Midnight Bonfire... SHH

[Decay]

"Lian you titless moron, these sticks are too wet for us to use. Have you ever been outta LA in your short Chinese life?" Sky said with roll of her eyes as she heaved a huge log from the pile they gathered and threw it into the small fire that she planned to make enormous. They had all sneaked out in small groups, and Riker was the one who brought each group to their spot because he'd be able to tell if the coast was clear. Now most of them were there and they were in a large clearing amongst really trees on the other side of the large lake.

She pushed a strand of her short hair back and fed some more newspaper that she nicked from the rack in the kitchen. That Danger Room session took a lot of out her. She couldn't believe that for awhile she really thought she was going to die, and not only that, she was perfectly fine with it. It was a first for her, but she had never been more sure of herself then than she was before. Right now Sky wanted to celebrate, and she was glad that most of her team was here with her.

"Hey Kat, put the drinks in the coolers will ya? They're in mine, Chase's, and Titless's bags, and make sure everyone put the ice in it already," she said loudly while using a long stick to poke the fire, watching it gradually grow bigger. Her older brother taught her how to make a fire when he would take her camping, along with a couple of other things. "And please tell me that someone brought the hot dogs? And I don't mean the ones in the guy's pants," Sky said with a laugh and threw some more thicks in fire.

[Taffy]

"Yeah I've got them," Ricki said indicating a huge picnic basket that was on the floor, squinting her eyes at the fire that Sky was creating. She was randomly walking around with her hndands in her pocket, just watching everyone get on with something or the other. It seemed like the Paragon's team practice had gone quite well, seeing none of them looked gravely injured or anything and Glitch also seemed a bit more comfortable with the team now than he did before. Team Practices always tend to do that, A part of Ricki was wondering what it must've been like for Frostbite, but she pushed the thought away- it didn't matter right now.

"Hey Kat- Lemme help you. I feel useless!" Ricki rolled her eyes as she moved towards the dark haired pirate-like girl. "Where are the bags? Oh right there-" Ricki indicated her head near the coolers, where the three bags lay and started walking towards there. "I haven't had a chance to speak to you properly! I'm Ricki - if you remember." Ricki rolled her eyes, "Hey- you just had a danger-room session! How did you like it?" she asked as the two girls halted by the bags. "Should we carry them over to the coolers and just load? Or like... take them out one by one?" she asked, looking from the bags to Kat, raising an eyebrow.

[Ripple]

Lian threw the wet sticks back into the forest and took a pull from her cigarette. "Keep talkin' like that bitch and you'll get a bogie to your eye!" She then searched for the driest sticks she could find around the campfire. This would be a good time for Heather to help out, she thought with as smirk. After the Paragon practice, Lian nearly dropped to the floor. Everyone was wiped out and Lian needed to take her third shower of the day. She didn't mind of course because now it was the weekend and she was able to freak around as much as she wanted, with the exception of following her punishments. I am not cleaning up horse shit, she concluded before heading back to the fire.

Setting them next to Sky, Lian threw her cigarette into the fire and took out two more. "Here, because you're cute," she said while handing it over to her best friend. Lian then took Sky's poking stick and lit her cigarette. It was a nice taste that burnt wood was able to provide to the tobacco. Not many people knew it but lighters and Zippos and matches, all caused a different taste when inhaling a cigarette. Enjoying her drag, she sat on one of the logs around the bonfire and rested. She had the wind knocked out of her and all she really wanted to do was sleep. But then she remembered that Riker might have wanted to "go wild" a bit later and she couldn't turn that down.

[Glitch]

"Here Sky, this should hold us for a good while," Dante said in his low hard voice and dropped the pile of sticks and branches near her. He had never been camping or ever made a fire or anything, but Sky told him exactly what kind of sticks to pick out. He scrounged the forest floor for a good while and gathered up a huge pile of sticks. It was also cause he had a head start, since he was part of the earlier group. Dante sneaked out of his room the old fashioned way by opening the window and making his way down the side. He had done it countless of times in the days that were spent joy riding and robbing whichever house that they happened to stumble upon. It wasn't his prouder days, but at that time his dad's restaurant was failing, and his mom was on medical leave from her job so they needed money.

Putting the sticks there in a pile, Dante sat down against one of the logs that they moved to make a circle around the fire pit. The practice that the Paragons just had was heavy on his mind, and he didn't know how he felt about it. There was a point in there where the reality faded away and he thought it was all real. It felt real too, and that didn't sit well with him. He thought he was just coming to a school that had other people that also had powers like him. Never did he fathom that he'd be fighting space creatures and be a prisoner on a ship of some other race in a whole other galaxy. It was... something to think about. He needed to come to terms with the fact that this was his life now, and he'd probably not be the same person he was when he was living in Chicago.

Taking his zippo lighter out, he lit up a Kool that was dangling from his mouth. Inhaling the smooth tobacco flavor, Dante let out a sigh and closed his eyes for a moment. "Ricki," he said looking to the blonde. "Grab me a beer when you come to sit down will ya?" Dante nodded at her and went back to his cigarette, staring at the fire with a stone faced expression and lost in thought.

[Riff~Raff]

Out of the woods came Riker followed closely by Jasper and Gavin. "Alrigh' folks this be the last o' them. We got these winged bastards, now let's start this bloody night," he said with a laugh and slapped Gavin on the shoulder. He spent the evening in his room with Jasper playing Gin Rummy, just letting time pass until the night came upon them. Now he had his cigarettes on him and was fairly sure that the coast was clear. When they did this before, his biggest worry was Wolverine catching them with his insanely acute hearing, but he was gone and it was much easier for all of them to get to their area without too much worry.

Riker bounded over to the fire, giving Sky a nice smack on her plump behind, fascinated how a girl who weighed less than an average sack of potatoes kept all her meat in his two favorite parts. "Jus' how I like ya lass, bent over wit' that wee look o' concentration on yer face," he teased and sat down next to Dante. "Gimmie a light will ya mate?" Riker grabbed the light and lit himself up. He leaned back on the log too and grinned at the sight of the girls.

"Now this be the best kinda bird watchin' ever, eh mate?" he said with a smirk, his eyes tracing the forms of the lovely lassies. "Well lookie what the cat dragged in, it be Kat." He winked at the hot Goth girl. "Ya wanna bring some brew fer me lass? If yer nice I may share," Riker said with a playful growl, eyes raking over her form and remembering the pale honey coated skin from the other night.

[Lymited~Ink]

"Ye better be sharin' more than that boy, like the rest of us I died, and I better be feelin' alive by the end o' tonight," she said with a smirk as she bent over to finish sticking in all the beer and ice into the cooler before getting one for Riker. She looked at Ricki before heading over to sit next to Riker and smirked. "I remember you," she said with a laugh before letting her face fall flat. "We all died. On the brighte' side of things I commandeered a ship and was captain of a bunch o' blighters. Pretty productive, if I might say so meself. I got the lovely poisons taken care of, go have a seat Elastigirl, Dante be callin' for ye," she said with a wink as she stood back up and swayed her way to take a seat next to Riker.

She held it out to him, but not before pulling it back as he reached a couple times, a flirty smirk on her face as she finally let him have it. "Yer brew, Your Growliness," she purred as she sat down and let out a little playful growl of her own. She giggled at Lian and pointed at her. "Bout time you make with the nice nice, Ripply. Such sour statements surely stave sexy souls swiftly," she told her with another giggle before looking around at everyone seriously. "Try saying that one ten times fast. Betcha can't," she said, shaking her head for emphasis. "Even the wordmeister meself can't pull it off," she went on with a slight pout and a disbelieving scoff, "And I made up the blasted thing!"

[Taffy]

Ricki smiled at Kat, before grabbing two beer bottles from the coolers and walking over to sit down besides Dante, tilting herself away from the direction of his smoke. "Here ya go," she said, getting herself comfortable, placing her bottle besides her on the floor. Honestly speaking, Ricki was slightly nervous. Ricki Day had honestly never gone over two glasses of red wine, and those two glasses had usually been stretched over two hours. She was trying to avoid drinking more than one bottle of beer, I'll be lucky if I get through half. She rolled her eyes at herself, before she looked over to see Gavin.

"Oi! Croft!" she called out in his direction, "Keep away from the fire. Your wings might melt! - Remember Icarus's story?" she stuck her tongue out at her friend, before giggling quietly and adding, "Pssh, you still owe me my guitar lesson!" She rolled her eyes to herself. Unlike the time when she was with Glitch at the lake after Lunch, Ricki barely felt anything bothering her about Gavin and Heather dating, and she figured that she'd 'gotten over' the shock. She shrugged the thought off and turned around to look at Dante.

"So how did you like our danger-room?" she asked him, smiling widely as she turned around to look at him. His face just looked pretty blank, she couldn't tell what he was feeling - but then again, she never could. His face was always blank. It'd take her some time to get used to understanding his body-language. "Enjoyed your first session?"

[FreezeFrame]

Chase sat up propping himself up on his elbows as he rested the one heel of his converse on a rock that ringed the fire pit and crossed his other foot over it. "Oh hey I could use one of those." He said raising a hand so somebody could toss him a beer. "Come on yo! I really don't wanna get up man, I'm finally comfortable."

He laughed at Riker giving the backhand across Sky's hump. "Hey Riker, that's not her face dude." He stuck his tongue out at Sky and did a 'Har-Har-Duuhhrr!' sound. "Yeah, but seriously man ya really gotta be careful there, if you smack her ass to hard you'll give Lian a headache." HAHAhahahaa he laughed at the looks he got from Ripple and Sky.

His hand was now thumping himself in the chest to help catch his breath and he grinned at how fun tonight was getting, the jokes were just beginning. "Hey-" he held his hand up again for that beer and asking with puppy dog eyes "What's up? No love for the Chaseman?" He looked at his empty hand and then back to see who was going to help him out with a cold one. "I'm totally dehydratin heeEROOWWW!!" He jumped back stomping his foot down onto the ground again and again and flailing it around. Smoke and the smell of burning canvas and rubber billowed off of his sneaker. "Ah shit that's hot man, damn!"

[StormHawk]

Gavin was cracking up as he reached down and picked up two cold beer bottles from the cooler. "Here ya go man, I think you to cool down," he said still laughing and tossed him the bottle. "Damn Chase only you man, only you." He was making his way back to his seat carefully since his guitar was slung over his back, but not without behind Ricki to mess up her hair. "You are too smart for your own good. And you see what being smart gets ya? Messed up hair. I hope you're proud of yourself. Nnnyeaaa!" Gavin had both his hands in her blonde hair and messed it up good before running off to get away from her. He liked bugging her too and he couldn't help but laugh at the look on her face.

"And anyways, we can do guitar lessons right now. Just after this beer, I'm telling you I need it," Gavin said putting the ridged cap of the beer and angling it just right so he could get it off neatly. It sorta backfired, cause the cap popped off and went flying through the air. "DUCK! Flying cap! He yelled laughing and took a sip of the cold beer. "Ahhh that hits the spot right there." It wasn't that he was stressed or anything, but it had been a long night, and unwinding with his friends was exactly what he needed.

Taking another long sip of the beer, Gavin stretched his wings out and rested his elbows on his knees as he chilled out for a minute. He placed his guitar on the side and just enjoyed his beer. "Don't tell me my guitar is gonna be the only music we got? Someone start it, adds to the mood. And you know its all about the mood. And right now I'm in the mood for some marshmallows," Gavin announced staring at the fire and having an urge to roast marshmallows.

[Onyx]

Folding his wings out, Jasper sat on a log near the others with his already opened beer. He spent most of his time after dinner composing his letter to the Dazzler, Alison Blaire. His English was steadily getting better over the couple of months, and he was determined to learn the language fully so he wouldn't have as much trouble with it. At this point, he understood all English, but still had some trouble speaking it. "The music player is right over there," Jasper said carefully annunciating every word through his heavy accent and pointed to the little speakers with an iPOD sitting next to a log. "And no more of zhat annoying country music though, once was enough."

When Jasper first came here, he wasn't sure he would ever get along with so many people as well as he did. It turned out though that he was able to find a kinship with the people here. He felt close to his team thanks in a large part to Riker, who rallied all of them together and had them form a bond that was stronger than anything that he had ever experienced with another person. The others here, he liked them just fine though still had trouble feeling comfortable with them completely. Jasper had a lot of things to settle with himself, and with all that was going on with his team, he felt it was time he got his own priorities straight.

In the letter he wrote to Dazzler, he was able to get out some of the stuff that he had been holding back. Miss Alison Dazzler was very understanding and he counted himself lucky to be allowed to write and speak to her the way he did. She had been the first person that he really trusted, and he knew that if he wanted to start really starting over with his old life, she was the one he would start with. Now, Jasper was forcing himself to loosen up and just enjoy the company. He never had a problem with the people here, and it was about time that he loosened up around them and stopped looking at them all as potential threats. "Could jou have not stolen German beer?" Jasper joked looking at Sky with a slight smirk, knowing well of her kleptomaniac tendencies.

[Decay]

The fire was now pretty damn big and blazed brightly, and Sky was satisfied with her work. "What the hell Jasper, you're gonna be picky now? It took me about two hours last night to get that beer. I was in the middle of opening the second locker in the garage and then Ironclad came in to work on his car. I was hiding for about an hour waiting for that guy to leave. Be grateful I even got the goods. So yea you're welcome." She left out the part how she spent the whole hour happily watching Ironclad work on his car shirtless. "Seriously people, you oughta be worshiping me right about now for this damn beer," Sky said flipping on the music player to play the Dropkick Murphys.

Sticking the cigarette Lian gave her behind her ear, she managed to make it back to her seat with two beers in hand and a bag of marshmallows. She passed a beer to Lian and then sat next to Chase, shoving him to the side and making him spill a splash of his beer. "Asshole. You don't get a marshmallow," she said sticking her tongue at him and popping a marshmallow in her mouth. She grabbed one of the long sticks that they were using to roast their their food and put a couple of marshmallows at the end of it. Unlike most people who liked their marshmallow to be perfectly browned, Sky just stuck hers right in the fire and watched them burn, just how she liked them.

"So Gavin..." She looked up at the hot Rockstar with a sly smile on her face. "How did your date go with Little Miss Prude and Perfect? Did ya bang her or is she insisting that you stay at the hand holding stage until she turns 18?" Sky laughed a bit and nudged Chase. "Oh wait no, lemme guess. She had you walk her to her door and then a sweet good night kiss with her foot popping up, and then little blue birds flew around you and the wind blew your hair up, and there was that romantic Disney music in the background. And then deers came hopping over and watched you dreamily." At this part Sky was giggling like crazy. She brought her burned and black marshmallows out of the fire. Sticking her cigarette in her mouth, she used the flame still coming from the marshmallow to light up. Inhaling deeply, Sky let out a large cloud of smoke and brought the stick to her mouth. "MmmmMm..." she said with a mouthful of gooey sticky hot marshmallow. Placing a finger on the bottle cap, she decayed it into nothing and took a swig of the beer. Beer and Marshmallows are AMAZING!

[Ripple]

The night was young, and Lian couldn't wait to get some heavy drinking started. She remembered that her punishment would commence the next day, cleaning out stalls and horse shit wasn't exactly her way of getting the point across to her her homework. She simply forgot so quoting a movie seemed the best thing to use for the time being. Of course Kevin had to be a moron and blow up her spot. Lian was pretty sure that Frost didn't see Bedazzled, and if she did, the Headmistress was cooler than she thought.

Taking in a long relaxing drag, she grabbed the marshmallow bag from Sky and treated herself to five on one stick. "Best freaking snack ever," she commented. She roasted all five of the marshmallows at once and watched as the flames devoured them and roasted to black. The more sticky and gooey, the better. "Should have gotten graham crackers butthole." She threw the back back to Sky and shook her head. "Have the past bonfires taught you nothing?" Smirking, she then retrieved her own bag and winked. "Of course I had to bring them, and the Hershey chocolate as usual." She pulled them out and tossed them over the Chase so he could start setting up.

The beer would definitely calm her down after her rough day. The practice pretty much sucked in her opinion, but it was way more fun towards the end. Being an actual martyr for a cause was more exhilarating that she every thought it would be. But now, it was done and it was time to have her well deserved fun. "Yeah man," she said to Gavin. "She comes across to me as the clingy type, or at least the one that would try to always be with her guy. God that is freakin' annoying. But putting that aside, I would say she is a pretty cool chick."

[Glitch]

Taking the beer from Ricki, Dante took his wallet out of his pocket and used the bottle opener key chain to open the beer. "Thanks," he said in a low voice and took a sip of the beer. He leaned over and popped the cap on Ricki's beer before putting it back in his pocket. He sat back and watched with an almost amused look on his serious face as the others ragged on Gavin. It wasn't any of his business and really he didn't care. "Practice was alright. Not what I expected," Dante said to Ricki in his low voice, just watching how the other interacted.

He took a pull from his cigarette and put his arm back on his propped up knee, blowing smoke out of his mouth lazily. Right now his main focus was relaxing and observing the people around him. Pushing back the thought of his first practice out of his mind, Dante took a good look at the people that were around him. It'd be a lie if he said that he didn't feel a sort of comradeship with some of them. His team for one, he got. Sky, Chase, and Lian came from a similar background as him, though he doubted any of them had a record that matched his in any way. Dante was also pretty sure that Kat didn't have it that easy either, and despite the slightly wacky side of her, he found himself not being annoyed by her. The other people he sat here with, well he was only sure on a couple of them.

Ricki he liked, if not anything for other than the fact that she was a breath of fresh air, the first person he met in a long time that didn't have a jaded look on her face and didn't put on a front. Jasper he found pretty cool, but that guy seemed just as jaded as the rest of the crew, except the difference that Dante managed to catch between him and someone like Chase was that Jasper didn't seem happy with the direction he was in and was willing to change it. The others... well he still had some getting used to on that.

Dante reached over to picnic basket and took out two hot dogs and placed them evenly on one of the sticks. "You want?" he asked with a sidelong glance to Ricki as he held the hot dogs over the fire and slowly rotated them to cook them just right. He had never been much for conversation, but he wasn't gonna be an ass and not offer one to a lady. Dante may not have grown up under the best conditions, but his mom stretched to him that he oughta treat a girl right. That's why he did his best to keep his dangerous moods in check when there was a true lady in the area.

[Riff~Raff]

A wolfish smirk came on Riker's face and he leaned back on the log, his arm spread out and resting on it, right behind Kat. "Now love, be reasonable, there coulda been some rather harsh consequences when ye keep a bloke frem his brew," he said in her ear, moving his nose into her hair to take in the spiced scent of her. Riker felt that the way a lass smelled told a lot about them, and it was as unique as the girl. Sky smelled like cotton candy and the rain, a scent that told of her tomboyish nature and that she was a lot of fun. Then there was Ricki, who smelled like honeysuckle and vanilla, a scent as sweet as she was with the same allure as her nature. Kat had a delicious scent of spiced vanilla, rum, and licorice. "Mmmm. Ye smell good enough ta eat love. Ye really take the pirate in ya ta the max ey?" he said in ear with a grin.

The only thing that could have pulled Riker out of working his own sort of magic on the girl next to him was when the others badgered Gavin about his date with Heather. "I'm tellin' ya right now Gavin, ye may be a close mate but if ya hurt her, I hurt ya. She in me pack, an' I dun do well wit' anyone hurtin' me pack," he said with a serious look on his face and taking a drag of his cigarette. Heather and him had also become quite close, and like her strong scent of strawberry and warm honey, she was sweet but delicate as well. He called her family and no one hurt family.

Riker handed his beer to Kat for a moment and had his fingers turn into claws. He used a claw to open his beer bottle, grinning at her before his hand changed to normal. "Why thank ya love, yer so kind," he said with slight growl and turned back to the conversation. His hand dropped to her shoulder and he used a finger to draw patterns on the cloth over the skin.

[FreezeFrame]

Chase nodded a thanks to Gavin for the gentle toss and opened his beer. It wasn't however the most gentle toss though, so he had to quickly slurp down a couple of huge gulps that were mostly suds. 'BRRRUuOOOPP' he burped out after all of that. "Whoa, did you guys hear the tree frog?" he smiled.

Taking a moment to quietly contemplate himself being alive, and sipping on a beer by the fire with all of his friends, he looked around. He didn't mind the insults from his best friend and her nudge brought him back to the present reality as a splash of beer hit his crotch. "Aw man I cannot have a night when you don't get something wet all over my dick huh Sky?" he went to reach for her tongue sticking out of her mouth when the bag of chocolates made him turn and grab that instead. The box of graham crackers would have been a crumbled mess if he didn't have great hands and caught that too.

"Cool babe, I'll hook you up." he said to Lian. She was settled down some now, but she was still at that easy to set off stage he hated so well. He set his beer on the ground between his legs as he set up the s'mores. He had a little production line going on his leg, cracker chocolate-cracker chocolate-cracker chocolate, and he waited patiently for the pass of the roasted toasted marshmallow as the the talk turned to dates and packs. As Lian was satisfied with her cooking and held out the stick with the charred marshmallows on it Chase did his thing.

He took a plain cracker in one hand for the top and the other held a cracker-chocolate prepped bottom and he scooped a roasted marshmallow for each s'more and passed them off to Sky to do the honors of passing them on. "So what you're saying Riker is what? Cause you just don't seem to be being too clear." Chase said sarcastically and raising his eyes from the task at hand he laughed.