IC: Bleeding Edge Options

[last_of_the_grea...]

Mickey's not about to let one of his girls give him a hard time over a command decision, but he'll undermine the operation if he resorts to Teng's abuse. He didn't want to spend all day explaining his decisions in the future either!

"This once I'll explain, but do not question my command decisions after this, understood? You don't know me so I will give you a little slack this once. I'll not explain myself regarding my decisions again." His voice is smooth and monotone, all biz. "I have no sympathy at all for any who support my enemies. Trust me, he may have been nice at times, but he supported Jones. In the field I cannot take the risk of someone having a piece and deciding to use it on me to defend an enemy. He became a danger and a target by associating with drek like Jones." He pauses for a moment, then deepens his voice a little. "I and my boys will protect you with the same aggressiveness and efficiency. You'll never be safer."

He gave the girls a minute or two to digest that, then got down to business. "I spoke to a friend about Teng and got a suggestion as to what questions to ask. I want to know about his chrome. What does he have? Does he move faster than a normal man should? Is he a lot stronger than he looks? Or is it all for show? Also, does he carry weapons and if so, what?"

[Large Mike]

"Well, he's not alot quicker than most, and he hasn't broken any of the girls' jaws or nothin'. He's really mostly a playboy, and it seems like it's all for show. I'm pretty sure his eyes are real, it'd be kinda hard to fake that, but that's about it, I figure. As for weapons, he doesn't carry much on his own. He's got a couple a meat-heads to do that for him. They mostly carry shotguns and stuff."

Yellow lights another smoke. "An' there's no need to get defensive."

[Large Mike]

Badger a little red-eyed from lack of sleep comes to the door. When he's let in, he goes straight to Ghost. He drops a small duffle bag at his feet and looks up at him.

"Alright, omae. I burned my candle at both ends and I turned that cyber into cold hard cash for you. I didn't expect you wanted any of it yourself, so I got rid of as much as I could."

"For some reason, the eyes and the arm didn't sell, but you made a killing on the spurs. All said and done, you got 19,400 :nuyen: . I didn't even take any off for that, I just made my money off of the surgery. I hope you likes it."

He looks at his shoes for a minute, obviously wondering whether or not he should say what he's about to say. "Listen. Umm... there's this bunch that have been giving me a hard time just in the past two days here. They say they want me to shut down, and they'll kill me if I don't. They just pop up outta nowhere and dissapear again. They smell like rotting meat, and they've already tried to set fire to my place twice. And that's just in the last 48 hours. You guys maybe wanna look into it?"

He looks at his shoes again. "They said if I came to you guys for help, they'd kill me. Maybe I could crash here for a bit, too?"

[Large Mike]

From behind Mickey and Nick, there's a noise. Startled, turning around, they see the most rediculous sight they've ever seen. Dressed in purple fur, with a fedora and a cane, jeweled to the nines, and with a great deal of very well-polished chrome, stands Teng. He's fully seven feet tall, and smiles with a gold-plated tusk. Behind him, stand two orks dressed in conservative turtle-necks and holding shotguns. They don't look pleased to see you here.

"I hear you've been poking around, askin' 'bout me." He speaks with a heavy orkish accent. "I'd like ta' know why."

[Shadow]

Ghost takes the bag full of money, a smile creeps across his face. "Sure thing Badger, you stay here, and if anyone come looking for you will take care of you."

[last_of_the_grea...]

Mickey looks over at Nick, eyes narrowed...saying gotime with his eys. He bolts for the cover of the counter, leaping over and drawing his pistol. He faces the foes, peeking over the counter and pointing his gun at Teng. His smartlink's crosshairs sight onto him, the clashing colours and styles making it too easy. He squeezes the trigger twice, his training and rage taking over. Diediedie...Renraku bastards! It was what he was thinking, but it came out "RAAAAAAAAAHHH..!"

[Fresno Bob]

Nick says to the Hooker.

"I asked Ming to call the Ambulance. I don't know why he did... I'm sorry about your friend."

When Teng shows up, Nick thinks

"Fuck. We're fucked. Maybe I can be diplomatic..."

He opens his mouth, but is cut short by Mickey's leap.

"Doublefuck.", Nick thinks, then follows suit, and dives behind the counter as well, drawing his pistol, screaming

"Mickey, you fucking fuck!!", as he places the crosshairs of his smartlink on the left Ork, squeezing two shots off center mass.

[Large Mike]

The first ork goes down with a quick sputter, dropping to his knees and glancing at his chest, which is leaking a strange red substance. THe second ork doesn't even seem to notice the bullets that hit him. He simply returns fire. As shot after shot blows holes in the wall behind Mickey and Nick, Teng makes his way out. He just barely outruns bullets at his heels. One gets him in the calf and he yelps as he runs round the corner. The last orc finally realizes that he's all alone and turns to run.

He just gets to turning when a shot rings out. He drops to his knees, a wide gory hole in the back of his head. All eyes turn to yellow, as she's pulled a streetsweeper and unloaded it at the back of the troll.

Setting her gun down on the counter, she lights up another smoke.

"You boys can come out now."

[last_of_the_grea...]

Teng get away? Hell no! Mickey vaults over the counter and gives chase, pistol in hand. No way he could hide in that outfit! Out the door he goes, pivoting in the direction Teng went and quickley scanning for him.

"TENG, YOU CHROMED ROADKILL! COME INTO MY TURF AND TRY TO TAKE ME DOWN? YOU BETTER RUN 'CAUSE I'M COMIN'!"

He's running all the while he shouts, drawing loys of attention and caring not at all! Once in range (assuming he spots him) he unloads in mid run.

[Fresno Bob]

Nick follows Mickey, pausing only to thank Yellow, also looking for Teng, using full advantage of his Vision Magnificationm, and seeing if theres a blood trail from his calf wound. Nick feels the impulses of combat that come with his adrenaline. He remembers that this is what he lives for. The chase, the fight.

"COME ON TENG, YOU SON OF A BITCH! I'M THE MAN WHO KEEPS MR. DEAD IN HIS POCKET, AND I CAN'T BE STOPPED!", Nick screams, giving chase. If he spots Teng, he blasts him.

[Large Mike]

Teng is not that far at all. It seems that the bullet in his leg is impeding his run. He struggles with his wayward limb and pleads with it. He looks up at the sound of shouting, and gets a *very* worried look on his face. He pleads with his limb for exactly one more second before the bullet hits him. He drops to the ground, on his back, and tries to pull a gun, but finds his arm won't obey with a bullet in it.

So, it is in that sorry state, wishing he had real chrome, that he meets his end, the tears of someone afraid to die on his cheeks.

[Fresno Bob]

Nick looks at Teng's body, panting from loss of breath, and the bloodlust fading from his eyes, he sees what he and Mickey have done.

"Oh, shit.", he thinks. He sinks to the ground and lights a smoke.

"Shit, man...Shit. Pimps...I hate 'em, and all. But...chasing down an unarmed fragger and cacking him in the dust? The other orks, they had shotguns, so it was defense, but....shit..And the Losers, well, they deserved that. But...I mean, I like to fight, but...no one dies with fists.", Nick says, looking more than a little disturbed.

"We gotta lay off fucking killing people, at least for a while.", he adds, finishing his cigarette, and throwing the butt in the gutter.

"Shit."

[Shadow]

Ghost goes to the living room, looking around. When he doesn't see what he wants he heads up stairs. Still not there.

Fraggin hell.

After not finding Blitz, Ghost grabs his coat and stun baton and heads over to the Losers old place. He let's himself in and scribbles a note to Blitz.

Blitz, come to the HQ, we got Biz to take care of.

-Ghost

Satisfied with that he heads down to the bar for some food, and a drink. He walks up to the bar and orders,

"Burger fries, and a coke, soka?" He slaps a hundred on the bartop.

"Keep the change."

[last_of_the_grea...]

Mickey steps over to the dead pimp and is rifling his body as if it were the most natural thing in the world. The girls had probably allready done the same to the orks, but he'd go back and check anyway.

"You're getting soft, Nick. If we'd let him go, this little bastard could have made life very difficult and you know it. You also know we cannot "lay off killing." We have 2 more sanctions." He finishes rifling through Teng's pockets and keeps everything, then pulls out his spray cans and covers the corpse with the circle/slashed R. "Now, let's get gone before the Star decides to do their jobs for once."

He started off back toward the diner and went inside. "Teng has been rendered obsolete, Ladies." He looked at the two orks to see if there was anything that was worth grabbing left.

[Tanka]

Kake nods to Blitz and walks toward's Skag's. Seemed like a good place to start. Hopefully.

[JongWK]

Painkiller looks at Blitz, a question mark almost printed in his face.

"Soft again, neh?"

[Digital Heroin]

He's just started to walk when Painkiller addresses him. Blitz stops in mid-stride and turns to regard his fellow Edger, the look on his face far from soft.

`You got an issue friend?`

The compassion he showed in the store is something rare for him, a touchy spot. He doesn't like people questioning him about it.

[Tanka]

"'Ey, 'ey, stoppit. Whatever 'e did, it's 'is bus-ee-ness, and not ours, so ka? Don't want ta have ta 'splain ta Ghost why yous had ta get shut up, now would we?"

[Fresno Bob]

[JongWK]

"Nothing personal against you, Blitz, I just want to know if we deal with Skag's like we just did."

Painkiller's eyes lock on Blitz's.

"Now, if you ask me, I still favor sending one big message that everyone can understand. Being nice and all that can make people think we're soft after taking too many hits from the Losers. ¿Entiendes?"

[last_of_the_grea...]

Mickey shakes his head. What did Nick think they had just become? He grabbed his casings as he saw them on the way to the diner.

"Indeed, but Mickey will require a different style. That cortex bomb detonator has to be recovered first Perhaps we should draw on our resources and see who has the best sneaking ability to search and retrieve. As for Dr. Zhivago, his separation should give us more time with him...though I'm certain word of the stroll will reach his ears eventually."

When asked about the slashed R his trigger finger twitches and his face goes a little more vacant than usual...then hardens as memories rush into his brain. He's dead quiet for near a minute before he answers.

"So that They know They will never catch me again!"

The words come out so cold, yet with such contained rage and fear that it's almost a physical force.

[Fresno Bob]

Nick decides not to press the R point any further.

"Alright. Whatever, man.", he says, holstering his pistol and cracking his knuckles.

"Hey, did you ever see that old flatvid movie, it was called Boondock Saints...it was about these two guys who went around killing mobsters, and at the end, the mob boss caught them, because he figured they'd come? I think this might be kind of like that....", Nick adds, holding the diner door open for Mickey.

[Digital Heroin]

`Skags ain't the kinda place you go in looking to clean house...`

This coming from a guy who was about to try and take out a whole bar with a vodka bottle.

`They're my people, we go in there looking for a fight, we'll get tossed. We go in there looking to recruit, maybe we score some prime fighters. You want to send a message, we'll trash the convenience store.`

He's walking again now, a bit hungry and in need of a drink.

[Tanka]

"Sounds good. Let's go, I'm gettin' hungry anyways."

He begins walking again, toward Skag's.

"Oh, and, 'ey, Painkiller. Don't be talkin' 'bout gettin' soft, cause we ain't. Got it, omae?"

[last_of_the_grea...]

He snaps back to reality and nods. "Indeed. Let's get started, find out what the Redheads can give us about Mickey specifically."

Mickey sits down in the diner and checks the rounds left in his gun. 8 bullets...plus his 2 extra clips. He really needed to get more ammo! An SMG would be nice, too, but that could wait. Best wait for the Redheads to return.

"Yesllow, what would you say if I told you we might be able to do something about that missing arm of yours?"