A Moving Day Christmas (IC)

[Quinn]

"I can't animate brooms yet, but I'm working on it."

Push winced under his scarf at that comment, extending his hand and bringing out a large dumpster from the alley. He began lifting the debris into it, dumping the junk rather unceremoniously inside.

"You might want to rethink that. I saw that movie and the remake, and if I've learned one thing from it, it's that dancing brooms never end well."

His tone was light and conversational, and the scattered junk around the exterior was slowly reduced as their efforts continued. Suddenly, with a loud creak and a spark, the garage door shot upwards, to a fully open position. Unfortunately, it was with a great deal of squeaking and grinding.

[Raveled]

Jessica jumped to her armored feet, punching the air. "Yes! That is how it's done, gentlemen." She gave a mock bow and collected her tools in one hand; even to Push, they looked like nothing so much as a set of lockpicks, all long pieces of variously-bent metal. They slotted neatly into her gauntlets though, and it was impossible to pretend that she hadn't fixed the motor with them. "Gonna have to keep things well-greased, though, or the chains are gonna break regardless." She walked back outside and smooched Blake on the cheek. "Let's see if there's some regular mops and brooms inside, hm?"

[Dr Archeville]

"Guess that leaves th' mechanics' pit fer me an' Mutt here," the multi-layered Zombie said, patting the space beside him. "C'mon, boy, let's git down there."

A large, panting mastiff faded into view. "Ruff?"

"Yeah, I'm sure it'll be rough in there, boy. Probably lots'a debris an' junk an' whatnot." He looked up at Push and the others, "give us a chance t'clear any jagged metal bits an' rusty nails away 'fore y'all come down. Don't need any'a y'all gettin' lockjaw!"

Ain't pickin' up no bad juju here, no restless spirits here, so that's good. 'Course, since Papa Ghede left me, mah own mojo's been lots weaker, my senses dulled, so there could be somethin' here I'm missin'. Eh, I'm sure if there is anythin', it'll pop up soon enough.

[Flare Knight]

With the tree in one hand and knowing it had to get down below, Powerhouse thought for a second as the Zombie-Man told the group to wait. He looked at the tree, then down one of the holes in the floor, then shrugged. "Alright Mr. Dead Head, but do watch your head, and by that, I mean, please do watch out, because I'm about to drop this tree." he said, waiting in case the zombie man had to move out of the way, before pushing the tree through one of the holes, sending it to the basement. "and there" He finished, looking down. "I can come help with the glass if you want? I can't remember the last time I was cut by glass, actually."

[Lone Star]

Jessica jumped to her armored feet, punching the air. "Yes! That is how it's done, gentlemen." She gave a mock bow and collected her tools in one hand; even to Push, they looked like nothing so much as a set of lockpicks, all long pieces of variously-bent metal. They slotted neatly into her gauntlets though, and it was impossible to pretend that she hadn't fixed the motor with them. "Gonna have to keep things well-greased, though, or the chains are gonna break regardless." She walked back outside and smooched Blake on the cheek. "Let's see if there's some regular mops and brooms inside, hm?"

Blake blushed and grabbed her waist, pulling her into a brief but loving kiss. He put an arm around her mecha-gauntlet and walked inside the garage. "Where are we going to find regular mops and brooms in here?" He started shifting stuff around with his telekinesis ring, and sighed. "This will be quite an effort. But it will be worth it for the chili. For the chili!" Blake said to no one in particular as he started excavating.

[Quinn]

Push finished dumping the junk into the dumpster, lifting it back into the alley and dusting off his hands. Turning to the door, he watched as Blake walked inside, followed by the "For the chili!" battlecry, and smiled. Turning, he walked over and poked his head in, pointing at the office.

"I think there's a broom closet in there, if any brooms or mops are around, they'd be in there!"

Grinning at the two, he then looked up at the hole in the roof, rubbing the back of his head.

"Now...time to get that one sealed up."

Walking over, he used what little kinetics he could to heft a pack of two-by-fours, picking up a hammer and nails in one hand, and floated the whole lot and himself up through the hole to the roof.

[Dr Archeville]

Before long, Dead Head -- now stripped of his multiple winter layers and down to old jeans and a stained t-shirt -- had cleared the mechanic's pit of the larger pieces of debris, and ran a broom around most of it to clear most of the floor.

"There's still some work t'be done," he called up, "but 'least y'all can come down here without riskin' lockjaw!"

Mutt entertained himself by chasing a rat around the pit.

"Wonder what happened to the folks who used t'run this place," he mused. "Place's been abandoned fer some time, but why? Did they move out all of a sudden? Run outta town fer shady business practices? Or did they pass on, an' no one wanted the place? I'll have t'ask Push; if he don't know, I can some diggin' on m'own."

[Raveled]

Jessica found a push broom and started working on the mess. She tried to keep her mind busy, but it didn't take her long to mentally section the shop floor, time herself on cleaning one section, and multiple the time out. It wasn't a small number, and that was just for sweeping the floor! There were still plenty of surfaces the scrub down, regrease, or as Push was demonstrating even rebuild. At this rate it would take them hours to finish, and she wasn't prepared to wait that long for chili. She set aside her broom with a muttered word and started collecting the materials she would need; a spare steel drum, a pair of creepers, and a grab-bad of machine parts. The young genius cleared herself a spot in one corner and went to work.

[Lone Star]

Blake watched his girlfriend work. He walked into the main office, and found a few very good brooms and mops. Blake concentrated for a moment, trying to summon the magic needed for the spell. A flash of light- and the brooms and mops were walking on their own.

"I did it! Woooo!" he shouted in victory. While the brooms and mops helped Jessica, Blake moved the larger pieces of junk with his telekinesis ring.

[Quinn]

Quinn merrily worked away up top, and he'd nearly finished nailing in the last board when he noted the dancing brooms on the ground floor. And he promptly whacked his thumb with the hammer. In between the curses he actually laughed, poking his head through the roof to look at...Warlock, was it?

"Oi, Mickey Mouse! What did I tell you about dancing brooms?!"

[Raveled]

Jessica put the final touches on her cleaning robot and hit the activation button (a big red one that she had fabricated from a plastic jerry can) stepping well back as her creation shuddered to life. It propelled itself forward on two centrally mounted wheels, held off the ground by castors at each corner. Its cylindrical body sprouted a number of thin arms, each ending in some cleaning agent. It stopped in front of a grease stain an extended a webcam on another arm to study the discoloration on the floor. The robot tried several solvents, but when they were ineffective it extended a special pad, marked by three wavy lines. It pressed the pad against the grease and it sank into the concrete a centimeter or two. When the robot pulled the pad back the depression was smoking slightly and glassy smooth.

Jessica beamed as the robot moved on to a rust-red stain on the wall. "Merry Christmas," she called up to Push. "The Jetsons didn't have a cleaning robot with a plasma burner, now did they?"

[Lone Star]

Blake eeped. "Jessica! You might want to...you know what? That works. Nevermind. Carry on!" He quickly hopped over to her and pecked her on the cheek, followed by turning to his army of brooms and mops. "Dance, my pretties, dance! E-he-he-he-he-he!"

[Quinn]

Push just facepalmed, and he returned to whacking at the boards with a will. Before long, the main garage was looking close to pristine (although the divots in the walls and floor had the kineticist crying inside for a brief period before he noted the rather menacing look of the robot), and the hole in the ceiling had been fairly roughly boarded up. He walked through the front door after sliding off the roof and thumbed at the closed-up hole.

"Eh, it's a quick patch job, but it'll do until I can afford some proper roofers."

He walked over and poked his head down one of the rectangular holes to the mechanic's pit, looking about until he spotted Dead Head.

"Yo, need a hand down there?"

[Dr Archeville]

"Nah, got it mostly cleared," the revenant called up, "an' I got some piles'a junk that'll need haulin' out. Say, ya know who used t'own this place? Why they left it? The location don't seem that bad..."

Push could see several large garbage bags filled with... something. Most looked filled with solid bits, metal and whatnot, but one looked decidedly squishier. Mercifully, it was not leaking.

Then Push noticed Dead Head's hands were a dark rainbow of colors. The zombie noticed Push's noticing, and looked down himself. "Ah, yeah, lots'a gunk, what I couldn't get by hand I had to use my shovel on, then scrape it off the shovel's blade. Uh...," he looked up at his host, "ya mind liftin' me up outta here? Kinda defeats the purpose of all mah work if'n I get the rungs'a the ladder messed up on mah way out."