Get up and Go! (Melissa Clark)

[Brandon Napier]

Though he was only sixteen, Bam Napier had been in, and broken out of, the SMILE Institute more times than he cared to count. Now, his bare feet stung from the barbed wire, and the black prisoner clothes hung on his frame, and Bam was grinning. He stretched his arms above his head and paused for a moment before looking around and pushing his red hair out of his face.

This had been the first time he hadn't had any form of disguise... The first time he'd been bare foot, as well.. Escaping was a lot easier when not bare foot... But SMILE took shoes and socks away so that prisoners couldn't escape... Or so they thought... Bam had just proved this theory wrong, as you can guess...

The gates of the SMILE Institute clanged shut and Bam glanced over his shoulder at them. The iron metal work was wound into a smiling face, and this made Bam's pull a little in disgust.

Glancing around, Bam noticed a figure and instinctively reached for his yellow ray gun, which he had managed to get before he'd had to run. His hand pulled the gun from where it was and he pointed it at the figure, his finger on the trigger.

"Who're you?" He asked, his American accent making his tone into a slight snarl. By 'a slight snarl', I mean, more than it was supposed to be...

[Melissa Clark]

Melissa had scrambled up onto the fence, hair in a mess and her clothes in tatters. She too was escaping, unbeknownst to her at least, she figured she was the only one breaking out at that moment in time. Though, balancing on top of the barbed wire fence was probably one of the dumbest ideas she'd had. Thankfully, she was wearing some form of protection on her feet. Having torn the sleeves from her prisoner wear and wrapping them around her feet. Melissa was bare foot too, for the same reason really. SMILE had taken away her socks and shoes. What would she do with socks and shoes?! Stink the guards into submission? As if. Still, she couldn't argue with their logic, it was effective, people didn't escape often.

Melissa Clark had spent the past few moments running through the white halls of the Institute, adrenalin pounding through her veins until she slid out of the building. Slid being the literal term, there was a small crouch size window she had managed to slither through. Snagging her flesh on the cement as she made her escape.

Jogging across the lawn she reflected on the dangers she had just faced after jumping down from the big fence. The small blond had had to shove several workers out of her way to get to the small opening she had passed upon her imprisonment the month before. Then she had had to dodge the various bullets and lasers shot her way as she ran to where she was now. She didn't stop running either, although she was tired she still had the skill of her endurance. So she was running slowly, but was running slowly with energy to spare.

Melissa's movement was quickly halted when she heard a noise a few feet away. Before she could duck and hide a gun had been pulled on her and her identity had been demanded. Melissa recognised the handy work on the gun though. "I'm Melissa, otherwise known as Rebel 23, of the Scavenge and Protect program." She explained, taking several steps forward. She could have either just told a fellow rebel who she was, or she could have just told SMILE about the project she and some others had been assigned. To find new technology and other potential Rebels.

[Brandon Napier]

Bam's arm dropped slowly, not longer giving her a direct threat of being shot by him, but he didn't tell her who he was. He wasn't, really, a part of a specific group in the Rebellion... He more just did whatever they wanted him to do... He couldn't keep to one job for long... It bored him... But, he was good at getting things from inside SMILE Institutes... All of the workers that he'd ever run into were idiots who didn't realise that Bam would happily jump out of windows to get away from them. Actually, he would happily jump out of windows whatever the reason... Most of the time just because he liked being a bit of a daredevil... Probably because he liked adrenalin rushes... More than likely the reason that he allowed himself to keep being caught by SMILE...

Holstering his ray gun, Bam nodded softly. He had no reason to shoot a fellow Rebellion member... Unless she was a spy... Though he doubted it. SMILE preferred to track and follow as opposed to spying... It was all much more... Stalkerish...

Still not telling her his own identity, Bam pushed his hair out of his eyes again and moved away from the gates. He gave another, insane grin.

"Sorry 'bout the gun, Sweets... Can never be sure..." He spoke, wriggling his toes as he did so. His feet still stung, but he didn't take a blind bit of notice of it... Though it would probably help to do something... Like cover his feet to stop the small wounds from getting infected... Bah, since when did he bother with medical or anything do to with safety? He didn't. Right then.

Glancing over his shoulder, Bam took a moment to see if anyone was coming before looking at the girl again. He said nothing, though, but began humming a random tune before remembering something: SMILE had cars... They didn't track their own cars, as they didn't think that the Rebellion would ever steal a SMILE car... But it would help...

"Can you drive?"

[Melissa Clark]

Melissa smirked softly at the lowering of a weapon. It wasn't a sign of mock, nor was it a symbol of intimidation. It was just there, to show some form of emotion before she neared the opposing character. Opposing for the time being, he still seemed shamed. Melissa couldn't determine what it was, but there was something off about him. Something she wasn't sure whether or not she really wanted to know.

Taking several sturdy steps forward, the woman found herself to be a tad bit shorter than the male. She couldn't really be bothered in bringing herself to be self conscious around her height for now. Whether she grew anymore or no didn't matter to her, as long as she survived long enough to seee her parents again.

"I can drive." Was all she stated, as she moved passed him. She didn't know that their thoughts were basically along the same line, nor did she care. If he wanted to tag along on her way home then fine, but if he wanted to order her about then he'd have another thing coming. "I can't drive well though," she added a moment later, as she took the final few steps towards the garage that stood at the side of the SMILE institute.

[Brandon Napier]

Following her, Bam moved lightly. He was good at being quick on his feet... It helped to survive. She said that she wasn't good at driving and Bam smirked. He wasn't good at driving either... He never tended to touch the breaks, you see... Making any car rid with him very, very dangerous.

"Neither can I... Nothin' t'stop us tryin', though." He grinned, bouncing after her. He wanted to tag along... Why? Because he couldn't be bothered to steal another car and he felt like trying to annoy her. He was, by nature, an annoyance. Someone to piss people off. And he hadn't changed just because of SMILE... He had no reason to...

With the assumption that she didn't care if he tagged along, Bam bounded next to her and linked arms with her, grinning insanely. "So, Sweets," He rested his head against her shoulder. "how badly do ya drive?" He asked, wondering if she was worse than him. That, would be funny... Maybe they could have a race...

[Melissa Clark]

"Bad enough that you'll find your neck in that position permanently if you aren't strapped in." Melissa told him, sliding her arm out of his grip, and then shifting away a little. "You're a weird weird person." She told him, without looking him directly in the eye.

Melissa's driving wasn't too terrible. She didn't know what to do other than stomp her feet about and yank on things a bit, though. Melissa looked over at the red haired person. "So, who the hell are you again?" She queried, walking into the garage as if she owned the place. She didn't see anyone, and it wasn't like she couldn't have taken them if she had. Melissa was often underestimated in the fact that she was cooler and stronger than most thought. She could handle all she really needed to handle and that little bit more.

Swishing around the garage, she picked out a truck's set of keys. It was a big, brutal lorry that she had chosen, equipped with cattle prodding lasers and a steel plated exterior. She did find it weird that other than a few cameras there was no sign of security. But because she couldn't do much more than think about it before a siren wailed and brought the attention of SMILE drones. "Fuck." Melissa bolted into the truck, wrenching the door open and jumping in. She shoved the door opposite open and shouted. "Get in, Stanger!" Melissa shouted, not waiting for him as she stuck the keys in, turned the radio on to some kickass music. "Hurry!" She commanded then, shutting her door with a slam.

[Brandon Napier]

Bam nodded at her calling him weird and didn't answer her question. He had no reason to answer her, really... Especially when she wandered off to get a set of keys. Bam waited for her to walk back to the truck... Then the siren wailed and Bam raced over to the truck. He almost got hit by the door, but ducked out of the way and jumped into the truck, pulling the door closed as he did so and cackling a little. He didn't bother with a seatbelt... Probably not a good idea... But instead he turned the radio up and stuck his feet onto the dashboard, bending his legs as he did so, to make sure he wouldn't get in her eye line.

"So, am Bam." He grinned manically and pushed his hair out of his eyes before cackling again and throwing his head back. He then looked at her. "Yes, I am a li'l nuts..." He giggled hysterically and watched the SMILE workers. Let's see how many she could hit... Could be fun. Watching the stupid little people bouncing out of the way... Would be very fun... Very, very fun.

Giving a small, light giggle, Bam began bouncing in his seat. He had been generally calm before... But now they were running for their lives... Now it was fun... It would be so much fun and so interesting... So... So...

Insane...

Bam loved insane things. He loved when things were odd... Insane... Live threatening... Adrenalin rushes... That was the thing with SMILE, they gave Bam exactly what he liked: Adrenalin rushes... And no, it didn't matter to Bam that a random girl was involved with this, too.

[Melissa Clark]

Melissa vaguely appreciated the red haired Bam moving his legs out of her view. She didn't have time to thank him really, she was busy stomping her feet about and jerking things. Oh, the things she could have thought then. She mumbled a sharp "I gathered," as he admitted his mental stabability or lack there of. Melissa's mind was occupied by the workers having trouble getting into one of their own creations as she stormed forward, the truck having initially started, stalled, then spurted forward. It was a nice feeling, to be in so much power of such an incredible vehicle. She could only imagine what was carried in the back. For all she knew it could be weapons, sources of food, technology, or it could be empty. She hoped it was the former, considering her job was to scavenge technology etc for the Rebellion. Her job was also to protect other Rebels, so she couldn't really leave behind this crazed twit.

Trundling along the road, Melissa flicked switches, turning lights on, wiggling mirrors about, opening windows, firing lasers and ejecting CDs all over the place. She didn't know what she was doing, so she stopped, and began swiveling around in the large vehicle, headed in exactly the opposite direction of the actual Rebellion base. She figured there would be a few SMILE workers following them, and in a lorry it would be hard to avoid them. So instead of leading them back to their base, she was taking the long route. In hopes of Bam using the weapon he had pointed at her. "How do you feel about shooting on the move Bloody nut?" Melissa had thought up a casual nickname for the young fellow. "If you can lean out the window and shoot I reckon I could keep us somewhat stable as we go. Mk?" She turned her head to look at him, rolling over a person that had gotten in their way. ...Oh well, they looked fairly miserable anyway.

[Brandon Napier]

At her question, Bam grinned and grabbed his ray gun. He didn't mind doing stupid things... Or things that may get him injured... He nodded and giggled at the fact that she'd just run a random guy over. He stood a little, sat in the hole where the window had previously been after making sure it was, definitely, open. He held onto the inside of the door at the top and aimed while half hanging out of the window. He moved a little so that he didn't get shot by one of the SMILE goons and cackled before taking one off of their motorbike. The motorbike skidded then got hit by one of the other vehicles.

The problem is, whenever he cackled, Bam didn't pay attention to the goons and almost got hit by one of the shots. He heard the shot whiz past his ear and giggled before aiming for the driver of a car. He then looked around them and ducked inside the van for a moment.

"I vote we drop the van, take off on foot." He spoke quietly, incase one of the goons were close enough to hear before climbing back onto the window and going back to shooting. Had he thought about it, he could've suggest that they roll the van and keep running like that... It wasn't likely that the goons would feel like trying to get around a bloody great van to get to Melissa and Bam... Yes, they were probably wanted right now, but no one would waste time trying to get to them... Right...?

[Melissa Clark]

Melissa made a shocked noise. The lorry could be carrying stuff they might have needed! She looked to the boy hanging out of the window, grumbled, then set the vehicle to 'auto' It would take them once around the block, which game them a little time.

"Be right back!" She told him, clawing the skylight open. She was going to get something from their trip whether he was there or not. "You keep firing, I'm getting supplies." Melissa explained, hoisting herself out of the skylight. She effectively grazed her elbows, bloodying her flesh a little more as she crawled over the top of the lorry she had previously been so attached to.

A few more seconds passed before she slid inside the top of the lorry. It was protected, so she had slid a grate from the top and had thrown it into the oncoming challenge. That's all it was to Melissa, a challenge she would try and try again at. There was no room for acceptance of failure.

Now stood within the lorry, Melissa hooked a few guns to her body, using the straps effectively. Then picked up one or two pieces of equipment she thought could be of use. She also plucked some papers up and made her escape. Again. The small lady dragged herself out of the hole she had crawled through. She was shot at, and she shot back, but their aim was almost as good as hers. The young woman got shot in the shoulder with a ray. It stung like a bitch, and her dark prisoner wear was soon stained a dark red.

Melissa wasn't going to give in though, she gritted her teeth, and began crawling down the side of the moving vehicle, jumping onto a passer by as she leapt down. Soft landing, nice. "Are you coming or not!" She yelled, narrowly avoiding a SMILE's goon's shot.

[Brandon Napier]

"Fuckin'- Shit!" Bam yelped as a SMILE goon fired at them while she did... Whatever she'd said she was doing. Then there was a surreal moment where Bam realised that there was no one driving... It was odd, but Bam, strangly, didn't mind too much and just carried on with what he was doing, which was firing at the SMILE bunch.

Bam wasn't aware of her having moved until he heard her yell. He put his ray gun away and climbed out completely until he was standing in the window hole instead of just sitting and his red hair whipped around in the breeze that was made by the van moving. Understand, Bam had never done this before. He had never really needed to. He'd jumped onto moving SMILE cars to kill the drivers and steal the car before, but he had never jumped off of a moving van... He jumped backwards and ended up rolling a little. Once he'd stopped, Bam burst out laughing and threw his head back, cackling madly on the ground. After a moment he stood and ducked out of the way of the SMILE goons before making his way over to Melissa. His shoulder hurt, as did his head from when he'd landed, but overall, Bam was running on adrenalin, therefore barely noticing any pain.

"Oi, know where we are?" He asked Melissa once close enough and jogged over to her while pulling his top off when he noticed the red. No doubt that was blood, and the easiest way to stop an injury bleeding was to apply pressure. He held the shirt out to her. "Ya bleedin'." He said as a simple explination for why he'd just taken his top off. He then shrugged softly and pushed his hair out of his eyes once more while waiting for her to either take the top or decline the offer.

[Melissa Clark]

Melissa quickly cast her eyes away, she was still a female, at the end of the day. She wasn't going to just stand and ogle the red haired boy. She definitely was thankful for the offer, but declined with a small shake of the head. "I'm good, here." She threw to Bam a few of the weapons hovering around her frame to get some of the weight off, then made her move. Jogging down an alley the blonde found to be too small a crook for any cars or bikes to follow them down she pulled at the slimy walls. Checking to see if they were climbable. "I have absolutely no idea where we are, but seeing it all from a bird's eye view ought to give us an idea." She spoke from within the alley, grimey and bloody by now. Melissa didn't know if Bam was going to join her or if he was going to just make his own run for it. He was armed now, but he seemed pretty decent a person. If a little crazy.

The scent of burnt flesh and food rolled through her nostrils as she began lifting herself. The gap between the current building she was inspecting and the other wasn't much more than a foot. So it wouldn't be too difficult to get up. "You do lag behind a bit don't you?" Melissa asked, crawling upwards as she looked around for the fellow she had donned.

[Brandon Napier]

Rolling his eyes at her averting her gaze, Bam shook his head and when she declined, Bam followed her slowly while pulling the top back on while holding the weapons that she'd thrown him. He was only slow because of the fact that he was trying to multitask. Bam had never been good at doing more than one thing at once and, as he caught up, he heard her question and smirked softly.

"I had t'put my shirt back on, unless you'd prefer t'have me topless?" He questioned innocently, though his smirk was anything but innocent. He raised an eyebrow at her. "Havin' fun up there?" He asked after a minute before glancing around just in case they were being snuck up on. He thought he heard a sound back by the mouth of the first alley. Bam backed up to have a look and saw a SMILE member stood there.

The man was someone who Bam knew well, the man was the only person who could ever actually catch Bam, most others shot to kill, but this man, he shot to stun. His eyes had black surrounding them, his hair was greying and his skin seemed to not fit properly. Like the skin was stretched but he wasn't. His teeth were rotting and he had the appearance of rotting inside and out.

Bam aimed at the man's leg and fired as the man aimed at Bam. Bam ducked back behind the wall and looked up at her. "Oi, d'you think one of us should stay down here?" He asked before checking round the corner and seeing that the man was on one knee. Bam breathed a sigh of relief before looking back up at Melissa.

[Melissa Clark]

"Why? There's all sorts we could see up in the air!" She laughed, embracing the pain in her shoulder to lean down and snatch Bam out of the man's way. "If we go up, think of the damage that could be done. Think of the explosions," mumbled the small smart woman. She had gathered from Bam's crazed chuckling that he would like to see some explosions. "And it will all be down to you, now if you please, haul ass!" She grumbled, letting go of the red haired teen to make her own way up. Whether he was coming or not. Melissa needed to get up somewhere safe and check out her shoulder, then she needed to keep her promise and blow something up.

Like that truck that would be coming around the block very soon.

[Brandon Napier]

Bam jumped softly when she grabbed him and he began to make his way up after her, thinking about how odd this all was... He'd never really been the climbing type, though he could if he had to, and so while moving he was considering just dropping and running, but she probably would prefer there to be two of them, just in case they got cornered...

He glanced down at the alley below and thought, for a moment, of killing the man that was kneeling at the mouth of the alley, before he decided that he didn't feel like being kind to the man and, instead, shot his leg again, just to cause him pain, as he had done to millions of people before... Since the beginning of SMILE's world... What a bland world, too...

When he finished climbing, Bam hauled himself up to wherever they were heading and shook his hair out of his eyes as grey cloud began to cover the sky.

"Oh brilliant..." He spoke softly, looking at the sky, before laughing a little and shoving his hands into his trouser pockets. He glanced at Melissa and wondered if she would actually blow something up... Bam liked explosions... And fire... And basically anything destructive and/or life threatening... So it wasn't hard to please Bam, really.

[Melissa Clark]

Melissa looked at Bam, close behind him, the sky was ready to open, and she knew it. He seemed to know it too, but she didn't care. Why would she? It was just rain, and it might have done some good for her shoulder. Her poor, aching, son of a bitch shoulder.

Dropping down one or two weapons, Melissa sat on the edge of the tall building. "You might want to see this," she told him, keeping her promise. Holding one of the weapons she didn't drop. Melissa aimed carefully, bravely, ready for anything. Her eyes followed the nose of te gun, pointed into the truck they had been driving. The truck that was just fulfilling it's assigned lap.

Firing the gun she had chosen, her shot was true and strong. Blasting into the engine area, and pulling forth an almighty crash. Flames burst forward, roaring out into the air as Citizens and SMILEs got burned and slaughtered. Melissa felt no guilt as the blazing flames rode out across the land, hitting other cars, slashing into buildings. All she felt was a sense of accomplishment.

"Happy?" She asked softly, standing upon the edge of the building as the rain began to fall. It wet against the pain in her body, and soothed the emotional turmoil of escaping. "Shall we get going?"

[Brandon Napier]

Bam moved over to her when she said that he'd want to see something and he watched her, then saw the truck. His lips began to curve into a manic, Cheshire Cat-like grin. At the sight of the fire, Bam calmed a little and he merely grinned. He didn't care that people were dead. Most of them were from SMILE, so he didn't care too much about them... And he also didn't care about the Citizens... Call him cruel if you want, he didn't give a crap, he just knew that if the Citizens had seen the pair of them, it was more likely that they'd be going back to SMILE right about now...

Hearing her question of getting going, Bam nodded before noticing that her shoulder seemed to still be bleeding.

"Whaddya gunna do 'bout your shoulder?" He asked, his voice almost caring before that completely disappeared. "Jus' that it might fuck you up if y'don't get it sorted." He continued, no longer even pretending to sound caring and he pushed his hair out of his eyes as the rain fell. He glanced around before remembering that guy from before. "An' we shouldn't go down... I think that SMILE guy's still there..." He added, shrugging softly and tilting his head back while closing his eyes so as to not let the rain fall into his eyes... That wasn't the best thing ever, really...

[Melissa Clark]

Melissa's ears would have perked had she been an animal. She wasn't. Although nothing visibly perked, she did turn her head, looking over at him. She thought she had heard something in his voice, something she hadn't expected. But she brushed it off just as quickly as he did.

"I figured I'd let the rain wash it then fix it up back at the base. We can't afford to just stand about sorting my poxy shoulder." Melissa laughed softly, walking to another edge of the building. "See, I think if we could get across to that building, then run down, we ought to be pretty freaking free to make a run for it." She stated, ruffling her hair. The rain did feel good, rubbing away and grime that had collected on her flesh that day.

The world was considerably more dark now, with the grey storm clouds hanging above. She didn't care, they could use the darkness to their advantage.

[Brandon Napier]

Bam nodded at her words about the building opposite and looked at her.

"How d'you suppose we're gettin' over there? Or should we jus' get down from here and go for a sprint?" He asked, smirking as he did so and he stretched his arms over his head. One of his hands rested on his gun and he looked over his shoulder, thinking that he'd heard a sound behind them... That would just suck a little... But thankfully he hadn't heard anything, or rather, nothing that was there... Unless SMILE had developed an invisibility gun... That wouldn't surprise him...

Putting a hand onto Melissa's uninjured shoulder, Bam looked at her and moved so that his arm was around her. "So, we goin' over t'there?" He asked and nodded before petting her on the head. "Great idea."

[Melissa Clark]

"Shuddap, it's not that bad an idea. Just a run.." Melissa started, turning away from Brandon's grasp, and starting a run towards the gap. It was risky, but not impossible, it was just a gap. Just a small...body sized gap. "And a jump!" She finished, her foot hitting the ledge of the building she was on before she sprung into the air. Her running hadn't been too fast, she couldn't manage fast running without winding herself. But it had gotten the job done, almost. Her jump had faltered in mid-air, leaving her to catch the ledge of the other building. That she managed. Her grubby fingertips grabbed the edge, and she managed to heave herself up. The pain in her shoulder tore through her as she stood, rolling her shoulder in circles. "Just a run and jump, easy as pie." She grinned, before thinking 'A very complex pie..'