It's More Than Nature

Insulin was terrified mind reading? the blood thing had been bad enough and now this and a belt what was this man talking about belt what belt? she looked at his waist and saw a neon yellow belt strapped to his waist with a battery bar like the one on a ray gun, and another mutant one she hadnt seen? she was so sure she had them all cataloged she searched the inside of her jacket pulling out the small notebook she kept, she flipped through it searching for the mutant but didnt find it, her squad her recon missions she had been a biologist of sorts for her outpost.
“Whats that” Party asked her as he looked at her notebook.
“My field guild to mutants”
“Hey I have one of those too, he pulled a bag out from under his seat and sat it on her lap and un zipped it with one hand keeping the other on the wheel.
“Here any of these look familiar” he asked handing her his little black notebook. She opened it up flipping through the pages she knew all of these mutants and then some, that is until she reached the last page and the one mutant she‘d hoped to never see again appeared
“This one this, this uh ‘reapearing lioyote’ where did you see it”
“oh that ones new and it’s a tricky one too I don’t know much about it but it’s extremely dangerous the only way to kill it is to slit its throat”
The color drained from her face
“You spilled its blood?” she asked trying to keep the terror from showing on her face
“Yeah when we slit its throat and dragged it halfway across the desert some blood was spilled, why?” the curiosity in his voice was almost tangible.
She slammed her fist into the dashboard
“Because its not a ‘reapearing lioyote’ is a ‘multiplying lioyote’ how many times did you shoot it?” she began to panic as he counted off on his fingers and his head raced as she tried to block out his thoughts that came in waves to her his thoughts were a mixture of curiostiy and mild terror at the unknown. 5. 5 times they shot it.
“YOU SHOT IT 5 TIMES AND SPILLED ITS BLOOD!”
He winced and the thought of resentment at being yelled at raced through his head. ‘Why was it so bad he thought’
“I’ll tell you why its so bad! everytime that thing is shot it multiply’s itself by two so ten times two is twenty! twenty more of those wretched things, they cannot be killed the just multiply and for all the blood there is probably another 30 or so running around so congratulations on unleashing an unstoppable force onto the earth! Fifty, Fifty freaking multipliers.”
He winced again and thoughts of regret and anger towards her for accusing him of unleashing these mutants onto the world he hated it he didn’t know no one knew anything about it
‘STOP’ she thought screaming with her mind. Suddenly her connection with his mind stopped and a pressure was removed from her own, she sighed in pure happiness as she felt his worries and anger lifted from her own.
“Now that was weird I feel like something just jumped out of my brain”
“hey can I try something?”
“I dont know it depends what are we trying?”
“I’m going to see if I can turn the mind reading back on”
“Okay but be gentle about it please” He tensed up as if ready to be attacked.
She concentrated with her mind and shouting ‘ENTER’ with her mind and she meld-ed her mind into his he thought he felt a pressure on his mind but he wasnt sure if it was her or he was just feeling things ‘STOP’ she shouted with her mind again and felt the pleasure of being one.
“Did it work” he asked giving her a quizzical look.
“Yeah it worked”
“Oh okay, well were almost there, were stopping at a safehouse tonight and tomorrow we’ll head to the diner and then try base I radioed the earlier but they didnt respond so I don’t know whats going on there”
Suddenly Insulins eyes glazed over and she began jerking as spasms racked her body visions flashed in her mind of a building on fire surrounded by dracs of two men in a car and her sister with them, her sister was, was, going to the bathroom? strange she thought and the images continued, the man she hated most in the world for killing her little brother Dante, Korse standing in front of her brother with something in his hands and another house ravaged by the multipliers.
She snapped back into sharp focus as she shook her head clearing the last of the images from her head.
“Don’t go to the safehouse its not safe its filled with multipliers your base or assume its your base is torched and surrounded by dracs my sister is peeing and my brother is in trouble”
Insulin looked at the bag on her lap and layed her head on it as it began throbbing steadily.
Party slammed on the brakes and turned to her staring in disbelief
“You need a belt as of now” he opened the door and slammed it shut as he reached the back he pulled the trunk open by slamming a fist down. Insulin threw the bag in the floor getting out of the car and shutting the door as quietly as possible to keep her poor head from exploding in pain.
She reached the other side of the car and party had climbed halfway into the trunk, he gave an ahah and came out holding an neon green belt, and then shutting the door on it.
“It’s an old one of Ghouls but it’s got a month left on it. Put it on and dont take it off it will keep the radiation from changing you so much as a matter of fact you should stop changing all together and you wont go drac or insane” he gave a short laugh and turned to get back into the car.
“Oh yeah and I almost forgot” he slammed his fist on the trunk again popping it open again he reached in shoving a duffel bag aside and pulling out a pair of old worn out converse she smiled and said
“I used to wear these way back when” she gave a sad smile and pulled the shoes on grateful to get her feet off the cool ground.
He returned the smile and said “Yeah these are from way back when they were an old pair from before Danger Days, a different era so to speak, but enjoy them they’re not exactly boots but they’ll work until you find some new ones”
“thanks Party, your okay you know that?”
“Yeah, but now im wondering can you radiation powers tell me anything about my team, where they are? how they’re doing? anything?”
“sorry I don’t choose when it happens it just does.”
“okay” he sighed “lets just get going were not that far from the diner a mile or two”
-A mile or two later-
Party pulled to the back of the diner and turned to her saying
“I’m going in first to see if its okay stay in the car for a minute i’ll signal you when its okay to go in”
“No, I’m going in too”
“Hey listen its my job to keep you safe and thats what i’m going to do”
“No you listen its my job to find my sister and brother and I will do that so suck it up because i’m going in too”
She jumped out of the car slamming the door and storming into the back entrance of the diner, she pulled out her slingshot ready for anything. Anything that is, other than a group of killjoys eating Power Pup out of cans, and suddenly all the ray guns in the room were pointed towards her. She smiled slowly raising her arms before Party walked in saying 9934, all the guns dropped and they all waved towards her before turning back to their meals.
Party looked at her shrugged and nodded towards Doctor D before grabbing a can of Power Pup a can opener and taking a seat, she followed doing the same and sitting down, grimacing at the taste of the fowl substance she was eating. Party stood up and said “I’m moving the car around front I dont trust anyone here enough to leave it out back" he stated and pushed through the back door.
Suddenly the board in front of the main door was pulled aside and a man with roller skates came in Doctor D started abruptly giving him a look and saying “Where the hell have you been” with a rather demanding tone.
He retorted with “Everywhere and nowhere all at-” but was cut off as Party came around the front shutting off the car, the man whirled around to meet whoever it was and Party smirked saying “Geez, show, don’t get your panties in a twist” and shoved past him to take a seat next to me.
The man glowered and said “I’m Not!” putting his hands on his hips and backing up. Party smirked again and said “So you are wearing panties? what?” he laughed and the man came back with a “oh my god, you idiot, just fuck off and lemme go to bed.” Party shook his head laughing and saying “I’m never gana let that one go, show”
Show glowered and said “Well I would say ‘look here’s my proof’ but i’m not keen on you staring at my crotch.” he countered rolling his eyes before saying “whatever” and storming off.
Insulin gave Party a questionable look and he just shook his head laughing.