[Arrival] Not exactly what she was expecting - OTA

[notouchpolicy]

On the journey from New York to Washington, Haylie had a lot on her mind. Like how they found her in the first place. Or why the hell the people who seemed to hate mutants wanted to recruit her to the military. But, then again, she was a walking weapon. So... scratch that second part. Once the car pulled into the base, however, she was shaken from

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[codenamepyro]

For the most part, Pyro didn't bother getting involved with things. He just sat and watched. For the most part, that was boring but the only alternative was actually interacting and that meant socialising and Pyro fucking hated that.

So, being bored was the lesser of two evils.

Watching some new chick be 'escorted' onto base was almost the highlight of the day. And that told him that holy shit, he needed to get a life. Stat. As it was, just watching was fine -it wasn't like he was hiding in bushes or anything, leaning against a wall was more than fine for seeing what was going on.

He couldn't help but chuckle when the female lost her cool with the guards and mouthed off though.

[notouchpolicy]

Hands on her hips, Haylie got in the face of the soldier that had been trying to cop a feel for the last five minutes and just stared him down. If looks could kill? She wouldn't need her powers. "Alright, I get you're military gophers and you're supposed to escort me, but if I feel your hand anywhere near my ass again? You won't be sittin' again for a long time."

The last thing she wanted to do was play the "mutant" card, but she could only be pushed so far. And with all the energy building up in her body, right now was a bad time to be upsetting her.

[codenamepyro]

"Yeah, that's not gonna work." Pyro just shrugged slightly as the guards looked his way and glared a little before returning to their stoic attention stance. "They're more likely to cop another feel and then you get brigged for knocking their heads together or whatever."

The first few weeks of Pyro's stay at the lovely camp had been spent in and out of the brig before he really just got bored with it all. "Best thing to threaten them with is ratting to Sykes that they were trying to get their freak on, while on duty."

See, Pyro could be helpful, he could be considerate -he was still bored out his mind.

[notouchpolicy]

Brow arching at the... somewhat helpful mutant that decided to offer up some advice, Haylie considered his words carefully before turning back to the soldiers. "Alright. Next one to try anythin' is gettin' a visit from Sykes. Any questions?"

The soldiers' uncomfortable response to the threat was enough to cause Haylie to grin. "I think I can take it from here. You're dismissed. I suggest y'start attendin' sexual harassment seminars while you're at it." She waved off the soldiers with her gloved hands and glanced over her shoulder at Pyro. "Thanks."

[codenamepyro]

Shrugging slightly, Pyro just nodded, "You sort of figure out the best threats to hold over them after a while." And Sykes was the biggest one, not even the threat of General Stone got much out of them, but that was probably due to Stone's utter lack of interest in anything that wasn't life threatening.

"Sykes is the biggest, flashing some power is second and only if it's not some fairy thing like making dirt or something." Incinerating a man's shirt while he was wearing it was definitely threatening.

[notouchpolicy]

Brow arching curiously, Haylie shifted her pack on her shoulder and made her way over to where Pyro was seated. He seemed to have a good sense of how the place worked, so this could be her first source of information.

His comment about powers got a smirk out of her. "I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be here if my powers weren't useful."

[codenamepyro]

Her comment about powers got a smirk out of him, "There's such a difference between useful and intimidating." Which was true.

Victor fell into intimidating, Bradley fell into useful which could turn intimidating when 60 thousand feet in the air. And then there were people that St John just wasn't impressed with. Really.

"Sure, you could turn rock into metal, or metal into rock, that could be useful. But unless you can make it bash someone's head in, not intimidating."

[notouchpolicy]

She wasn't sure why, exactly, but this amused the hell out of her. It was also the first time she'd come close to laughing in a long time. Waving her gloved hands as she collected herself, Haylie doubled over.

"Sorry. I have no clue why that was funny. I think it's the jetlag."

Or she'd finally gone batshit insane. Whichever.

"...I think my powers would be classified as both."

[codenamepyro]

St John just watched, with an eyebrow raised, and let her do whatever. Hey, some of these people had a ridiculous sense in humour, why not throw in someone who laughed at nothing?

"Well, that's always helpful. You can be of use and bash in some heads." Metaphorically speaking of course.

St John did not encourage people to bash in heads; if they wanted to do that, they could, he'd just sit and watch and be a bystander. If he was internally cheering, only the telepaths would know. "Although the laughing thing might take away from the intimidating thing."

[notouchpolicy]

"More like... kaboom." Because, well? That was the only way she knew how to put it at the moment. She was better at showing than telling, but this was hardly the place to do something like that.

"I have no idea where the laughing came from. I think it's lack of sleep, or I've finally lost my fuckin' mind." Take your pick, really.

[codenamepyro]

"I'm not sure I want to be around when heads go 'kaboom'. They make a mess." On the whole, his interest was piqued. He was a curious person by nature, but his tendency towards getting into trouble meant he had to stamp that curiosity down more often than not. Which he'd gotten fairly good at doing.

It wasn't like he flat out asked people what bullshit they did anymore.

"If you haven't lost it already, you'll lose it soon. I'd say you should get out while you still can, but for most of us, not an option." Which was mostly a round about way of asking if she'd stupidly signed up for this, or been coerced into signing up for it by the long and embracing hand of the law.

[notouchpolicy]

"I don't blow people up, so don't worry about that." That irked her slightly, because whether the military liked it or not, she didn't kill people. "Trees, buildings, cars, random objects? Sure."

Brow arching, Haylie shifted her weight to her right leg and looked at him. "I don't exactly think that's an option for me. I was told I could help people and they'd square things away with me and the NYPD. But I'm gettin' the feelin' that's not the case."

[codenamepyro]

It was a pity that everyone was so defensive about how they used their powers. They might've figured out pretty early on that maybe being so stiff in their stance on not killing was why the soldiers knew they could push it. Hell, Pyro wasn't about to torch someone for no reason, but the rumour that he'd been partly responsible for the death of another mutant stopped the soldiers from really hassling him.

That, and Mackenzie. She was good for some things.

"Ah, you are one of us then. Well, yeah, they'll smooth it all over with the cops, eventually. Your best bet? Friends with Sykes or Frost. They pretty much pull the strings and difficult as it can be, you're best being on the right side of them." St John wasn't overly fond of Emma Frost -he just didn't like telepaths at all, plus she was an entitled wench. Ethan Sykes wasn't much better, but it was doable if you didn't look to actually piss him off all the time.