7321/Picking A Sweet Ride To Be

Picking A Sweet Ride To Be
Date of Scene:	25 April 2019
Location:	Garage - Xavier's School
Synopsis:	Peter Parker and Samuel pick out motorcycles to work on, while Kitty starts on her Vespa scooter
Cast of Characters:	Shadowcat, Spider-Man, Cannonball

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Shadowcat has posed:
The semi truck with the half-sized trailer that pulled into the school yesterday was loud enough that many of the students checked it out through the windows. By now, word has gotten around the whole school of the contents. A barn full of motorcycles, purchased by Kitty while she was visiting the school's nearby neighbors. The bikes range from anywhere from a decade or two old, all the way back to a lone, rare 1920s Indian frame. Also a rusty 1953 Buick Roadmaster.

The bikes have all been sorted out and brought under cover. Students and staff have been picking out bikes to restore. Some only need a little work. Others are major products. There are everything from dirt bikes, to road bikes, to old choppers from the 60's.

Kitty is out in the garage, just washing up after having helped one of the students get some of the rust off of the bike he picked out. She has a dirt streak across her forehead, and her sweatshirt and sweats show the marks to indiciate that she's been helping move things around. There are still plenty of unclaimed bikes.

Spider-Man has posed:
There's a clattering from nearby as Peter's overloaded arms lose traction and a set of pistons hit the ground. Heroically Peter throws a foot under one of the heads to keep it from getting destroyed, but yelps once and leaps around soundlessly. The rest of the tools and parts are dumped unceremoniously onto a rolling work station so he can rub his foot through his thin sneaker.

Peter glances up at Kitty. "Sorry," he mumbles, looking embarassed. "Those are heavier than they look."

Peter tries to get the dumped goods into order and puts tools away. At least he's meticulous about keeping a tidy workspace-- must be his experience in working labs and manufacturing. A cup of coffee on his workstation features a faded Vader imprint, both long cold and faded.

"I don't know if any of those are the right pistons for your bike. They were all kind of a mess in there. I'm not even sure we can salvage some of them." The rusted heads are eyed balefully. Peter settles onto a low stool with a wrench in hand and starts twisting iron-glazed nuts off the frame of a vintage Honda racer.

Cannonball has posed:
Samuel Guthrie comes driving into the garage. He has a somewhat older station wagon type car. It looks a little worn but it is running pretty well. The car will pull into a parking spot, and then a tall young man will step out of it, and streatch for a moment looking at the load of bikes.

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty Pryde winces as Peter whacks his foot with the engine part. "Ouch!" she exclaims in sympathy. "Oh believe me, I know. I had to load up the majority of it on my own, though thankfully they had a tractor with a little lift on the front that made it easier," Kitty says. "Of course, Lorna being here when I arrived made it /so/ much easier to unload then."

Kitty looks the pistons over. "I'm not the best with engines," she says, being more of a computer girl by far. "But... maybe this one," she says, scratching her head and looking at it and then over to the bike she's working on.

Bike is a subjective term in this case. It's not actually a motorcycle, but is instead an old Vespa scooter. Some googling has suggested it might be a 1964 or 1965. Also that the maintenance manuals are often in Italian. Which just serves one more educational use, as she has one of the students who is learning Italian helping her by translating it.

Kitty waves to Samuel. "Hey Sam. Interested in restoring a bike?" she asks. Kitty looks back to Peter and says, "Anything that's not useable, Lorna can flatten into scrap that can be used on repairs. She already made a first pass through," she says, motioning to a pile of scrap that resulted. "You going to pick one out for yourself, Peter?" Kitty asks.

Spider-Man has posed:
Peter glances up at Sam. He recognizes him, if vaguely, and the fellow's given a jerky nod of welcome before the skinny assistant tutor focuses back on the work at hand.

Kitty's question takes a few seconds to register and he looks up at her, blinking twice, then startles. "Oh. Oh! Uh... yeah," he confirms, drawing the word out. The rubber handle of his wrench is drummed once against the frame. "I asked a friend for suggestions. He said this was a really nice Honda like... forever ago. Really old, like the '80s. So I figured it'd be a good one to tune up and salvage if I can." He uplifts a chin at Kitty's progress. "How's your moped coming along?"

Cannonball has posed:
Samuel Guthrie hmms, and says "Well, I doubt I would be able to keep up with the one Rachel put together, but might be nice sometihng uses a little less gas, since I aint having to play chauffeur as much up here. He wil starts wandering around the stuff, and looking at things. He stops at a sidecar, that has been painted black, but a scratch shows a mat green under it.

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty itches at her nose. Though having just washed her hands, handling the pistons has managed to dirty them again, and she adds a little streak on her nose to match the one on her forehead. "Oh, nice! I bet that thing will really move when you get it going again. Have you rode a motorcycle very much before?" Kitty says of Peter's Honda. "Kind of glad you took it. When some of these start running again we'll have to be cautious about the student's use of them at first. Maybe even have a bit of a driver's - or rider's - training session with them," Kitty says. "I was also pricing helmets. I figure we need a bulk purchase."

"I couldn't figure out if there was a bike for that," Kitty says of the sidecar Samuel is looking at. "Though I imagine it could probably work with a bunch of them if we rigged a way to connect it?"

Kitty carries the piston over to check out how it fits with the Vespa. She tells Peter, "I'm liking how the body is. Still nice and sturdy. I think once it's painted it'll look great. I'm not sure if this engine can be saved or not, though<' she says. "I might have to buy a few new parts at least. Or talk to Forge about fabricating some."

Spider-Man has posed:
Peter grins at Kitty's dogged enthusiasm, and shrugs at her question modestly. "No, I've never really ridden on one," he tells her. "Don't tell my Aunt May, she'll have a coronary. She had anxiety attacks for a month when I went off to college."

His wrist slips and he shears a hex nut clean off a stuck bolt. Peter blinks at his momentary loss of control, and covers by coughing loudly and dropping a wrench. The broken nut is quickly discarded along with the offending bolt.

"Stop overcompensating, Parker," Peter mutters to himself through clenched teeth.

"I don't think any of these are in workable condition," Peter agrees with Kitty, and nods at Sam's bike. "But we can fabricate a lot of this stuff with CNC equipment. I mean, Forge is cool and all, but I get twitchy about nanogel metals. All we need is one buggy line of code and we've got a Horror-Movie Blob on our hands."

Cannonball has posed:
Samuel Guthrie chuckles, and says "Horror movie Blob may mean a bit different around here than your used to." He will tell Pete." He starts working to get the side car seperated, and says "Family is a good thing but yea sometimes, it can be a bit better if they don't know all that is going on. Less worry or the younger ones trying to mimic ya."

Shadowcat has posed:
"Fortunately we have a healer or two around the school most of the time. Though best to avoid any injuries to start with," Kitty says as she glances over, seeing Peter break off the nut. "Yes, some of these are so rusted they just break instead of twist," she tells him.

Kitty breaks out in a soft laugh. "I don't think we're due for a nanogel Blob attack for at least another week or two. We're slightly over our quota on those already for the year." She -is- kidding. Isn't she?

Kitty crouches beside the scooter, and then looks over at the manual that the student is holding. "What's it say about the size of the engine it should have?" she asks him. The student, who everyone calls Moochie, replies with "Ho problemi a tradurre quella parte." Kitty just stares at him for a moment and says, "Ok, I got 'problem' and 'part' out of that. Is that Italian for 'I don't know'?" she asks him. Moochie gives a little nod. "Close enough. Having trouble with that part," he says. He pulls out his phone for help with the translation. Kitty muses as she looks at the bike. "Debating what color to paint it," she says thoughtfully.

Spider-Man has posed:
Peter flashes a wry grin at Samuel and Kitty as they rebuke him for his lame joke. "Okay, okay, point taken," he concedes, and shakes it off with a low laugh. Nothing to see here, folks, it's not like Peter Parker ever deals with such things!

Peter gets up and meanders over, leaning over Kitty's shoulder to look at the diagram and ignoring the words. "It's your throttle manifold," he concludes, a few seconds later. He glances at Moochie and Kitty, then points a grease pencil at the diagram. "See? Fuel line here, valve here, that's your gas tank, and that's your throttle control wire. Can't be anything else."

He straightens and walks back to his own project to start awkwardly removing heavy components. "You should do it like... classic colors. Olive green, or maybe that really terrible beige that was everywhere in the '60s."

Cannonball has posed:
Samuel Guthrie moves back to looking through the bikes, and listens to the other two as he is walking along the stacks "So, how and where did you get these Kitty?" He will ask as he looks at one frame passing it up for another.

Shadowcat has posed:
Moochie looks closely at the diagram and then at the bike. "Oh yeaaaah!" he says, flashing Peter a smile. "Thank you, Mr. Parker!" he says. Kitty flashes a grin at student and teacher both. She gives a little nod as she looks at the bike. "Probably pull up a few images for inspiration. Maybe try to match an original color," she says.

The question from Samuel causes Kitty to stand up from where she's crouched, moving instead to lean against a workbench. "You know the Carsteads? Have that farm over to the west. Little windmill on the metal pole beside the house, and the three or four barns? I stopped by to say hello. I like to keep on good terms with the neighbors. Never know when we might have to apologize for someone burning, freezing, or flooding a field," Kitty says.

"I took them a pie. And no I did NOT cook it myself so their health is safe," Kitty says, forestalling that joke. "Anyway, Marjorie mentioned something to Ben about hiring someone to clean out their oldest barn. Found out they had some old bike parts in it and were going to pay someone to haul it all to the trash heap. So I took a look and said, that could make some great summer projects for the kids. So paid them for everything and hired a truck to bring it back. Though I didn't know the car body was back there at the time. Scott had me go back and add a zero to what I'd paid, once he had a chance to look it all over," Kitty explains.

Cannonball has posed:
Samuel Guthrie will find another bike that looks close to the same make as the side car pulling it out and putting it aside. "Oh yea, I know them, was thinking about seeing if they might be willing to rent us a section of their land next to the property to do a bit of 4H if any of the kids are interested in it." He will tell them. "Plus fresh veggies are the added bonus."

Spider-Man has posed:
Peter grins quietly through Kitty's story. When she's done he rises, shaking his head ruefully. "That's pretty decent of you," he tells Kitty. Approval registers in his voice. "And of Scott. Smart for the school." Sam's suggestion is met with an enthusiastic nod, and Peter gets to his feet to start wiping down his station and get out of the soiled old mechanic's coveralls. "It's so weird being out here in the rural county. You know I never even saw a cow with my own eyes until I was twelve?"

"Anyway, I've got that ion bath I'm working on for rust removal. Should speed up the deoxidation process on some of these smaller parts. If you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go make sure it's not turned violent explosive. Or... Blob...-by." He sketches a two-fingered salute at Kitty and Sam and, with a wry grin, heads out towards the main building.