Complete
Rating: PG-13
Trigger: attempted abductions
There was something delightfully ironic about a chief engineer having to resort to public transportation. He knew everything about warp cores, inside out, yet Scotty was standing on a streetcorner by a bus sign, resorting to waiting for a transfer. Having a personal shuttle would've been easier and less hassle with the antiquity of ground-based transport, such as cars with wheels. And traffic lights. And too much traffic in general. But then again? Scotty realized with a note of disdain that having all of his memories restored to him, had pretty much ruined modern society and the majority of its 'new developments', forever. He had too many things that could ruin the timeline, and he'd already crossed a line by building a ship that might push warp one, if he was lucky.
If it was lucky.
If it didn't blow up and kill them.
But in his mind, it was better to burn out than fade away! And it's not like they hadn't said he was trouble anyway, at his hearing regarding beaming animal test subjects based on unfounded principles, blah blah blah, bad attitude, blah blah, need to get in line with other personnel...blah...enjoy your new post on an ice cube planet....blaaaaaaaaaah...
Now look where he was.
He was simply going to stare at his phone and wait for the bloody bus to get there, and sort of lightly curse his lot in life.
Even in the future they probably had traffic laws and lights. But that was neither here nor there and the girl who walked up to the bus stop was from an entirely different timeline and destiny. She looked exhausted, and leaned against the bus sign, pulling out a phone that was a little too advanced for public consumption. She'd disabled any GPS or tracking - she hoped.
Alma glanced at the man next to her, "I am having difficulty finding the information on this route, do you know how far it goes?"
Not like they had traffic and traffic lights, here, in a epic cluster fuck, which took forever to get from point A to point B. It was, in his mind, very tedious. And likely would remain so, even if he did manage to get a vehicle of his very own, at some point or other.
The disgruntled looking man pointed a finger directly to his right, arm stretched straight out, and said without looking away from his own phone's screen, "Due west, doon east First Street."
"Though, really, why call it east first street if yer headin'...wait, where am I?" He looked up finally at the sign. "Hell. If I'm headin' the wrong way, I'm goin' tae kick things."
He looked across the street and scowled. "Oh, right, it's west, not east, after it crosses main street. Heh. My bad. Distracted by phone app." He finally glanced at her, seeing fit to comment, "Lass? Ye look like you were put through the ringer."
"Where are you trying to go?" Alma was just trying to go away. Anywhere at this point. She just had to keep moving, and the chaotic bus system was one way to get moving and stay a little unpredictable.
She blinked at him, before understanding his colorful turn of phrase, "Ah. Yes. You could say that. I am just taking a trip. Away."
"Home, that's where I'm goin'." Or as close to any sort of home one could get, when they were convinced they weren't from this time anyway. "I hop oot part way down west First an' have a stroll. If yer lookin' tae get away, I'd suggest ye go in this direction." And he pointed due south in the direction of making a run for the border. "Why ye'd be takin' a trip through Santa Ana, is beyond me."
"Some things you can't escape," She replied, folding her arms over herself. "I am seeing how far I can get. An experiment if you will."
"Okie dokey," he replied with a raise of his eyebrows and a slight shifting of his eyes, like his crazy chick alarm just went off in his head. The minute she said 'experiment' and she was seeing how far could get - plus her tired appearance - he imagined she was just going to go hit up some drug dealer or something. But? To each their own. He wasn’t supposed to go mucking about with timelines anyway. "Good luck!"
"I escaped the lab." She paused, realizing how that sounded, and corrected herself, "I work in a lab, and there are things I have learned about my work that make me uncomfortable."
She continued, talking more to herself than to him, "It would be easier if I could sleep without..."
Alma glanced at him, "You probably think I am crazy."
After having tried to look back at his phone and heard that come out of her mouth, he was giving her a sidelong stare with one eye scrunched up a little more than the other one. So it was pretty much apparent that she'd nailed that assumption with great accuracy.
"Wee bit," he admitted, holding up one hand to pinch his fingers together and show her just how much. It wasn't a small amount. "Only a wee bit. Admirable though, if ye dinnae agree with what they're doin'? Leave. Simple as that. Unless they're orchestrating a zombie apocalypse. Then yer in deep trouble, since they're goin' tae come after ye. Best get yer bum tae Mexico, where, I'll have ye know, they dinnae monitor their internet like they do here. Ye'd be better aff, most likely. But ye didnae hear that from me, either."
He looked up and then smiled, because he could see the bus coming. Finally! Salvation.
"I would not be surprised if they were working on ways to more easily resuscitate the recently deceased, but reanimating the dead is science fiction."
She looked thoughtful, "Mexico. Spanish would not be difficult to learn."
"If ye work in a lab, it wouldnae be that difficult. I heard they're workin' on a world-wise translator program, so that might come in handy for people who want tae run away from labs." He grinned gleefully as the bus stopped ahead of them, because now the overall crazy and scary could be spread out evenly with other people around, who were equally scary and/or crazy. Himself marginally included, knowing what he knew. As the doors opened, Scotty held out one hand, "Lass, ye get tae go first."
Chivalry. It's not entirely dead, yet.
"Thank you." Alma walked onto the bus. It was pretty full, and there were only two seats left, conveniently next to each other. As the door closed and the bus started to pull away, she thought she saw someone standing on the sidewalk, watching. She shrunk down a bit.
Scotty, meanwhile, had made it a point to sit across the aisle, and was giving his phone a good, hard staring at. Mostly because he was wondering why Janice kept sending him requests for progress reports, status updates, and materials lists. He simply messaged her back with a snipped short 'All under control' and let it rest at that, because he was still, in his mind, the master of his own mechanical domain. Sort of like how McCoy was the king of the lab. If anyone had been watching? He hadn't noticed at all.
Probably because it was Angry Birds time.
The bus rolled to a stop at another stop, and two men got on. It was standing room only, and they walked so they could stand. Alma glanced at them, and stuffed her phone in her pocket. She scooted closer to the window as the bus pulled out again.
"That's right, ye wee feathered bastard, ye knock that oooover," Scotty was mumbling under his breath at his phone, leaning as he tried to get the trajectory right. "Ha. Got ye."
One of the men grabbed her shoulder as the bus came to a stop. As people started to file out, he tugged her to her feet and started to haul her off the bus! She grabbed at his wrist ineffectually, "Let me go!"
Well that had him looking up, just as he got a nice fat 38,000 score, too. The phone went into his pocket and he stood up, with a sigh. The girl might be crazy, but he wasn't about to let her get dragged off against her will, especially after she mentioned crazy lab stuff. This was likely going to result in some pain. Hopefully for the other people involved. And mostly because they didn't realize there was a Scotsman on the bus.
"Laddie," he said giving the guy a pat on the shoulder, "I suggest ye let her go, as it dunnae seem she wants tae accompany ye anywhere."
There, that was the last stab at diplomacy, because his fist was already clenched and cocked back, and in mid-flying toward the man's head. What? He tried it, at least? He still thought diplomacy was best suited for fully charged phaser banks and photon torpedoes. It's simply the way he is. Especially so when there's a lady in potential danger.
No matter how old the lady is.mun: You didn't even give them a chance to ANSWER.Scotty: They interrupted Angry Birds. They must pay. >:|
The man's head snapped back, blood spraying from his nose! The other man grabbed Scotty from behind and tried to toss him into a seat on top of a girl and her cat. Alma was grabbed again, and this time she bit him!
Yay, biting also counts as an act of Scottish diplomacy. Which was why Scotty gave her a thumbs up, just before he was ruthlessly shoved and went flying face first into cat lady's cat. He came up flailing and sneezing violently, and sneeze-punched the guy who threw him, right in the throat. Take that, bastard. Achoo!
"Bastard Ca--AHH--AHH--CHOO!--ats," he said, sniffling and feeling his face getting itchier by the second.
Cat-lady pulled out a large knife, "You bloody big oaf!" Because just what this night needed, a crazy girl with a knife. Instead of stabbing, she decided to watch. Because allergies are funny. Oh, fine. Alice offered Scotty her knife, "Your bird is being kidnapped."
Alma got pulled off the bus. She kicked her heels down his shin but he got a better grip on her. Physical strength was not her strong suit, and exhaustion and panic were setting in.
"She's not my bird, I'm...mine's got..." His girlfriend was green. Hard to miss! He shook his head at the knife, sneezed again and went running off the bus, not seeing if crazy cat chick bothered to follow and he really didn't care much if she was carrying around a knife or not. Mostly because he hadn't cared if a midget had a gun, either. Really, these were the sort of things that he should be wary of, but he sadly just wasn't at all, in situations like these. Or in general.
No worries, exhausted and panicky lass! While Throat Punched Man was probably trying to get his throat to comply, there went Scotty's fist right toward Bloody Nose Man's face. And maybe that would teach him to pick on crazy ladies trying to get away from their lab work, at evil secret labs somewhere.
The bad guy, not himself, because he was really only incensed that they were picking on some girl who didn't look like she could defend herself, in the first or last place.
It was probably a good thing she couldn't defend herself, in the first or last place. Brains melting out one's ears would be hard to get out of upholstery.
The bus started to pull away again, and Alma found herself free, dropping to the ground and coughing. She lifted her head and choked out, "Behind..!"
Another man was running up, wielding a taser! He jumped at Scotty, trying to jab the taser between the Scotsman's ribs.
Well, that was probably going to hurt. Which was why he reached into a readily accessible pocket, drew out a rather well weighted wrench, and flung it with practiced aim toward the oncoming man's forehead. All was done while trying to skedaddle out of the way, even if it was probably too late to move by that point. He had only time for the one wrench shot, and pre-winced as he was fully expecting to get tased.
The taser jabbed him for a few seconds as the man stumbled into him, already unconscious before he'd even ran into Scotty. He went down like a heavy sack of potatoes. With Po-ta-toe. Boil 'em mash em stick 'em in a stew!
The wrench clattered near Alma. She picked it up, ready to whack some people upside the head.
He got a very momentary jolt which dropped him down, but nothing more than had he been thoroughly shocked by a toaster. Too bad he was in the midst of an allergic reaction at the same time. So to add insult to injury, Scotty convulsively sneezed upon landing, ultimately resulting in a sound and expression that seemed overall pretty painful.
Damn, he mused to himself while trying to recover (and breathe), that he was going to have to make himself a hover...something or other, because public transportation was really more trouble than it was worth. Or buy a bicycle. A bike would be nice. Maybe with a wee ringy bell thing on the handle so people could get out of his bloody way, before he hit them with the bicycle. That would be brilliant and infinitely better than what was happening, right now. And look! He had all this nice time to contemplate that over. Thanks tasers and possible asthma attacks!
As soon as he was capable of asking anything again, he inquired to the two crazy ladies, "...did we get them?" And then he sneezed. Magnificently. "Get. Cat. Away."
Alma winced. Electricity was never all that pleasant. She'd been jolted many times on accident. And probably on purpose. He'd be cute on a pink bike with a little ringy bell.
Alice rolled her eyes, picking her cat back up so that Scotty had a bit more breathing room, "Looks like a right beat-down." She stuffed her knife back down her pants, and started to walk off, muttering about the Scottish being utterly nutters. She paused, kicked one of the men good and soundly between the legs, and then continued on her way.
Meanwhile, sheepishly, the younger girl offered Scotty his wrench, "Thank you."
He very slowly took it, and tucked it back into his pocket again. Good thing he always kept tools on his person, in case of emergency. Not so great when there were metal detectors or agents staring at someone funny when they tried to drop off a gift at a hospital. At least it wasn't so good, until that someone explained they were a mechanic and those really were pliers and wrenches, and that they were for...well, machinery...but he had used them on people this time. Ahem. And achoo. Again.
He'd be feeling the aftereffects of being anywhere near a cat, for another few hours. Hopefully, he made it home.
"...yer welcome...but maybe...ye should think about...escaping?" he was finally able to suggest, thinking it best that they should make themselves scarce. The least he could do was try to help the girl out, so he reached into his pockets, while trying to stand up, and shoved as much rumpled up money as he had on his person, into her hands.
He knew, at the same time, for whatever reason, he shouldn't be aiding or abetting with anyone in that timeline, and he'd done too much already. So he gave her a profoundly apologetic look, because he probably shouldn't interfere any more than he already had.
"Sorry. Maybe that'll get ye somewhere, though."
Alma pulled out some tissues and offered those as well, mostly for his allergies but he looked like he got some blood on his person and that was just absolutely unsanitary!
She looked at the money, then at him, "Thank you."
She was saying that a lot, today, "Be careful. My employers will not be pleased, and they make weapons, among other things."
Backing away, Alma gave him one last look, then took off running.
"Just wait until I get tae makin' proper matter anti-matter weapons," he grumbled under his breath, wiping some of the blood off himself and having the sensibility to move off in the opposite direction, as well as stay off the main thoroughfare.
He didn't even drop the bloody tissue, preferring to pocket it instead, because he was not stupid enough to go leaving any genetic traces laying about, for potentially crazy lab people to get ahold of. He already had enough problems worrying about his green girlfriend sprouting mind altering pheromones all over the place, someday. So off Scotty goes, sneezing all the way, and contemplating getting a cab so he didn't have to bother anyone for a ride.
The bus system? Could officially kiss his pasty white Scottish bum.