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mosaic_archiveLeviathan had the afternoon off and had planned to spend it on the beach in the Nexus with Thomas and Childre, but as soon as they arrived she had the feeling this was one of those days that was going to be an example of the old saying about Fate laughing when you make plans. Every part of the beach a high tide could have reached was littered with pieces of metal and plastics, circuitry and scrap.
"This is sick!" Thomas complained, as he picked up one of the fragments with a disgusted look. "Who litters on a beach like this? It looks like they raided a junkyard and just... dumped it."
"This violates about a thousand environmental regulations, or it would if the Nexus wasn't outside of everyone's jurisdiction," Childre agreed, and then half-smiled when he noticed Thomas squirm. He couldn't help enjoying the other boy's annoyance at being on the same side as him in anything.
After a second, Thomas sighed. "Fine. So me and the parolee actually agree on something. But what do we do now, Levi? We can't just leave the beach like this!"
"I'm calling in a salvage team," Leviathan told the boys. "They'll clean it up and see if anything's recyclable." Taking note of the piece Thomas is holding she sent an addendum to her message off, and sighed. "Though it could take a while. That looks like antique circuitry, and that means they won't be able to use Magflies if we want to find out if there's any interesting information Metal Shark or Gate can recover."
"I guess this means we're not going swimming." Childre scowled at the messy beach.
"Hey, I'm not just leaving things like this," Thomas insisted. "There could be bits of junk under the water. I want to stay and help with the clean-up."
Leviathan nodded. If they wanted to stay, she wasn't going to talk them out of helping. She pulled one of the black pieces free of the sand and frowned at it, sending off another message. "I've called Punk, too. Some of this... it looks like an old car." If anyone could positively identify parts of an antique automobile, it would be Punk Wily.
"So some jerk blew up a car all over the beach?" Thomas just shook his head. He couldn't understand why anyone would do that.
"That's what it looks like," Leviathan said, with a shrug.
It didn't take long for Punk to arrive on the scene. It wasn't like he had anything better to do. It only took a glance to see that Leviathan's report had been accurate... the beach was one hell of a mess. He walked over to the nearest decently-sized black fragment and tugged it loose for examination.
What he saw didn't make any sense. All that damage, and the paint didn't even look scratched. The force of the explosion seemed to have torn the fender panel off the frame, with the connecting bolts being the weak point. "Huh..." He searched around until he located a nearby door panel, and frowned as he glanced over the general suggested shape.
"What is it, Punk?" Leviathan asked.
Punk just scowled at her as he picked out a spot above the high-tide line to start trying to organize the black pieces into something recognizable. "I ain't sure what it is," he said after a moment. "I mean, the car looks to maybe be an 80's Pontiac... Trans-Am or Firebird. But there's somethin' weird here." His interest in classic cars made this worse than a bad case of littering, but the mystery grated on him as well.
"Have we come at a bad time?" A voice interrupted before Leviathan could question Punk as to just what he meant by that.
She didn't recognize the voice, and looked over to see an unfamiliar man with a picnic basket, accompanied by what she suspected were his wife and two children. "Oh. Sorry, sir. We had other plans too, but when we arrived... well, you see the mess."
Edward Nigma nodded, the picnic basket over one arm now feeling even more out of place than the rest of him. While being temporarily stuck on an island gave one plenty of beach access, it also meant that sometimes you really just wanted to see a different beach. Well, at least he could say this was certainly different.
Tad Nigma definitely saw the mess, noting the scattered debris all along the beach, the man with the yellow scarf picking through it with a frown as if looking for something specific, and the other man with the red and black hair gathering up all the bits with black paint. He broke into a huge grin as he looked up at his father. "It's all in pieces, like a big puzzle. Dad? Can we stay and help put it together? Please?"
Leviathan blinked in surprise at that. "I don't know if the salvage team would bother reassembling anything, just cleaning up the scrap for recycling..."
Tad turned his pleading expression on her instead. "Aww, that's no fun. Can't we try to match some of it up?"
Before he could get an answer the man with the yellow scarf approached them and placed a hand on Leviathan's arm to get her attention.
"Cancel salvage and call for med-evac," Blues said softly, looking at the twisted blue California licence plate he'd found. There were four letters on it in bright yellow.
KARR
"This is sick!" Thomas complained, as he picked up one of the fragments with a disgusted look. "Who litters on a beach like this? It looks like they raided a junkyard and just... dumped it."
"This violates about a thousand environmental regulations, or it would if the Nexus wasn't outside of everyone's jurisdiction," Childre agreed, and then half-smiled when he noticed Thomas squirm. He couldn't help enjoying the other boy's annoyance at being on the same side as him in anything.
After a second, Thomas sighed. "Fine. So me and the parolee actually agree on something. But what do we do now, Levi? We can't just leave the beach like this!"
"I'm calling in a salvage team," Leviathan told the boys. "They'll clean it up and see if anything's recyclable." Taking note of the piece Thomas is holding she sent an addendum to her message off, and sighed. "Though it could take a while. That looks like antique circuitry, and that means they won't be able to use Magflies if we want to find out if there's any interesting information Metal Shark or Gate can recover."
"I guess this means we're not going swimming." Childre scowled at the messy beach.
"Hey, I'm not just leaving things like this," Thomas insisted. "There could be bits of junk under the water. I want to stay and help with the clean-up."
Leviathan nodded. If they wanted to stay, she wasn't going to talk them out of helping. She pulled one of the black pieces free of the sand and frowned at it, sending off another message. "I've called Punk, too. Some of this... it looks like an old car." If anyone could positively identify parts of an antique automobile, it would be Punk Wily.
"So some jerk blew up a car all over the beach?" Thomas just shook his head. He couldn't understand why anyone would do that.
"That's what it looks like," Leviathan said, with a shrug.
It didn't take long for Punk to arrive on the scene. It wasn't like he had anything better to do. It only took a glance to see that Leviathan's report had been accurate... the beach was one hell of a mess. He walked over to the nearest decently-sized black fragment and tugged it loose for examination.
What he saw didn't make any sense. All that damage, and the paint didn't even look scratched. The force of the explosion seemed to have torn the fender panel off the frame, with the connecting bolts being the weak point. "Huh..." He searched around until he located a nearby door panel, and frowned as he glanced over the general suggested shape.
"What is it, Punk?" Leviathan asked.
Punk just scowled at her as he picked out a spot above the high-tide line to start trying to organize the black pieces into something recognizable. "I ain't sure what it is," he said after a moment. "I mean, the car looks to maybe be an 80's Pontiac... Trans-Am or Firebird. But there's somethin' weird here." His interest in classic cars made this worse than a bad case of littering, but the mystery grated on him as well.
"Have we come at a bad time?" A voice interrupted before Leviathan could question Punk as to just what he meant by that.
She didn't recognize the voice, and looked over to see an unfamiliar man with a picnic basket, accompanied by what she suspected were his wife and two children. "Oh. Sorry, sir. We had other plans too, but when we arrived... well, you see the mess."
Edward Nigma nodded, the picnic basket over one arm now feeling even more out of place than the rest of him. While being temporarily stuck on an island gave one plenty of beach access, it also meant that sometimes you really just wanted to see a different beach. Well, at least he could say this was certainly different.
Tad Nigma definitely saw the mess, noting the scattered debris all along the beach, the man with the yellow scarf picking through it with a frown as if looking for something specific, and the other man with the red and black hair gathering up all the bits with black paint. He broke into a huge grin as he looked up at his father. "It's all in pieces, like a big puzzle. Dad? Can we stay and help put it together? Please?"
Leviathan blinked in surprise at that. "I don't know if the salvage team would bother reassembling anything, just cleaning up the scrap for recycling..."
Tad turned his pleading expression on her instead. "Aww, that's no fun. Can't we try to match some of it up?"
Before he could get an answer the man with the yellow scarf approached them and placed a hand on Leviathan's arm to get her attention.
"Cancel salvage and call for med-evac," Blues said softly, looking at the twisted blue California licence plate he'd found. There were four letters on it in bright yellow.
KARR