FLASHBACK - Port Out, Starboard Home (Artie)

Barbara could hear Mystique yelling something, but with how her heart was pounding as she she walked towards the armed men, she wasn’t truly paying attention. It wasn’t until she stopped and saw just how tall and large these men were that a small voice in the back of her head said that this was a mistake. Of course, she couldn’t turn tail and run now. That was the last thing you did when facing a predator. They always took advantage of you once your back was turned. Besides, this man was something like a villain out of an Edgar Rice Burroughs adventure novel. Thorston? Barbara’s mind ran through every name she knew, trying to see if this one was familiar. Despite him being armed and down right disgusting when it came to manners, if she knew this man even a little, perhaps they could come to terms and no one would get hurt.

She heard the whip strikes instead of actually seeing them, and before she knew what had hit the man, Thorston was prone on the ground, red welts and bits of blood covering his face. She hadn’t been aware that Uncle Rothchild had followed her. Even at his age, he was incredibly quiet when he wanted to be. Barbara was stunned as she watched him pick up the discarded rifle and aim it with every ounce of deadly seriousness he had in his body at the remaining men. His voice matched his stance and that tone was one that she had only heard once before when she was a child. There was no arguing now when he was like this; no time for it whatsoever.

“Yes, sir,” was all Barbara said before racing back to their car. Those two words were filled with absolute obedience, no questioning or hesitation was allowed in her mind. He was the Brigadier now, not the bumbling and lovable Uncle Roffs. He meant business when it came to protecting those he loved. Hopping into the car, Barbara started the engine before buckling up and looking back at her friends. “Car is ready, sir!” she yelled to Rothchild, hoping that would prompt everyone to move as well.

Artie backed up slowly, as ordered and motioned by Mystique, toward the car, taking the back seat and keeping his pistol trained on the group of men, depending which one moved. He said not a word when Mystique took one of his pistols. She was fiery, he liked that, it didn't come as much of a surprise...he maybe even liked it considering the smirk he wore on the side of his face that had lips.
As for Rothchild, he took a similar cue. No sense in arguing who got into the car and who kept these ruffians at bay, after all.
The men in the offending vehicle behind the car were flabbergasted, all mouths agape in horror and wonder.
This...blue woman...what was this? A monster?
Had to be.

"What the...bloody 'ell..." Thorston stammered, still in pain as he tried to stand, helped by his comrades, "...kinda people you throwin' in with, Reggie...?"
"A far better class than yours, I assure you." Rothchild retorted as he started the car and backed it up to Mystique's side, "Let's be off! Five minutes or not, they shan't be quick to catch us! Not in this."
He chortled, but not in his usual joviality, but more in a coy satisfaction.
"I'm curious myself, Mr. Rothchild," Artie agreed when Mystique inquired what was in the car.
Rothchild cleared his throat and didn't blink, looking up at the sun as it beat down on the roofless car.
"Well...that's perhaps a story for another time, what?" he said.
As soon as Mystique had entered, the petal was to the metal as they say, and the car was off along the cracked earth and mixture of sand. Rothchild grinned. THIS was a merry chase indeed. Or would be. He felt alive, reinvigorated!
A proper adventure again at last.
And with his little Barbs here too? AND Mystique?
He had a feeling he had few adventurous runs left, but this...just may be the perfect one.

Mystique simply smirked at the looks she got from Thorston and his men. There were very few times she truly felt proud to be in her own skin, and this was thankfully one of those times. As far as those men knew, she was a demon. They would give them the five minutes, she was almost sure. Men like that didn't like dealing with the unknown, and she was certainly that.
When the car took off, she grinned and leaned up to kiss Rothchild's cheek. "Another great adventure, eh?"

When she reclined in the back seat and looked behind them, the question nagged at the back of her head. "So .... Reggie...?" More of a question than an endearment. After all, she had noticed that Thorston referred to him as such, and that took her by surprise. She had only rarely heard him called Reggie, and it wasn't by people like that.
"Why save the story for another day? What are those men after?"
It had to be something valuable. Probably in the trunk or she would have seen it by now. And it wasn't even so much the question that they were going to be shot at any moment over whatever it was. She was just curious about what sort of adventure he had gotten himself into this time. What had she missed in the years since she left him?

Oh now there was a thought that didn't quite sit right with her. Reminding herself that she left Rothchild was likely the worst idea she'd had lately, and that included helping talk Artie into coming to Greece to surprise Barbara in the first place. The residual emotions she still felt started to bubble up, and it was all she could do to keep in her seat where she was while he was driving.
She slid her hand into Artie's and squeezed it lightly, just to reassure herself that she was okay.
She glanced behind them nervously, keeping her eye out for any rising dust that might signify someone chasing them.
"I mean, after all, you hardly seem like you've slowed down at all since last we met!" She put on a brighter, more jovial voice to cover the emotions that threatened to break through the wall she'd erected around her heart. "What is your secret? You have to tell me!"

Rothschild’s words hurt, in both a good and a bad way. She hadn’t needed him just now, he just happened to show up. But when she was younger, after her father had told her he was no longer coming around, ‘Little Barbs’ spent days hoping and praying that he would come back. She had cried all the first day, locking herself up in his study and sitting in that grand, overstuffed chair of his. She wanted him right then and there, but no matter how hard she scrunched face and repeated her mantra of ‘I need Uncle Roffs to come back’, he simply didn’t appear. She didn’t see him again until her mother’s funeral, about fifteen years later. She didn’t have the slightest idea how he found out. Barbara had placed the obituary in the paper, but it hadn’t garnered anything more that regional notification. Yet, despite that, there he was, standing quietly at the back of the room when she looked. He was a rock for her to cry on as the casket was lowered and never once did he try to stop her tears from falling. He let her have her fill of emotions while keeping her father standing a good distance away.

Although she was lost in memories, Barbara was jolted back to the present when she heard what their cargo was. “BLOOD DIAMONDS?!” she yelled, mirroring Artie’s shock as she whipped her head around to look at her uncle. Shock was clear on her face, and if she had calmed down enough that her eyes were beginning to become normal once more, that news brought them right back to being a cat. “Do not call my great uncle an old codger, Arthur Cade!” she yelled, turning and glaring at him. That bit of anger done with, Barbara once again looked at her uncle. Not even she was mad enough to deal in blood diamonds, even if it was for such a cause. Those smugglers… they wouldn’t stop until they got their inventory back, and even if they did, they might have to set an example in order to maintain their reputation. That meant that this situation was now undeniably one of life and death, and the realization that what she had done back there, trying to talk them out of violence, was perhaps the most stupidest thing she had done in a long while. “Oh god…”

Ducking down to avoid being shot, Barbara looked worryingly over at her uncle. “What can we do? Can we lose them? Do you have other connections on Crete?” Unfortunately, any contacts Barbara had on the island were currently offshore. She made it a habit to avoid them, and vice versa, when she was on legitimate archeological digs.

Artie shrank back visibly when Barbara rounded on him. He hadn't meant anything by it but still...he shouldn't nudge too hard at the old...gentleman, he supposed. After all, he was getting them into this but also getting them out at present so there really was little to ultimately complain about. Besides, it felt like the old days back in New York. It was...actually rather exciting. He turned back to keep his pistol trained on the pursuers, with nothing further to add.

"Connections?" Rothchild chortled as he drove on, continuing to look behind him at the oncoming vehicle, "Nonsense, there's so much less adventure to be had if you keep a safety net about, what!"
With that fruit filled laugh he always had, he made a sharp turn toward a nearby set of ruins.
They'd be daft to follow them there. Narrower passages seemed to line the labyrinthine area. Barbara wouldn't be pleased, given the history of it, but needs had to be met. And if Rothchild had retained nothing in his older years it was still his ability to drive like a cartoon character.
Artie looked up at Mystique as she shifted into the visage and voice of Rothchild, his eyes widening...he occasionally forgot that her powers ran to those abilities. Then she kissed Rothchild. Hard. He found this both...a little disgusting but mostly just a strange moment of passion that in any other circumstance he might have been on the receiving end of. Even so, this was hardly the time to worry about that. Taking up his second pistol that Mystique had left, he nodded as she went and covered her. It was a more than spectacular move and....really worked.

As the car drove through the ruins and columns, Rothchild turned to Barbara and Artie.
"Now here's where it gets tricky," he said as he unlatched the passenger door and slung his belt around the clutch and the wheel, locking it on course and latching down the pedal, "Artie, fetch the diamonds out of the boot. We've got to lure them out and take them one by one. Raven and I have done this a dozen times. They'll honor their trajectory and they're likely to have more gasoline and supplies than we do here, what."
Artie nodded and reached into the trunk of the car, struggling to pull out a fairly sizeable, heavy steel box latched tight. Rothchild looked at Barbara and smiles for a moment.
"...none I'd rather be on such a chase with." he laughed as the car drive onward out of the ruins.
Quick as a flash, he unlatched dove onto Barbara. He was a slight man in his older age, but strong. He dove onto the ground, cushioning her with himself as he rolled.

Artie followed suit out the opposite side, scrambling with his back to the ruined wall. There wasn't much time. He limped up the crumbled stairs quick as he could and stood on a higher ground, aiming his pistol in his free hand at the pursuers. Sure enough, one by one he took one after the other out, careful of Mystique.
Rothchild meanwhile, helped Barbara to her feet and shielded her against the opposite wall out of sight.

Mystique watched Rothchild fiddling with the car, and she immediately knew what to do. She sped up the truck and kept her eyes on the three of them, holding her breath as they abandoned the car.
Then there were gunshots. Artie was helping to take out a few of the men that threatened to get into the cab of the truck. Thorston, who hadn't seen Artie grab the box from the trunk, flung open the passenger door and aimed a pistol at her.
"Reggie! Y' just don't know when t' quit, do ya?"
Mystique feigned a look of surprise and slowly raised her hands off the steering wheel. She looked over at Thorston and sputtered.
"Well. Looks like this is my stop, old man." She slid a hand behind her and opened the door, scrambling out and landing gracefully in the dust.

Thorston seemed to take the wheel, and Mystique dusted herself off, shifting back into herself. She allowed herself a smirk and started running back to where the others had landed.
She immediately checked on Artie, since Barbara was guarding Rothchild.
"Are you alright?" she asked, patting him down and looking for any sore spots where bruises might be forming.
There was a certain twinkle in her eye, though. One Artie might not have seen before. The light of adventure. She had missed this sort of thing. The danger was exhilarating, and she hadn't felt this in many years. Since .... since she left.
She turned back to look at Rothchild, smiling softly. He always had a way of turning up when you most needed him to. Whether it was Mystique or Barbara that needed him more was a mystery, but here he was.

She wrapped her arms around Artie and kissed him lovingly. "Wasn't that a blast?" She beamed at him, that light of adventure still sparkling in her eyes.