xp_logs | X-Men Mission: Roller Derby Queen

Marius finds himself in an uncomfortable place while trying to sell their cover story.

"See, I fucking told you Tragedy Ann was going to go down. Bug zapper fucking skin? Fuck that shit. Dee Stroyer is what you want - fire, brother. It's all about fire." Tailgunner Harry always talked like he was an expert in everything. His crew had gotten used to it, but it was an education for the other bikers around the monitor that showed the match, including Marius and Garrison. "Oliver Junk - she's from El Salvador. Some beaners have put together a network, finding mutant girls down in little villages and sending them north. I heard that they've got a secret training place outside of Juarez, just to get them up to match ready before they sell 'em north."

"Bullshit. The fuckin' spics are too busy shooting each other up to have a secret anything set up." Eddie cut him off. The big Outlaw had a bald eagle tattooed across one arm and an American Minuteman on the other. He'd spent some time earlier explaining the problem with Asian gangs on the West Coast in impolite terms. "The border guards and the INS have a deal with mutant girls trying to get across the border. I know a couple of guys who can get you a goddamn shopping list of mutant wetbacks for teams. Most of them are shit - just crying and no fucking fight to them - we were looking at some of the slants for another team but the fucking Triads have that market all fucked up."

"I heard that the Outlaw's 'Giner Shiners' took out the 'Roller Devils' last month in Portland."

"Fucking A. Forty grand on the match alone. One fucking night." Eddie said, and there was a low whistle. The money in the new underground leagues was clearly lucrative.

Marius contributed a vague grunt and kept his eyes firmly affixed to the monitor, one part of his mind devoted to collating names and regions, the other trying to ensure no one could hear his teeth grinding. This was proving even harder than he'd expected. He had always fancied himself rather laid back, which was why it was surprising to him he had managed to find a room which contained not a single person for whom he did not harbor the violent urge to punch. Whilst not technically the first time he'd presented himself under false pretenses, sharping casinos with Jennie and Manuel had not required him to feign agreement with people who seemed to substitute hesitation noises with ethnic slurs.

"You work up a proper arrangement with the local bookies, and you'll double that easy." Kane said, earning sudden hard stares from some of the others. He was wearing the leathers of a small gang, and this group had an informal hierarchy which Kane had just sidestepped and corrected the leaders of.

"What the fuck do you know, Ragger?" Eddie crossed his massive arms.

"There's more money to be made when you can get all the OTB assholes to sit up and take notice. Especially with the right type of girls." Kane didn't back down an inch, instead indicating Marius with a jerk of his thumb. "We got a pair of Ukrainian bitches off of Froggy here last month - whole fuckin' Russian mob showed up to drop money on their homegirls. We booked a hundred Gs and the bookies covered the heat fuckin' gratis. That's good money."

"Secret Empire. Fuckin' New Yorkers." Harry shook his head. "I heard you guys got busted. Bad."

"Couple of days ago. Ride captain got shook down by some crooked local pigs, shot his mouth off and got them all picked up. Fuck 'em." He looked more annoyed at the stupidty of the biker than concerned. "We've got a junkyard dog on the case and the DA will make a deal. But it gets expensive."

"Fuckin' A it does." Eddie said, his eyes guarded. "How'd you put that team together?"

"Froggy." Garrison clapped Marius on the shoulder, with a gentle reminding squeeze. "He is our man over the sea."

"Oui," Marius said, staring at Garrison's hand with an expression usually reserved for that which one was about to crush with a shoe. Uncharitably, the expression was not feigned. Fortunately it was misconstrued by the others as merely French.

"Don't be so damn modest." Garrison transfered his hand, instead pressing it into the small of Marius back and propelling him forward to the middle of the group. "Tell him about Rome. You remind, those bitches you had all wrapped up and then the fuckin' Mafia goombas from up the coast came down for a talk? Remember you telling us that?"

"Rome was not so impressive," Marius said, attempting to develop telepathy exclusively to convey the thought I will kill you. "It is really quite simple once you locate an official who is not a catamite. My best woman Natalya, a handful of barnyard animals, an electric toothbrush and a good quality camera can buy so much cooperation." And, because he was not feeling particularly charitable towards Garrison for pushing him into this, he added rather nastily, "And of course, the catacombs are so convenient for moving commodities in a way which does not attract the notice of the Vatican ninjas."

"Fucker talks funny."

"He's French. They eat, like, horses and shit over there." Eddie confirmed. "What's this shit about Vatican ninjas? He trying to make fun of us?" There was an ugly rumble through the group and Kane but up his hands in a placating manner, hoping that Marius' mouth didn't get seven kinds of shit beaten out of him.

"Fucked if I know. Froggy's a little-" He gestured to his head and swirled his finger a couple of times; the international sign for someone who is completely bugfucked. "That's what happens when get high on your own supply."

Marius belatedly remembered his mouth had been recruited to add verisimilitude, not undercut it by running wild and free. He backpeddaled.

"He is jealous because I do not cut him a deal," he said, waving a scarred hand at Garrison. "Non. 'Vatican ninjas' is what we call the local trash, the posers. They have the ambitions of Mafia without the ability. Dressing up, playing like they are in The Godfather." He let his lip curl in a sneer. "I do not deal with faggots afraid to ruin their pretty suits."

"Guineas are all the same." Tailgunner Harry barked a laugh. "All of them think they're fuckin' Goodfellas goombas with their knock-off designer suits."

"Ran into a crew in Chicago last year. The feds should be sending me a paycheck for helping bring down the criminal population." Eddie said with a satisfied grin. Kane had somehow ended up sitting next to him, and he turned his head to talk quietly to him. Garrison paused and waved his hand at Marius.

"Hey Froggy, tell them about, what was his name, Giovanni? The one with the bald spot that thought he was fuckin' De Niro."

The younger man snorted. "Giovanni is what he called himself. Born in America and of some relation to one of their underbosses. I have it on good authority his name was Ted, or possibly Travis." Marius leaned towards his audience, getting into the role despite himself. "He comes to the motherland, you see, and the first thing he does is take himself a wop name. Stuck out his chest, greased up his hair and tried to be the best wop he could be."

There was a smatter of laughter, but Eddie's voice was surprising absent. The big man was talking to Garrison quietly, making occasional gestures towards Marius and the monitors.

He studiously kept his eyes away from where Garrison had engaged the other man in conversation. It was difficult to tell if the gangmembers he was entertaining would object if they noticed, but shortly before the match Marius had seen a man break the neck of a pitbull which had failed to perform satisfactorily in a dogfight. He assumed nothing, and was profusely relieved he had seen The Untouchables and once caught part of a National Geographic documentary on the mafia.

"He is initiated but the others do not trust him, so he looks for an opportunity to prove himself. But the dago is so incompetant he cannot even find anyone to make an example of." Marius picked his teeth with a thumb nail. "Montressor has a line into the Cosa Nostra. He heard Giovanni finally paid off a policeman to approach one of his own men, asking the man to turn. The man did not, but Giovanni made sure photographs were taken. Giovanni did not wait for permission. He beat out the man's brains with a bat and presented the photographs to his boss, expecting praise for killing the traitor." He looked at his thumbnail briefly, then flicked away whatever it had gathered from his teeth. "I heard they pulled his tongue out through his neck, and it does not surprise me. I met him once. There was no other way to shut him up."

'What would you have done, huh?" Eddie suddenly spoke up, and there was a momentary flash of concern that crossed Kane's face. "Froggy." He said the name slowly and deliberately. "Someone threats your pipeline in mutant bitches from Russia. What do you do?"

Oh, fuck. Marius felt the obvious answer rising in his mind, and it repulsed him. But hedging was a suicide move, and if he stopped to think about it he would be sick. His eyes narrowed on Garrison for a split second, half in anger, half in something approaching entreaty, and then let the words go.

"Similarly, excepting two differences. One is that I would send one bodypart to every client he had ever dealt with. A professional courtesy to let them know they would require a new supplier." Marius dared not look at Garrison's face for this; he kept his eyes firmly fixed on Eddie and poured all his anger and revulsion into a tone of pure ice. "But first, I would find this man's mother, wife, or daughter. I would give her to my men, and I would make him watch. I would let that be the last thing he ever saw."

"Fuckin' harsh, man." Tailgunner Harry said, nodding. "Putting it to his old lady like that."

"Stops it happening again." Eddie said quietly, and turned back to Kane. He had a few more quiet words before he stood up, shook hands and walked off without another word. Garrison gunned back the rest of his beer and stood as well.

"Come on, Froggy. Let's see to the ladies, huh?"

Marius nodded and rejoined his teammate, his face carefully blank. He didn't bother to bid the bikers farewell. It was only once the two X-Men were out of earshot that he said, "Hope you got some use from that, because I will never forget having to say those words. Nor that I was the one who thought them up."

"We've got an invite to the big meeting. Eddie wants us to talk to his captain about running in girls, and potentially opening up the European Kick market." Kane said, ignoring the rest. Marius could be as prickly as he wanted. The reality was that whatever they had to do was balanced against some extremely vicious people getting control of the drug market for something that could set mutant rights back thirty years. If a little distasteful play acting was the cost, so be it.

Marius thought about adding a sharp rejoinder, but the urge was fleeting. It wasn't as if he hadn't been given the chance to back out before this had even begun, making any problems he had now his own damned fault. The younger man surrendered his unjustified sense of righteous indignation and sighed. "Right," he said, the anger drained from his voice now. "Just so long as it helped."

Kane draped an arm over Marius shoulders. "Don't ever doubt it, Froggy."