The Rebellion [Advanced rp, Open, Accepting]

[PhantasmicRose]

"She's pretty. How'd you get someone like that?"
Logan threw a sidelong glance at Demi and smirked, raising an eyebrow at her challengingly.
“And what is that supposed to mean young lady? Respect your elders.” When Demi returned his look with defiant eyes and a crooked, mischievous grin, Logan crossed his arms, pulling the helpless Lyn along with him. “That’s an order.”
“Yeah yeah, ok,” Demi said, waving a dismissing hand at her captain. As she spoke her eyes floated over to the handcuffs that fastened the latest member to Logan.
“What’s that for?” she asked inquisitively, and Logan was reminded of how young she was. Any seasoned rebel could guess a million reasons why a new friend couldn’t be completely trusted. He sighed and lifted his left hand, dragging up Lyn’s right with it. He jangled it around a few times before setting it back down in the middle of the table.
“The handcuffs are simply a precaution. Dear Lyn says she wants to join our cause, but we can never be too careful, can we? For all we know, this pretty little woman could be working for Garter. Protecting my ship and everyone on it comes before personal comfort.” Logan looked across the table to where Lyn had been sitting so quietly. The soup Demi was so kind to bring was sitting next to their joined hands, but neither had touched it yet. Lyn was staring right over it, meeting Logan’s eyes but giving nothing away in her face. A second went by, and then another. Finally, Lyn gave a little smile that would almost be convincing if Logan didn’t know better.
“I would never work for Garter,” she assured the two of them in a light voice, her eyes never leaving Logan’s, “But of course I understand the Captain’s hesitation to trust.”
“She looks nice enough to me, but I get it. Just try not to jerk the poor woman around so much,” Demi said with a shrug, breaking some of Logan’s tension. He realized then that he hated lying, especially to someone who might follow his every word without question. Her bright smile made him eager to move the conversation to a lighter topic; one that didn’t involve deception. He cleared his throat.
“Well, possibly evil or not, I was hoping we could show Lyn around the ship sometime today and maybe introduce her to everyone.” Logan looked over to the tattered clothes Lyn had been dressed in while unconscious. He grimaced apologetically, knowing she was used to better. “Oh, and could you find her a few pairs of clothes? I know they are hard to find these days, but there must be someone with a spare outfit or two. I’d go myself, but I don’t think I’m qualified to dress a woman.”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t subject her to that kind of torture,” Demi said with a short giggle that somehow didn’t sound girly when she did it.
Logan smiled good-humouredly and reached over to his bowl of soup, sliding it under his chin so he could swallow it down with greed. Their shrinking rations were really affecting the amount of food he got to eat every day and he wasn’t appreciating it. As he tucked into his soup he glanced over the bowl’s edge. Where their hands met Lyn’s portion was still sitting idly, getting colder and colder as time elapsed. A little bubble of anger rose in him and he struggled to wrestle it down. Were the people in the Clean Cities so spoiled that they would turn their noses up at a meal they were offered? If only they knew how hard people worked to make it, or even how much harder other people worked to get it.
He pushed his empty bowl aside, ignoring Lyn’s as he did so. Demi was chatting idly and Logan’s taunt nerves were once again calmed by how happy and easygoing she was. He moved to sit back in his chair but remember just in time that it would pull Lyn as well, so instead he settled on resting his head in his free hand propped up on the table. He took this opportunity to relax, letting Demi own the conversation and contributing every once in a while with a comment or two when needed.
Logan peered up through the veil his hair created over his face and once again his eyes found Lyn. She was staring at Demi and he was pleased to see that she was actually smiling, if only faintly. He wanted Lyn to get along with the bubbly Demi, even if their ages had a notable gap between them. If anyone could convince an X-Force soldier that not all rebels were blasphemous middle-aged men with too much testosterone and a raging sex-drive, it was Demi. Lyn had to understand Demi and be on her side. She had to break free of her old misconceptions. The only alternative was for him to put a bullet in her head, and that option wasn’t pretty for any of them.
“And then Dion, he said he didn’t want to,” Demi said in a rush, too engrossed in her story to realize she was talking quickly, “ but I said he had too, and he said ‘Nooo,’ but I said, ‘Dion, if you don’t, I’ll tell everyone about that time you-”
Demi surely would have gone on to tell them exactly what she had threatened her brother with, but a sudden, barely-audible knock at the door surprised them all and she stopped. All three of them turned toward the door, curious as to who might need to speak to the captain. It wasn’t often you got to overheard conversations like that.
Logan sighed, knowing his moment of relaxation was over, and called out for the intruder to come in. He wasn’t surprised that it was Darius who had come to see him, but he was rather shocked at the condition of his friend’s face.
“Darius what happened to you?!”
“Don’t worry about it; we have other more important matters to discuss.” Logan’s eyes hardened at the words and he steeled himself for the next batch of bad news this day had to offer.
“We’ve been hacked.”
Logan felt his heart sink into his boots, only to somehow become lodged in his throat. Whatever he was preparing himself for, that certainly wasn’t it. Garter was after them; sure, that worked. Someone died; yeah, that happened. But Darius letting the Highwind get hacked? No, that was impossible. Out of anything Darius could have said, that was the last thing Logan expected.
“Erm…Demi why don’t you and Lynn go outside for a moment.” It sounded like a tired suggestion, but the two women knew it was an order, and one that was best followed quickly. Logan absentmindedly procured a key and let Lynn free so she could take her leave.
“I don’t know what information they stole but one of the files is corrupted. I can’t access it no matter how hard I try,” Darius said, looking about as bad as Logan felt.
“Is there any way you can trace it?” Of course Darius the techie-genius had already tried that, but Logan had to say something.
The rest of the discussion went the same way, with Logan offering up ideas that Darius was already throwing around in his head. At least he felt better by the end of it. The prospect of going on a raid was making his blood pump in that excited and intoxicating sort of way.
“Ow.”
Logan’s head shot toward the door for the second time in only a few minutes, but this time he was grinning slightly. Apparently the girls had had enough of waiting and decided to try and listen-in on what was going on. He would have to teach them that eavesdropping on their captain was a punishable offence. Logan raised his hand and gestured for his friend to take action.
A moment later two women came tumbling through the suddenly-open door, their bodies greeting the floor roughly. Logan chuckled wildly and walked over to them. He reached out and helped up first Demi and then Lynn. Before Lynn could so much as right herself, however, Logan had snapped the handcuffs back around their wrists.
“It looks like we’ll be going on a raid,” Logan reveled, his excitement over the matter clearly evident despite the unfortunate circumstances it was under. “I’ll make the official announcement over dinner about it. I’m sure there are some others just itching to get off the Highwind and stretch their legs.”
Darius looked like he couldn’t fathom why anyone would possibly want to get away from the Highwind, but Logan just smiled, already running the plan through his mind. There was sure to be plenty of happy people after Logan asked for volunteers to go with them. Even those who didn’t want to go would welcome the new flow of sorely-needed supplies.
Logan wasn’t worrying about someone not getting the news; one of his unofficial rules was that everyone who wasn’t confined to the infirmary absolutely had to report to dinner, no excuses. It was a known fact that Logan’s threat to seek out and drag to dinner anyone who tried to avoid the gathering was anything but empty. He strongly believed that it was of the most importance that everyone onboard had a chance to “mingle” at least once a day. Logan wouldn’t have a crew that didn’t know and trust each other. He thought of dinner as a bonding ritual, and as much as some people despised him for it, there was no getting out of reporting to the mess hall when the intercom bellowed “dinner!”
“Oh, and you’re not going,” Logan said unexpectedly, turning a stern gaze on first Demi and then Lynn. “Either of you.”
“Why?!” Demi protested. She’d never once asked to join them on anything, but Logan could tell that Demi sensed the excitement in the room and wanted in.
“You’re too young and inexperienced,” Logan said firmly. He wasn’t going to fold. Not on this.
“How am I supposed to become ‘experienced’ when you won’t let me experience things?” Demi argued, making Logan feel like a father who didn’t want his daughter to date a guy with a beard. “And I’m an adult.”
“Who says?”
“Well, according to the army of the Old World, you can fight when you are an adult, and that was 18.”
Logan put his head in his hand. Sure, kids who were nine or ten had already shot and killed their first man, but not on his ship. And sure, maybe at her age he had killed more than enough people, but Demi seemed different. He didn’t want her to have to know how to shoot a gun or load a missile.
Logan remember with a sigh that while he was captain, he was no king or even father, and that he had no right to keep an adult- even a self appointed one- from going on a raid. With a defeated sigh he waved Demi off.
“Alright, but I’m assigning you to cargo duty. Under no circumstances are you to go onto the other ship. You can help move crates of supplies and that’s it.” Logan nodded firmly and sat down at his desk, unintentionally bringing Lynn down into the seat next to him. She glared through her mess of tangled hair at him and he smiled apologetically. Neither of them seemed particularly happy at that moment.