Chapter 3: With These Hands That Will Not Bleed ...

[nanocerancowboy]

[ACTION - A (In and Around 458 Stone Street, Late Afternoon/Evening, OPEN TO ALL)]

[Gat is coming home from his shift at the Mayfield Fire Station when he notices that there's mail in the household mailbox. Curious, Gat retrieves the envelope inside. It's addressed to him ...]

What's this?

[Opening it on the spot, Gat pulls out a photo of-

Comments

[Phone]

[vitalizes]

[Whoawhoawhoa that sounds kinda like Engineer ... but ... Spy never told Scout that he was here!]

Hey, Overalls! What's up? Didn't know y'were here!

Uh, what're you talking about, though?

[Phone]

[nanocerancowboy]

[Gat sounds a little disconcerted there.]

-Overalls? I ain't wearin' overalls. Hell, I wasn't wearin' any even when I was human.

[Phone]

[vitalizes]

[Blank stare into the receiver for a minute.]

Oh, thought y'were someone else! Hah!

[The tone of his voice picks up at 'was human', though.]

Was human? What are ya?

[Phone]

[nanocerancowboy]

In common parlance, I'm an android. Not like th' mechanical sort of robot, mind you. My body's designed to be more like a human's.

Back home, we're called CASTs.

[Phone]

[vitalizes]

Sweet! Can ya do anything special? I mean, even without a robot body?

[Phone]

[nanocerancowboy]

[Gat considers for a moment. Firearms training isn't all that special, but maybe some of the tricks he does with them count.]

Well, I'm pretty good with gunspinnin'.

[Phone]

[vitalizes]

Aw, cool. I can do cool shit with guns but [Slight pause] all my guns are gone. So I can't do 'em now.

Heyyy, maybe y'can show me some tricks!

[Phone]

[nanocerancowboy]

Yeah, th' same thing's happened to me. An' I ain't sure where I can go to arm myself with some replacements.

[Pause.]

Come to think of it, I ain't even sure what kind of weapons technology's around in this here town.

[Phone]

[vitalizes]

[Sounds genuinely disappointed.]

Me neither. I'd love a gun, even if it weren't my gun. Just somethin' ta have in case I needed it, y'know.

Since I just got here, I dunno what this place has. I knew someone back home who could make just about anythin' from all sortsa stuff. Would be sweet if he were here.

[Phone]

[nanocerancowboy]

Yeah. I definitely ain't happy about bein' unarmed myself, not with th' kind of things I've seen an' heard go on 'round here. I take it your friend was some kinda inventor?

[Phone]

[vitalizes]

Guess ya could say that. He's called Engineer, I think you two would get along if he was here. Helps dat ya sound kinda like him.

Hope Spy don't think y'sound like him too, cause he might try ta sap ya or somethin'. If yer really part robot like ya said.

[Phone]

[nanocerancowboy]

[Gat sounds a bit surprised.]

That's his actual name? Engineer? ... An' what's this about gettin' sapped by a spy?

[Phone]

[vitalizes]

Oh, I dunno his real name. I guess it could be Engineer though. Heh, how weird. (Not that 'Scout' isn't -- and he pretty much thinks that's his name now, instead of his birth one.)

Uh, Spies like t'sap shit. Anything dat Engineer builds, but especially teleporters and sentries. I dunno exactly how he does it, though. He's real mysterious, and not da good kinda mysterious.

[Phone]

[nanocerancowboy]

[Gat sounds intrigued. Talk of teleporters and sentries-definitely nothing like what Mayfield has-and there's only so many lines of work Gat can think of that would require Engineers to build things like that, and Spies to sabotage them ...]

Callin' folks by their function ... Sounds like you're in some kinda special ops unit.

[Phone]

[vitalizes]

Hm, yeah, guess y'could kinda say that. I mean, I work fer a company where I hafta kill the guys workin' fer the opposite -- the BLU team. It's a lotta fun, least it is when the BLUs aren't cheating.

[Phone]

[nanocerancowboy]

Corporate mercenary, then?

[Something about the way Gat says that sounds too laid back.]