jigglesworth
Some words you just read.
Price couldn't find anything new, despite all of his looking. He did, however, hear the kidnapper talking about his motives. Making the world lazy. It was about then John realized it was high time to quit attempting to find any kind of seriousness in this universe. In response to Robbie's motives, some people started exercising, and he could hear them from inside his unnecessary ice fort. The sounds of people being not lazy, exercising and dancing to... K-Pop? began driving him crazy. They threatened to turn his lair into a makeshift gym, unless he talked.
Which he did, at this point unsurprisingly. John was halfway impressed and the rest of the way dealing with a headache. Robbie explained he got on with a ticket, being tasked by some doctor with eyeliner to stop the train in exchange for all the sweets he could ever want. He doesn't know the name of this doctor, but that he has "powerful friends," which fits the bill of ol' Ganondorf. Although this doctor didn't seem to like the madman, not liking Ganondorf doesn't mean he isn't working with him. Begrudging allies are a thing, and he could be working for his own benefit. Then again, with the multiverse in shambles, it's likely there are more players rising to power amidst the chaos, as Jason explained. Whoever he works for, either way, is going to cause a lot of trouble for the MPF remnants.
Yang lost her cool, and started taking her anger out on Robbie. She lunged for him, holding him up by his neck. Price moved to intervene, but Jason and others quickly shut that down and backed her off. Robbie, however, fell to the floor, unconscious. "Shit," John said simply. Well, looks like they aren't getting any more information out of him. Whether or not he had anything else is up in the air, but it doesn't matter now.
After a few moments, the group began heading back up the pipe, to meet Pennington at the time. He hadn't messed everything up, which was a pleasant surprise. The train had entered a new location as they were dealing with Robbie, and what they were met with outside the window was... not what Price expected out of this world. A sprawling city unfolded before them, fit with skyscrapers and thick traffic. "Impressive." Considering he's only seen a penguin and toads, this IS impressive for them to have built, even if London looks better. Its name, New Donk City, immediately tanks most of the wonder upon seeing it, though. The train came to a halt, and the doors opened to let everyone out.
Price, after collecting his things from his room, walked out with the others, standing on the platform, turning back to meet Pennington's gaze. John would be lying if he said he wasn't relieved to hear this wasn't the penguin's stop, but hearing him say he thought they were needed in this city isn't exactly comforting, either. "Take care of yourself, mate," John met his wave. "Maybe lay off the investi-" he cut himself off, as the doors closed before he could finish his sentence. "Never mind." In truth, he wasn't all that bad, compared to the lack of teamwork, synergy, and sense of competence of the MPF hires. Things really are desperate.
The Captain turned back around with the others, coming to face the large city before them. As everyone started out to the city, Price couldn't shake the faint feeling of dread. If they were here... something is going to go wrong. People are going to get hurt. With all these civilians around, the possible casualties are worrying. He doesn't know what it will be, or even if they can stop it. If he wasn't used to this anxiety, it would already be eating him up inside. For now, all they can do is wait, get familiar with the city, and save it, or what's left of it, if need be.
"You should see London," he said to the Greek, addressing her awe. Well, London on a good day, anyhow. And maybe not meet any other Brits, either, none off the streets. Ciri suggested sticking together, to which John nodded. "Best idea, especially for a city."
Price turned to the fiery-haired kid as he explained his outbursts, in that they weren't actually him. As John understood it, an entity lives inside him that gives him his magical abilities, sans the rune magic, probably. Using the abilities from this entity of fire, which is hellbent on the destruction of everything, gives it more power over the kid, ending up, eventually, in periods where it takes complete control of him. Once upon a time, John's reaction would be to try and contain the kid, stop him from using his powers somehow. It would be a risk. But now? The kid doesn't want to hurt anybody. Hell, he gave them permission to knock him out without remorse if he gets taken over. It isn't his fault, and he has to contribute some way. Others took it well, reassuring the kid.
John put his hand on his shoulder, giving it a pat. "We know now, though, aye?" he gave him a warm smile. "I don't know if I can knock you out without getting my ass burnt to hell, but I know the others can," particularly Kassandra, who can apparently take a few seconds of a mini-gun without injury, as seen in Blood Gulch. "Don't worry about it, mate, we've got you."
He then walked off after Ciri, nodding to her comments, then deciding to add some of his own. "You can always get a map in these cities, if we need one. We can also hire a cab, take a subway, if we don't want to walk everywhere. As for work, it might be different in the cities Ciri's gone to, but finding mercenary work in a modern city, outside of private military or guard work, is... not likely, in my experience." Not the legal kind, anyway. "Granted, this place is far from what I'm used to, so we might be able to pick up a shift guarding a bank, or even find a private company looking to hire us on a one-off job." Granted, those were from the top of his head, fitting the bill of a "mercenary." If the others had ideas, he was surely open to hearing them.
Remembering the other part of Kassandra's comment, he added, "Or some bloke needs errands run, yeah, this place seems... weird enough for that."
