Operation: Teenage Wasteland: Team Grifter Kids Unite!

[x-jubilee.livejournal.com]

Wanda, Jubilee, Ororo and Amanda pick up some street-level gossip and discuss it over tacos.



Calimas wasn't the best taco shop in the city by a wide margin, but it had an advantage. Two for a dollar tacos during the week. Two advantages, actually, in that it was staffed by members of the latino community who quite frankly didn't give two shits what people did in the shop as long as they kept buying tacos. It had a reputation for being a place you could go, sit, and get warm and fed without the owners or staff calling the cops on you, even if your face was on a milk carton.

The staggering number of tacos that came to the table via plastic trays seemed like it should've earned comments, but the staff seemed to know Jubilee and expect to see her come in and order 15 tacos at once, even if the petite asian girl had only suggested it because she found a menu taped to the fridge in "her" apartment, and she'd never seen the place before.

Amanda made a face at the food - Mexican wasn't a big thing in England and cheap tacos were, well, cheap tacos. But she stuffed one in her mouth nonetheless, since it was food and who knew when this free ride was going to come to an end? "Typical American shite," she mumbled through the mouthful. "Whose bright idea was this?"

"It could be worse," Wanda replied even as she reached for yet another taco. She'd stuffed three of them in the little bag she'd found in that apartment that several people had said was hers. She'd never even had a taco previously, or at least not quite like this, but it was cheap and she didn't have to share with her brother or cousins.

She scowled slightly. "Could be worse about the food." Her English was incredibly accented but it was throwing her off just how much she could understand in it - she'd been learning, yes, but to know it this well was yet another thing to make her wonder if the world had gone crazy.

Ororo could remember having one of these before on a trip to the city with Scott and she recalled that with enough hot sauce it was almost palatable, so she dumped a half-bottle's worth on the taco in front of her and picked it up in one hand. "Things could always be worse," she said with a pragmatic sigh, her words more suited to her apparent age than her mental age, and yet. "Did anybody find anything of use on their little trip they were sent on? Or were we all chasing geese?"

Amanda shrugged, picking up a napkin to wipe the taco off her face. "If I'd been on the game, I could've made a fiver?" she replied. "The winos hanging around the bus station hadn't seen this Glorian bloke, was the most I could get."

"Most of the mall kids I talked to hadn't seen him either, although I totally got some good info on places to stay if I was needing somewhere," Jubilee replied with a shrug.

She'd already stuffed at least three tacos into her mouth after having taken an experimental bite and she now talked between swallows.

"They seemed far more interested in me than my questions," Wanda said. She'd cleaned out two wallets and a pocket knife while she'd been out looking for answers. "This man has not been seen for a while, that is true, but he is popular. Only in the way that is not good. He seems to have irritated a number of people."

"I can see why," Ororo replied with a roll of her eyes. "If he has the same affect on everyone as he has done to us. I heard that he has annoyed one man more than all the others - he is called Russo. But no one would say where Russo might be. I think they are all quite scared of him."

"So, how do we find this Russo if no one is willing to pinpoint him for us?" Jubilee asked, taking a big gulp of the coke they'd delivered along with the tacos.

"Russo?" Amanda's attention had drifted to trying to stuff as many tacos into her face before they were taken away, but the name dragged it back. "Some street tough who tried t' roll me earlier mentioned something about a pillock called Russo. 'You'll be sorry for settin' me on fire, Russo will hear 'bout this, blah blah blah.' Local gang leader, right?" At the nod from Ororo, she grinned. "Then 's easy. Every gang leader has toms, right?" She was met with blank stares. "Prostitutes, whores, whatever the fuck. Street meat he uses as easy cash. Talk t' the local 'business women' and we'll find where he's holed up, nice an' neat."

"Why do you seem happy about doing that?" Wanda asked a bit sourly. She had no problems with prostitutes but she'd been called a whore just because she was Rom one too many times for her liking. She reluctantly put down her taco so she could reach down her front; Wanda fished around for a second before she pulled out a scrap of paper.

"I got this address from someone who refused to do more than give me that. It sounds like it might be of use, though?"

Ororo snatched the paper out of her fingers before any of the others even blinked, and it disappeared into a pocket or some other hiding place. She eyed Wanda's discarded taco as well, but she wasn't really hungry and the hot sauce was mostly gone. "I think we have done all that we were asked to do. The question is, what are we going to do now?"

"We could get some booze an' hit the clubs?" Amanda suggested hopefully. "We've done our bit, after all."

"We cooooould do that," Jubilee replied with a long drawn-out drawl, tapping her fingers against her chin as she braced it against her palm and gave Amanda a grin. "Or, you know, we could go back to the office and actually do what's supposed to be our jobs. Can't answer for you, of course, being all grunge and rebel without a cause but like, some of us actually give a shit about getting back to normal, or whatever that is in your case."

Amanda's eyes narrowed. "'S not grunge,'s punk," she retorted, not terribly wittily. She didn't really have anything else to argue, however - she didn't really want to go back on the streets if she could help it. "Fine, then, Bruce Lee. We go back to the office."

"Radical, Dude. Totally knew you'd see it my way. So...who's paying?" Jubilee asked, stuffing one last taco in her mouth.