Around the Unnamed City | Day

[apocalypsehow]

Five had not hit a wall. Five had simply spent hours upon hours observing a prosthetics company and one particular person therein.

Which was why he was doing the perfectly sane, rational thing and... ambushing Grant in his car. With a knife in hand. Well, it was in his hand and also pressed against Grant's throat.

"One chance. You've got one chance to tell me what's going on in that lab."

Lance	It was Lance! His name was Lance! But, you know what, he was going to answer to whatever this psychotic pre-teen was asking right now. "I manufacture prosthetic devices for fake patients. I bill the insurance companies and then sell them for cash on the black market," he said, hands up and all in one almost too fast jumble.
Five	"Including eyeballs?" Five asked.
Lance	"Yeah, they're my biggest sellers," Lance-Not-Grant said, nodding minutely. "They sell like hotcakes. I've got a waiting list, like, twenty buyers long."
Five	Oh, Five was gonna stab a bitch. "So the serial number I told you..."
Lance	"Uh, could have already been bought, yeah," Lance mumbled before jerking back as the knife pressed harder against his throat. "Yes! Off--off the books!"
Five	"I needed that list, Lance." Oh look at him getting your name right! It was because he was being serious here. "Names and numbers, I need it now."
Lance	"I don't have it." Oh, that was a bad choice as the knife dug in again. "I mean--I mean, it's not on me. The only copy is in my safe at the lab." Which, admittedly, was kinda dumb for an off the books thing that was technically stealing from his company.
Five	"Well you start the car then," Five said, teleporting to sit next to the man rather than behind him. "'Cause we're going on a field trip." And he would stab a bitch if anything was out of the ordinary.

Five

You know, such as coming back to the very familiar building and finding it not just on fire, but completely ablaze. Which was... less than ideal. And also caused Five to completely forget about Lance's entire presence as he teleported out of the car to watch his only chance at figuring out how to stop the future literally went up in smoke.

Luther	The Unnamed City wasn't actually all that big, and there weren't too many places for someone to hide. The library actually came up as a place to search pretty early on, since the Internet wasn't really a thing in this universe and people had to look at books if they wanted to research anything. Luther had searched the first floor and met Diego at the elevators so they could check the second. "Anything?"
Diego	Diego shook his head, pressing the button for the elevator. Since they had a moment, he took the chance to tell Luther what he had been dying to since the fight at the house this morning. "Do you want to know why I left?"
Luther	"What are you talking about?" Luther asked.
Diego	"Why I left the academy." To be fair, he had also left town, but he didn't think Luther cared about that much about all that.
Luther	Luther shrugged. "Because you couldn't handle me being Number One."
Diego	Diego pursed his lips together because, no, that hadn't been the reason. Even though it did bother him immensely still. "No. Because that's what you do when you're 17," he said. "You move out, become your own person, grow up."
Luther	Luther snorted, which was covered up by the dinging of the elevator as it arrived. "Oh yeah, you're real grown up." Didn't your girlfriend have to physically stop you from stabbing someone at a funeral?
Diego	"At least I make my own decisions." Even if they were stupid. "You've never had to hold down a job, pay bills...have you ever even been with a girl?"
Luther	Luther's face reddened and he suddenly became very focused on making sure that they were going to the right floor. In a two story building. "I don't know what you're talking about."
Diego	"Look, you wanna blame me, blame us, for leaving, that's okay," he said. "But maybe you're asking yourself the wrong question. Maybe it's not about why we left. Maybe it's about why you stayed." And people said he needed therapy, pfft, look at how in touch with everyone's emotions he was right now.
Luther	Luther frowned. "I stayed because the world needed me."
Diego	"You stayed because you couldn't let go of the way things used to be. The Academy. Dad. With Allison." Oh yeah, he went there. "Dad's dead, and now Mom is too. We're orphans again, dude. And things are never going back to the way they used to be." The elevator doors opened and two disgusted looking women were waiting to get on. The one shook her head. "I'm calling security."
Luther	Luther gave the women a polite nod and stepped off the elevator, turning towards where they had come from. He suddenly could see why they were disgusted. After all, a child passed out in the corner with a bottle and a mannequin wasn't really great. "Is he...?"
Diego	Diego sighed. Just fucking great, Five. "Drunk as a skunk."
Luther	They had managed to get Five (and Dolores) out of the library before security needed to be called. Luther was carrying both of them since Diego refused to touch Dolores. Which was really rude on so many levels. "We can't go back to the house, it's not secure," Luther said, making a face at how much Five reeked of alcohol. "Those psychopaths could come back at any moment."
Diego	"My old place is closer. No one will look for him there." Diego really doubted that Al had rented the place out to someone else since he had moved out. There were few people willing to live in the storage area of a gym.
Luther	Luther nodded, shifting Five and Dolores in his arms a bit. "If you vomit on me..."
Five	"You know what's funny?" Five said, slurring his words together and barely able to move his head more than necessary to not be mashed into Luther's big, dumb arm. "I'm going through puberty twice. And I... I drank that whole bottle, didn't I? That's what you do when the world you love goes bye-bye. Poof! It's gone." Didn't you two enjoy your younger-older-same-age-as-you brother's drunk rambling? "What are you guys talking about?"
Luther	Luther sighed. "Two masked intruders attacked the Academy last night."
Diego	"They came looking for you," Diego said, turning to look at Five's drunk ass. "So I need you to focus. What did they want?"
Five	"Hazel and Cha Cha," Five sighed, immediately knowing who they were talking about. Because of course he did.
Diego	That just sounded made up. "Who?"
Luther	"You know I hate codenames." Because Spaceboy was so fucking lame.
Five	Yeah, none of them save for maybe Allison had good codenames. "The best of the best," he slurred. "Except for me, of course."
Luther	"The best of what?" Don't make him drop you, you little shit.
Five	He didn't need to explain shit to you! "You know Dolores always said she hated it when I drank," Five told Luther and then Diego with a complete lack of focus in his eyes. "Should've made me a Shirley--" Something something. What was he saying?
Diego	"Hey!" Diego snapped. "I need you to focus. What do this Hazel and Cha Cha want? We just want to protect you."
Five	"I don't need your protection, Diego," Five said with a long sigh. Remember that time at the other donut shop? "Do you have any idea of how many people I've killed? I'm the four frickin' Horsemen. And the apocalypse is coming." That would have been very serious and scary had he not immediately puked after it.
Luther	Yeah, Luther could guess that was going to happen. Do you know how hard it was to get shoes for ape sized feet, Five? He did end up getting to shove Dolores at Diego because he had been puked on. Luther wasn't as gentle as he could have been placing Five on the bed when they got to Diego's old place, but whatever.
Diego	Diego unceremoniously tossed Dolores aside in a chair and sidled up next to Luther to look at Five. "Funny. If I didn't know he was such a prick I'd say he looks almost adorable in his sleep."
Luther	"Well, don't worry," Luther said. "He'll sober up and be back to his normal, unpleasant, self."
Diego	"Yeah I can't wait that long," Diego said. "I need to find out his connection with these lunatics before someone else dies."
Luther	"All that stuff, he was saying before...what do you think he meant by that?" Luther asked.
Diego	Diego held up a hand as he heard footsteps approaching. He pulled out a knife and prepared to throw it-- Then Al's voice came bellowing through the doorway. "You throw another one of those goddamn knives at me, and I'm pressing charges." "What do you want, Al?" Diego asked, like Al wasn't doing him a favor by letting him use this place again. "I ain't your secretary. Some lady called for you and said she needs your help," Al said. "Some detective. She said she needs to meet you at that dumpy motel on Calhoun. Said she found your brother." Diego frowned, and looked over at Five. "That doesn't make any sense."
Luther	Luther and Diego came up with the answer at the same time. "Klaus." "You go," Luther said, even though Diego was already halfway out of the room. "I'll stay here with him."

[NFI, NFB but OOC is good. Preplayed with knife_bender. Taken from 1x04 "Man on the Moon"]