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Cody and his men arrived just as Doc was kneeling over a prone man surrounded by brass dogs. He frowned and signaled for his men to be careful.

"Uh, Doc? You alright there?" He wasn't sure what had happened, but the man had survived taking on what had to be part of an army.

Back where Jack was, the mechanic turned and flinched, grabbing for a gun but not drawing it. "Ah, yes, Cody Wesson? He headed that way with everyone else. I'm just trying to get this rust bucket to run. It'll make a decent ally until it runs out of ammo." The mechanic turned back to his work, fixing the car until it could run and shoot. "There. Done. Let's go catch up to Wesson."

54 floors it into drive, leaving the mechanic holding on for dear life if they were still holding onto her as she easily surpassed 245mph to find Cody.

Jack notices the car speeding off and snorts.

"That guy drives worse than I do after an evening at the Regalia. Speaking of booze, ya got any bars around here that I could 'convert' for the war effort? What about restaurants? I'm awful hungry, you know."

His mind has completely disconnected from the battle by now, and in fact, he probably doesn't even remember that he's carrying a PPSH in his right hand at this moment. Still, once he gets some food in his gullet and a few after-lunch drinks to wash it down with, he'll be ready to go.

"Oh, I'm fine, just having some fun.. " (EDIT: Also too violent)

The mechanic did not in fact hold onto the car. He threw himself free as soon as he heard the RPMs race and watched as the car careened down the road. "Thank god I wasn't under it when it did that," he muttered. "And yes, there are several bars--most abandoned because of the earlier gun fight. There's one just over there." He pointed to one called "The Cavalier".

Cody just stared in horror at Doc. He looked like he was going to be sick. "If I'd known what you were about, I would have taken longer...or shot the poor guy myself. I guess you got the front line held down?" He motioned for his men to clear the area, and they did so promptly--the occasional shot ringing out as they took care of lingering threats.

54 slams on her brakes near Cody, horn blaring.

Doc just smirked at Cody, before his face became softer, and he looked around a bit. "Oh, hi!" He looked over at the body, then the blood on his skin and hands. "Oh... No.. Doc took over after I blacked out didn't he?" He whispered. It seemed Thad had a multi-personality disorder of some sort.

Jack cringes at the mechanic's phrase, but manages to get himself under control soon after. He rushes off to find this Cavalier. Soon, he's inside and finds the place deserted. Lucky him.

"Now everything's jake," he commented to the empty room.

He began pulling bottles off shelves and taking a few sips from each of them. There's not much in the way of food, but Jack has no problem with skipping straight through lunch to the after-lunch drinks. Just make these aperitifs instead of digestifs, and everything's jake.

He would have been more shocked if he hadn't been nearly run over by the car. He jumped and turned, aiming his shotgun at the car his mechanic had fixed. Then lowered the gun when he realized it wasn't actually going to run him over.

Right. Cody ran a hand through his hair, turning to stare at the man covered in blood. "You're...what, who are you? You don't remember doing any of that? Dismembering that guy's hand or anything?" He shuddered at the memory and then shook his head to clear his thoughts. "Lets get back to the warehouse. We can talk better there."

The mechanic and his squad caught up to Cody. "Uh, actually sir, the other guy went to The Cavalier. Shall we meet up with him there? Food might be nice."

Cody sighed. "Sure, food would be good."

Thad frowned. "I'm sorry you had to see that. I'm schizophrenic, actually.. I just.. Well, sometimes when I black out after using my powers, Doc comes out. He's a sadistic madman who literally slices into his enemies. God..." He shook his head, plopping down onto a table. He slipped off his goggles, revealing a young face covered slightly in soot, and tears streaming down slightly. He was convinced that he was a horrible person, but it wasn't him that did it, technically, but that psychotic side of him come to be known as Doc...

54 gruffs. ''Violence is fun, it's your fault I was thrown into a post!'' She hissed at Thad, though still covered in dents and scrapes.

Jack was pretty smashed by the time that Cody's men pulled him out of the puddle of vermouth he had passed out earlier. Of course, a smashed Jack is the same as a sober Jack, except the former is even less predictable than the latter. He stumbled up to his feet and aimed the PPSH at the group for a second before shrugging and walking off to find something to eat. He had been in a hurry before and had missed the kitchen in the back; there was enough food to feed a group of twenty sparsely. Jack grabbed a package of bread and ripped it open.

"Who wants sandwiches?"

Cody entered the bar to find Jack drunkenly waving around a loaf of bread and some of his guys trying to keep him from doing anything stupid with his weapons. "Fan-tastic. Between soldiers outside the immediate town and drunken armed forces inside...we'll be lucky to stay alive." He headed into the kitchen to start finding more likely sources of food. Not that sandwiches were bad, but he preferred cooked items.

"Uh, Doc? OR do you have a different name now, do you want anything in particular?" Cody started the stove up and grinned. Everything was working still. "Also--quit drinking the alcohol. We need that for Molotov cocktails."

"I don't want anything." He murmured."Uh.. Yeah.. The real me, this me, I'm Thaddeus... But most people call me Thad. I'm.. An inventor. Those dogs, the mechanical ones, are called ALPHAs. Automatic Leading Pack for Horrible Attacks.. Basically made to rip everything apart that was an enemy. I only have five so far. My other inventions are the Steam Cannon, these lovely little armblades, and what I call steam arachnids. They're also for attacks. They work in stealth, however, injecting a neurotoxin through two very small hypodermic needles located right under the sensory devices, i.e, fangs, like real spiders. " He took a small brass device from his coat pocket, setting it on a table. It shifted a moment before spreading out into legs and a spiderlike body, skittering around a bit to take in its surroundings. "Don't worry. It has a targeting system.. It won't attack what I don't want it to."

54 grumbled, her blue eyes scanning her surroundings. Her right door was ajar, showing everyone she had no driver.

Maybe Jack had overestimated his cooking abilities, because nobody wanted sandwiches. Oh well. Still, he was drunk and tired, so he grabbed one of Cody's men and dragged him back to the bar.

"Listen, mac: I have a whole building fulla guns near here, but I booby-trapped the place! You're gonna need to take this route," he said as he began to draw a map with a pencil.

Meanwhile, everyone else heard:

"Lissmc, I've awlblgflza guneer. Blpbtrdplc, yer go'net tagisruut," Jack slurred as he scribbled all over a nearby cocktail napkin. Then he passed out.

"Well, Thad," Cody's eyes never left the spidery object, "I think you and I could do a lot of good damage if we should put our minds to it. How many of these arachnids do you have?"

Cody's man who'd been taken aside blanched at Jack's breath reeking of alcohol, and then looked down at the napkin. "Maybe you should just sleep on it," he suggested, and then grinned when the guy passed out. "Problem solved. Yo Cody, when are we renewing our supplies?"

Cody looked over at his men and then to the passed out Jack and then to Thad. "Well, we should keep an eye out until it gets dark--then move after sunset."

"I have three-thousand, a hundred currently with me." He answered, allowing the spider to climb up onto his hand. He then leaned down to it, muttering some words before it clumped up into a ball of brass again. He put it into his pocket. "I could do quite a lot of damage, but... Doc can do more. I can allow him control, and he won't hurt anyone but the enemy, but.. If he tries to torture something or someone, just don't get in his way. Once he has his fun he'll be done with it, and he is always sure to do it at the end. If you don't want him to waste time doing that just be sure to kill the last soldier before he can get to him. Otherwise, you should be fine. If you can get me some very small, empty oxygen canisters, a pump, and two copper tubes, I can make some steam guns. They can be an addition to my armblades or they can be handheld, used for close combat to discombobulate the enemy via boiling steam thrust into the face and eyes. Quite useful."

''All my guns are out of ammo.'' 54 hissed. ''I'm only joining you guys because I don't have anywhere else to go. I don't think any of you are listening to me, however...'' She mumbled, sliding her battered machine guns out. They had no ammo, but still shiny. Old, but still usable.

Cody whistled, impressed. "Alright, Thad, I'll get you your steam cannons." He cast a quick look over at Jack to see him passed out and shook his head. Well, everyone dealt with war in their own way, he supposed. He just preferred to be armed and ready to go down shooting, rather than passed out cold. He ordered two men to go find Thad's supplies--and they returned quickly with what he needed.

Then that left the car... Right. A talking car. Cody eyed it distrustingly for a moment. "Since you proved yourself so readily in the first round, we would be willing to share our ammunitions with you. So long as you don't kill my guys, we'll be okay. And as long as you don't burn through too much ammo too fast, we should be fine." Cody checked his watch and then glanced outside. The sun was beginning to set.

"Not long now before dark. You guys got everything you need?"