IC: Bleeding Edge Options

[Fresno Bob]

Nick looks at Mickey as he checks his clip.

"Y'know, if you need more ammo, I know a russian guy who can get you a lot. He could probably get you some bigger guns, too. Where do you think I got my stockpile from?"

[last_of_the_grea...]

"More ammunition would be good," Mickey says calmly. "Especially some of the better ammo. I fear I haven't enough for a new gun yet. I'll just have to wait a couple of weeks, I guess." He sits down and takes off his leather jacket and starts to brush it off. After getting all the dust and stuff off of it, he puts it back on after admiring it.

[Large Mike]

Yellow lookes up from the difficult task of reloading the street-sweeper one-handed. She has a blank look for a second, almost as if she has no idea what you're talking about. "I'd say I ain't got no money. So unless you wanna trade sex for an arm, I can't pay."

[Large Mike]

Skag's this time of day is fairly empty. There are only about a dozen people here, and the fences for the fights aren't even up. The bartender, a relativly new guy, Amerind and fairly large, mans the bar, and hands drinks with names like 'Shut the Fuck up and Drink it.' Overhead fans lazily churn damp air. On the way here, it's started raining again. There are about 5 guys here right now, all of them extremely tough looking. There are three trolls along the bar, one with a purple mohawk and burn marks on his hands, all the way up his forarms, one in leathers with a cigar and a nose that's obviously been broken many times before, and what you would normall mistake for a squatter, except that he's only wearing a tattered muscle shirt right now, and the exposed parts of his back clearly show several bullet wounds.

Over in the corner, conversing very seriously over some chicken wings are a dwarf and a human, both of whom look like construction workers of some kind. The dwarf has tape on his hands.

[last_of_the_grea...]

Mickey gives Yellow that have vacant stare and says, "You're an Edger. We look after our own. We happenned to aquire a cyberarm that I do not believe has sold yet. If it fits, it's yours."

He checks over what Teng had. He looks at the credstick and grins. "not bad, Nick. 4 K on this thing. If the jewelry is real, then we got quite a haul. I may be able to get a gun yet, if there's any money left after getting Yellow her arm." He splits it 3 ways...1500 nuyen for Nick and Mickey each, the remaining thousand for the gang. He checks out the Taurus to make sure it works, going so far as to take out the bullets, "fire" it blank several times to check the cylinder's rotation, then reloading it. He pockets it to give to one of the boys on "strollwatch." Then he hands the jewelry over to Nick. "Let things cool down for a few days, then see if you can fence this stuff."

"Now, what more can you ladies tell us about Mickey? Just so Nick and I know what we're getting into before we run in to deal with the situation. I want to know what he can do and where he lives and the layout of the place. What weapons he owns and what friends might come to help him."

Next, he gives a call to Dr. Karl Mallus, his contact, and querys him.

"Good day Karl. I have a question for you. How much does it cost to attatch a cyberarm to a patient, assuming one allready has the arm, then rehab her so that it works naturally?"

[Large Mike]

Karl, abviously having just gotten up from another hard night of surgery (read: drinking) awnsers the phone and replies, in a gravelly voice. "I guess it'd probably be about 200 :nuyen:. I'm pretty hard up for cash, though. You figure I could borrow a hundred on top of that? You'd get it back. I just need to keep some guys who run a little craps game off my back."

[Tanka]

"Yous got da lead fer dis one, Blitz. I ain't know nobody 'ere."

[last_of_the_grea...]

Mickey smiles as he answers Karl. "Dr. Mallus, I will pay you five hundred nuyen, but I'll not loan you a single one. However, I want your best effort for this. The young lady involved has earned a break. I'll get back to you about an appointment."

Once biz is taken care of, he looks at Yellow and says, "Come with me. I'm going to take you to see if that arm is suitable." He gestures for her to follow and looks at Nick. "Stay here, Nick. See what the girls can tell you about this Mickey fellow...and what they know about the drug and chip scene around here."

He brings Yellow back to Bleeding Edge HQ, enters the place and looks for Ghost. "GHOST! I need to talk to you, chummer."

[Large Mike]

Ghost is nowhere to be found. You check the livingroom, kitchen, bathroom, all the bedrooms, the barracks, hell, even the closet that Junkie is holed up in. There's no sign of him anywhere.

[last_of_the_grea...]

"That's odd." Mickey takes out his cellphone and dials up Ghost's number. waiting for a response.

[Fresno Bob]

"Yeah, sure. I'll stay here. You go on ahead. I'll catch up. Gotta do some stuff, anyway."

After Mickey leaves, Nick pulls out his cellphone and dials up his parole officer.

"Hey, you bitch. This is Nick. I'm checking in so you can't throw my sorry ass in prison, at least for a couple more days.", Nick opens with, then stays silent waiting for a response.

[Large Mike]

There's no awnser on Ghost's cell.

[Large Mike]

The parole officer, a 400 lb guy named Hector seems more bored than annoyed. "Yeah, yeah. So, you're staying out of trouble? You aren't going drugs and havn't killed anyone? You have a home and a job?"

[Fresno Bob]

"Man, Hector, you know I never did any drugs. I only got arrested after I got pulled in for a few fights. Haven't killed anyone. I've been keeping it straight. I'm living with some friends. Don't have a job yet, but I'm looking. It seems no one wants to hire a highschool dropout whos well versed in Philosophy. Maybe I could start a band...", Nick starts with his usual routine, trying to end the call as quickly as possible.

[Large Mike]

Hector gets bored fairly quickly. "Yeah, whatever. Just don't get arrested. And get a job, otherwise I have *alot* of paperwork to fill out. And, as alwayse, don't leave the city."

Hector hangs up, obviously not giving a half a rats ass about anything other than avoiding actual work.

[Fresno Bob]

"Yeah. Will do, Hector. See you Friday.", Nick says, flipping his cell phone closed.

"Asshole.", he remarks.

"Hey, Yellow...thanks for that backup. I really appreciate it. If there were more people like you in the world, maybe I wouldn't hate everyone. So, uh, what can you tell me about the BTL and drug trade around here? Names of dealers, who, what, and where they deal. The works.", Nick asks.

After Yellow tells him what she will, Nick thanks her, and goes to Jennifer.

"Tell me everything you can about Mickey."

[last_of_the_grea...]

Mickey frowns when he gets no answer. He starts calling other Edgers...any that have a phone. He asks if they've seen Ghost anywhere or if he mentioned where he was going to be. He also checks his room...Promo's death had gotten to Ghost pretty bad...maybe he was doing something stupid...maybe he left a message somewhere.

[Large Mike]

There doesn't seem to be any kind of message anywhere. Mother says that he went to the corner store to go get smokes about three hours ago.

[Digital Heroin]

Blitz gives Kake and Painkiller each a meaty clap on the shoulder, and then heads on right up to the bar. This is his kind of place, and he's holding himself like he's the King 'round these parts. After all, he left on top. He walks on over to the tender and slaps a hand to the bar.

`'round of beers for me and my chummers. 'dis Herman's night off, or he 'round back somewhere?`

He lets the question hang in the air a minute, taking a look around to see if any of the faces are familiar. Anyone he'd fought before maybe.

`We'd like to talk to him, see. Been a while, I'd like to catch up on old times.`

[Large Mike]

"Hector's off 'till Monday. His old lady had a kid, so we're giving him a little bit of vacation time. You understand, his woman would kick his ass if he wasn't around. I'm sure I can help you with anything he could, though. My name's Tweeter."

He extends one hand, currently wrapped for a fight.

You don't recognize anyone you've fought before, but the dwarf in the corner has foungh plenty. He's just in a different weight class (as much as a place like this does them). He's actually a fierce SOB. Also, the guy with the burned arms has done his fair share of fighting, although he's still a bit wet behind the ears.

[Digital Heroin]

He reaches out a hand to shake the tender's, standard Euroshake, nothing fancy.

`Good 't meet ya Tweeter. I'll hafta drop a line Hector's way, congradulate him. Didn't know the old coot had another one in 'im.`

He laughs a hearty laugh, and nods to the dwarf before looking Tweeter in the eye.

`Jared Kreig, used to fight here. Called me Blitzkreig.`

He lets the name hang, figuring it'd still have weight 'round these parts.

[Large Mike]

"Oh, that's you. Cool. You were fairly bad-assed for a while there? Why'd you stop showing up? We could use some good solid talent like you. We lost all of our impressive guys a little while back. Some travelling fight-show picked 'em up."

[last_of_the_grea...]

Taking Mother's lead, he heads to the corner store to see if the cashier had seen him. He slid his pipe into his jacket and holstered his pistol. "Mother, I have a bad feeling about this. Would you do me a favour and call in the lieutennants? I'll be back shortly. Just visiting our friendly neighborhood corner store."

He walks the short distance, paranoidly watching for any signs of trouble, then entering the place, picking out a can of Nerps™ and a packet of Nerps™, a copy of the Daily Nerps™ and some Nerps™. As he bought them he asked if the cashier had seen his friend ealier in the day and described him.

[Large Mike]

You don't even make it to the corner store before a small cround of people catch your eye. They seem to be huddled about something cautiously.

Upon more careful inspection, you notice smatterings of blood, already black and sticky. There are shell casings sitting in some of them, silent testimonies to what happened. Telltale boots stick out from the silent knot of people.

[last_of_the_grea...]

Taking a closer look at what can only be a corpse on the ground, Mickey shoves his way through the croud, tapping the backs of people's knee with his foot if they won't move. No! As he approaches the body (of Ghost I assume) his half vacant stare goes distant, observing everything. There's no yellow tape! No crowd control! Where's the Star?

He observes the scene, taking in every detail...number of casings, placement of shots, and position in which he fell. He picks up his phone and records a message demanding "everyone get to HQ immediately! It's an emergency!" Then he sends it to all at once! Then he sends one to all the lieutennants telling them to "get to the site right fragging now! Ghost is down!" When he calls Nick, he tells him to bring in the girls, too!