Collaborative Madcaps I
Mira peered at Colleen curiously but she didn't say anything. She simply had that "kids will be kids" look about her as she waved her off and hobbled over to her truck so she'd have somewhere to sit while the tour was conducted. She'd give it herself but she didn't know much about the land and she was too old for all that anyway.
Rosita rolled her eyes at Colleen, joining her nonetheless.
"Hot tub, you say? I'll do you one better: hot spring." Grinning, she gestured towards the building, squinting a bit at the thick vines and leaves that crawled up the brick and metal.
"This is seriously happening."
"Indeed it is," Adam smiled at her. This was it. They were taking the first steps towards being something more than just a ragtag band of empowered misfits.
"Sure it's rough right now, but this place is definitely a fixer-upper. Throw some paint on the walls, do a bit of housekeeping, and we'll be ready to start moving in some tech and furniture." Walking around the corner, Adam noticed a large hole in the wall that looked like a cannonball had smashed through it multiple times.
"I mean, this here might need a little more than just some paint, but we can always hide it with a poster or something," he joked. Stepping forwards, Adam suddenly stopped and looked down, realizing his new dress shoes were steeped in dog feces. Sighing, he chuckled to himself and looked over at his group, clearly embarrassed.
"Hey, look! We've even got free fertilizer!" he laughed aloud, taking off his shoes and stepping away.
"Callin' this a fixer upper, Sugar… is like callin' Hurricane Sandy a shower." Penny interjected, cocking her sunglasses to look up at the building with a disapproving frown,
"Hell. Reminds me of my first apartment… How much money did you two say you had? Cause you're gonna need it…"
Glancing at Penny, she wasn't really sure how to respond. She didn't mind letting the others in the group know that they needn't worry about finances, but it was always just a "Don't worry, I've got it covered". It wasn't that she thought they'd take advantage of her if they knew how much she had, she just worried that they'd feel… Well, she didn't know. Especially with how Penny and Kelsey had insisted back at the diner that they be allowed to contribute.
"Enough," she responded firmly.
"I'm not paying for construction; none of us are. It's 85 grand, but mostly for the almost-thirteen acres of land. A portion of the river goes through what's about to our land, so we own that too. It's pretty awesome, right?" She hoped that Penny wouldn't press anymore about finances.
Hearing Adam make his discovery on his shoes Allison said,
"It wouldn't surprise me if that wasn't a dog that left that. Who knows what kind of wildlife we could be dealing with here, and in terms of fixer upper...." Allison looked at the sizable hole in the wall and said,
"Yeah we're gonna probably need at least six weeks just to get started." She looked back at those with her and said,
"However, we're not exactly the cream of the crop in terms of super-heroes either, but we do what we can to make a difference despite what our outward appearance happens to be. This place…" Allison looked all around and said,
"is a clean slate and we get the chance to make it however we want it." Allison looked at Rosita and gave her wink and a smile and said,
"We're gonna be all right here."
Ro's head turned just in time to catch Allison's wink and smile. She rolled her eyes playfully but the smile was returned.
"Six weeks? I don't think so. We're moving in tonight." Grinning, she gestured towards the hole in the wall and narrowed her eyes in focus. Thin waves of green light danced over and between her fingers like sparks of electricity.
Now it was Colleen's turn to roll her eyes, not that, judging by her wry smile, she didn't appreciate the sentiments; writers
loved platitudes especially the 'making a difference' one,
"You all sound really mature and optimistic here, which means that none of you have ever seen 'The Visit'; say what you will about M. Night Shyamalan, but the horror movie caucasian bad granny trope is truth in media 'ya'll'." Her face suddenly turned cold serious, almost comically so,
"Let's look for dead bodies."
Rosita arched a brow at Colleen.
"We can worry about the dead bodies later, Montresor." Jesus, Colleen was such a weirdo sometimes. But in the best way.
Rosita then went silent as she walked a little bit ahead of the rest of them, hardly paying attention to their chatter. She had a big smile on her face as she looked at what would be their future home. It would be fantastic.
As she tilted her head to one side she closed her small hand into a fist. Dust and concrete gathered, lifting into the air slowly and then slamming into place, quickly filling the hole. It looked for a moment like it'd been poorly glued together, cracks littering the once dislodged pieces of grey brick, but the cracks did slowly begin to heal until you couldn't tell a hole had been there before.
"Tonight," she reiterated breathlessly.
"Why blow time money on construction when I can just do… that?" Not to mention, she wanted their habitation in the woods to be kept a secret. She didn't need a bunch of nosy workers posting on their Twitter about a weird group of people building a hideout in the middle of nowhere.
In most cases Allison would've been completely in awe of Ro fixing the hole in the wall the way she did. However, Allison was used to seeing amazing things being done by this group, and the fact that they were moving in tonight made Allison's mind spin for a bit. This group was really starting to come together as something more than just a group, and that made her smile even wider. Allison said to Colleen,
"I hope we don't find any dead bodies, because I'll give you another movie to think about." Rolling her eyes and shaking her head Allison said,
"'Poltergeist' scared the daylights out of me when I saw it on late night TV at the age of nine. Yeah it was made in the 80's but it still packs a decent punch storywise." Allison looked around at the floor as shuffled her feet in the dust. At least she was hoping it was dust, otherwise she didn't want to know what it was. She said,
"Say whatever you want about this place, but believe it or not I actually think we've upgraded from our accommodations from last night."
Penny smirked and it was pretty clear from the expression that the blonde was both amused and a little impressed by Ro's display. She had her own tricks, but rarely did they involve defying the laws of physics with such careful and succinct clarity. It was a beautiful display of the woman's abilities, and a relief, considering the work they had ahead of them.
"Alright…" she mused with a nod,
"I guess we should get to work, then."
"Well, if you insist," Colleen shrugged, the 'floatie-hands' already put to work, hovering noncommittally, as if mirroring their owner's current demonstration of (non) work ethic,
"Just pay me with some good ol' horror movie talk."
Adam chuckled to himself at the whole display.
"Well, I suppose you're right. We'll never get anywhere at this rate." Sticking his head through one of the blown out windows, Adam yelled out.
"Hey, there you are! Took you long enough! You left to gather that stuff hours ago. Come help us out alright? We're going to start working on this section." Moments later, two Adams drove up in an old truck. Taking off their jackets and rolling up their sleeves, as they entered, the duo looked like they'd come from a construction site. One of them carried a toolbox, while the other carried paint and building materials.
"There's more in the back of the truck," the second Adam muttered, annoyed he'd had to do all the heavy lifting and loading. Setting the items down, they started picking up debris, boarding up holes, and removing trash and broken items that laid strewn around the area. They were small steps, but they were necessary. The trio were all mentally linked, and knowing what the others were doing helped move the process along quite quickly.
Looking over at Colleen, Rosita, and Allison, Adam smirked playfully.
"Hey! We've already started working while you're all still standing around. What's wrong? Can't keep up?" He laughed, boarding up his second window.
Allison saw everyone getting to work using their powers, and once again she felt the oddball. She could shrink so what was she going to do? Pick up each piece of dirt individually? Allison could stay normal size, but she always felt like the others looked down her, literally and symbolically. They never said it but it just felt that way.
She started to walk away from the group when she noticed something on the ground. Allison knelt down and stared intently for a moment. There were all kinds of little cracks in the floor, and eventually those little cracks could lead to bigger issues. The repairs required attention to detail and easy touch. Allison smiled and said to herself,
"Oh yeah Allie Mac you got this." Allison ran out to the truck and grabbed a tube of caulking. When she got back into the warehouse she opened the tube and said,
"When I do this, will someone please make sure my clothes don't stay on the ground too long? This is my favorite AC-DC tour shirt, and these are my favorite jeans. Thank you."
Allison then touched her earrings and concentrated. Within a matter of seconds she was engulfed in her clothes, and quickly she emerged from them wearing a set of beige sweats. Allison took a deep breath and said,
"Time to get to work for me." She picked up the tube, which was considerably larger, but she could work with it and began filling in the cracks.
There was something to it… watching the others utilize their abilities to work. Like seeing a famous artist craft a masterpiece.. But Penny was the sort who preferred, when it was doable, to rely on her own skills. Those natural ones that she possessed. Of course, construction wasn't her strong suit, but she could swing a hammer or push a broom, and so with a small shake of her head and a quiet, weary laugh, she moved off to the collection of tools they had at hand to get started.~
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