It isn't often that the weather is like this. Normally, winters are wet and fairly moderate, but the past week has been horrible. A dry snow has been blowing from the east, dropping the tempature much furthur than most have seen in some time. The weatherman promises sun by the weekend, but it seems as if he must be crazy.

The edge has been holed up in their various homes, and the apartments have not seen this kind of activity for many monthes. Baby Bleeders wander the hallways and the Edge proper can usually be found in the oversized laundry room, getting drunk or stones and shooting dice. Candles and lamps are about in case the power goes out again. It's often out, but management traditionally has been able to keep the massive boiler going, keeping the complex warm.

It's one such afternoon in the laundry room, the lights just having come back on an hour previous, and somehow every hardcore member in attendance, when one of the Baby Bleeders bursts in. It's CJs little brother, a half-amerind kid with bad acid-rain pitting on his face. He wastes not a second loudly proclaiming "There's a BPA in the lobby! He's shot up bad!"

True enough, there's a big brawler of a trog face down, just inside the doors. He has no jacket and no shoes, and he seems to be bleeding on the carpet, in addition to having blue skin and lips. Instantly upon entering, Locksman and Big James drag out a dark brown, heavily tattooed Muddy, who is spitting obsceneties and frothing at the mouth. Muddy is known for his hate of the BPA, after his sister dated a member that beat her.

No one dares be the first to do something about the soon-to-be-corpse, and everyone looks to everyone else, but most look to The Kid to make a decision.

Nikolai raises his eyebrows.
"A BPA comes to us for help, either he's been slotting too many chips or he has something REALLY good, da?"

"Or maybe he's about to fucking die and he wanted to tell us something.", Ash says to Nikolai. He leans over the troll to see if this is the case.

The Kid, feeling like he should be doing something about this, stands up and walks toward the lobby.

"Someone should drag the fragging trog out of the way."
"Check out if he's got any sort of weapons, too, as well as how wounded he is."

Getting closer to Muddy, Locksman and Big James, "Do you guys have anything to do with this ?? What the heck happened ??"

Cord makes his way down a bit slower than the others. He looks over shoulders to see what's going on, then notices the blood seeping onto the ground. Without any hesitation he pushes anyone in his way aside, and kicks the dying trog in the shoulder, hard.

"Get the Frag out a here. Who the Hell gave you permission to come in here and die, you ain't got no damn right to go dying in our turf you stupid fraggin piece o'....",

He stops for a moment as someone's hand pushes onto his chest, followed by a voice of one of the hard-cores, "Gentle Cord... let's see what's goin on."

With a "Hmph!", Cord steps back and watches the scene unfold further.

Thorn stuck his head around the corner, surveying the commotion.

"Cord prehaps you want to go get some warm water and some cloths or something, just incase they decide to try save the poor sod, though might not happen if they keep standing around."

"Nik could have a point, he may have something of value or interest to us. Unless Muddy decided to go play fetch the trogg."

Nikolai makes a decision.
"We stand and talk, he dies. We save him, we can kill him later."
Dragging the troll in by whichever bit looks least likely to fall off, Nikolai takes a sizable rag out of his pocket and tries to stop the bleeding.

"Need a hand, Nikolai?"

The larger-than-average troll steps forward, prepared to help hoist him to a better spot for viewing and eventually interrogating.

A number of hands turn the trog over as Nikolai and compnay do their best to staunch the blood and do what they can for the swiftly fading John Doe. Turning him over and dragging him from in front of the door, some recognize him as Turner, known for dealing drugs of dubious quality and getting inventive when people don't pay on time. He's the one that introduced the idea of nailing peoples hands to walls and leaving them there to the neighbourhood.

All he has on him at the moment is a touch of the aforementioned drugs of dubious quality and a giant-sized set of brass knuckles. These quickly disappear into the pockets of various hardcores and hangers-on. The bleeding gets staunched a bit. The good news is that he's no longer losing health at an exponential rate, but the bad news is that he's still losing health, and he's not got alot of it to lose. He's beem shot in the gut, by the looks of it, by a shotgun. If that's not bad enough, there's snow in his abdominal cavity, and the flesh around it looks even more white and frostbitten than the rest of him. His eyes stare straight up, unfoucsed and unresponding. His jaw chatters and he continues to weakly draw breath, but that doesn't mean very much.

Ash shakes his head.

"Nevermind with the help...he's gonna die. But why would he choose to do so on our doorstep?"

"Hold on. I didn't hear a shotgun blast...they're loud. This fragger walked, walked from quite a distance away. Why?"

"And who shot him?", Ash says, removing his jacket and trying to cover Turner's torso with it.

"Alright, well you two keep Muddy away from the other trog while we sort this out. Try to figure out if he's been involved with this and force him to drink some water or something" the Kid says to Big James and Locksman. "And you shouldn't fucking drink that much big guy", he says to Muddy.

"Bah, what the hell are you fraggers helping this bitch for? Besides, even if you stop the bleeding, the shrapnel and the snow gonna done have'em dead. I say throw the bastard back on the street, AWAY from our doorstep. He dies here, and his boys gonna say we'd dun it, den we uh gonna heb 20 more deaths on our hands when I have to kick their asses for you.", he turns around, seemingly disgusted at the panzy girlies of the gang, mumbling something about being surrounded by Florence Nightingales.

Nikolai shrugs.
"It would have been better to find out what he's up to, but it looks like we can't. I'm with him- we don't have to deal with this."
He blinks, gears moving slowly.
"Check the drugs, make sure they're his usual. That might've been what fragged him over. I'm going to check on this with a friend of mine, don't blow anything up while I'm gone."

Grabbing a shabby overcoat and an air filter way past its sell-by date, Nikolai vanishes into the swirling snow. He flips his cellphone open, frowns, waves it around for a bit, and eventually manages to get coverage by climbing up onto the ruins of a demolshed building.
"Red? It's Karl. Meet me at the usual place at midnight."
(Nikolai's set up a non-drug-dealing meeting with his drug-dealer contact Scott at noon tomorrow.)

"We'll probably get blamed for this anyway. It'll be sheer luck if the BPA aren't smashing down our door and skulls before the day is out.", Ash says bitterly.

Lav looks around, then shrugs and wipes the blood on his pants.

"Well. Mebbe nothin' will happen. Mebbe he's been recently booted and was lookin' fer a new place to gain some camaraderie.

"Anything you want me to do, Kid?" The name was said with respect. he'd seen the Kid kill a man for trying to upset his power. Not a man to be trifled with.

Nikolai walks back in, rubbing his hands together.
"Da, what to do with the body?"

"The problem is that we don't know who shot him. It could have been people from the BPA or someone else. Either way, the BPA is likely to be knocking at our doors very soon."

"Lav, since you ask, please bring Turner upstairs. Others could help you. If he dies, we'll have to get rid of the body somehow, but that can wait."

"The priority right now is security. I suspect that someone in the BPA might have planned this and they might barge in here, ready to fight, at any time. So I need the Baby Bleeders to go outside and watch for trolls coming our way. I also want everyone to keep weapons nearby and ready."

"It's likely that there's gonna be a fight today, everyone. So get ready!", Kid shouts, making sure that everyone in the room hears that and gets moving.

Nikolai grins.
"My country's history says is stupid to atteck in winter, da? Maybe this go well."
Running to his room and getting his gang-war things, Nikolai takes up position in a second-floor window, keeping his rifle out of the window frame.

"Right-o, boss."

Lav grabs Locksman for a hand in getting the brute upstairs.

After a bit of labor, Lav comes back down with his Sawed-off Defiance on his back in a makeshift holster, his Secure Jacket and Forearm Guards on as well.

"Anything else?"

Ash shakes his head.

"I think you're overreacting, they probably don't even know he's dead yet. Here's an idea, why don't we go tell the BPA that one of their guys got wasted?"

Cord watches the odd gangers all grow insta-paranoid at his words, taking up defensive positions as if the cops were about to blow down the door. "O..... K...... First, if we really expect the BPA to be here THAT quick, we'd set up an ambush behind them, not wait here for them to have a frontal assault. The best defense being a good offense though, if you really are worried about them coming here, you should get in their faces for dropping their wounded on our doorstep. Don't give them a chance to blame us, instead to go on the defensive. However, since neither is a manuever I'd be happy with, I say we dump the body over in the Snake's Turf. They been imposing on us for months now, let the BPA know the Snakes are trying to bump them a bit too but anonymously getting word to them that someone saw their boy getting shot down by one of the Snake's boys."

"The boss says Jump, you say...erm...what color!"

(Int 2 at work!)
(Thanks, Detritus.)

"Cord, thank you for the back-up.", Ash says.

"He's been here less that ten minutes, and already you're getting ready for the siege at Helmsdeep. Let's just finish him off and pitch the body into the sewer, or something. Act like it never happened."

Nikolai only sighs.
"Kid?"

"I maintain that we have to make sure they can't surprise us here. We need to be ready in case they come. So everyone should still get ready while we discuss this."

"True, the next step is to get rid of the body . Dropping the body in the Snakes' territory seems like a good idea. But think about it, we found a frozen up body at our doorstep. Not even 100 yards away: right at our doorstep. The odds are that it was actually dropped by the Snakes to begin with, as far as I know. So I'm glad that the body is now upstairs, since no one has proof that we might have killed Turner this way."

"We're gonna get rid of the body at nightfall and not before he's definitively dead. Talking to the BPA might be dangerous if someone already told them that we killed Turner. Ash, if you want to go talk to the BPA, feel free to do so ... but at your own risks", Kid says with emphasis.

Nikolai nods.
"So I keep covering window, or do something else?"

Ash frowns.

"If anyone wants to go with me, I'd be glad to go."

The Baby Bleeders bitch and moan a fair deal, and finally, one of the older boys, Marshall, goes up to Kid. "Man, please don't make us go outside. It's gotta be a hunnred fraggin below out there. You know our moms'd kill us all, and you too, if they could. We'd freeze our asses solid!" He figits nervously, absentmindedly playing with the folding knife in his pocket, slightly afraid to be talking to the big man of the Bleeding Edge like this. On the other hand, if you don't look out for yourself, who will?

Kid is not amused by this intrusion. He grabs the bum by the collar and yells in his ears.

"Listen ! This is no game. When I say you guys have to take a watch outside, I mean it. If it's too cold for you, or you just don't feel like doing what I tell you, I don't care. It's important that someone takes watch right now and I decided that it would be you. If you don't consider yourself part of us, then go away and get killed if that's what you want, I don't care. But if you're part us, you do as I say."

"Now you guys will take it in turns if need be, but I want at least 2 of you fraggers outside at all time, until I say it's safe again. Understood ?", Kid shouts so that everyone hears and feels that this whole situation could be serious. He doesn't mean to be mean to the poor fellow but he has to be firm in this instant so that his leadership is not undermined.

Marshall drops to a sprint as soon as he's allowed to touch the ground again and is off organizing the Babies with a quick yelp.

Everyone else, catching from the recent exchange that... they might be going to war, apparently... has gathered their best threads and some weapons, and stands, reassembled, in the lobby, simply waiting furthur commands.

"Cry me a river, kids...", Ash mumbles. "Well if you're deadset on barricading the place, I'll be in the kitchen if anyone needs me." he adds, turning and walking off.

Cord stands behind the Kid, giving his support for whatever the Kid decides. As the youngen gets yelled out, Cord has a curled snarl forming on his lips, and a gutteral growl coming from his throat. Once everyone's in action he leans over just close enough to where the older ones who are still hanging around can hear, "We could use this, of course, to expand a bit. If the Snakes and Beepers go at it, we should be able to do some clean up. Just find an ally gang that'd be willing to split the leftovers, and clean up after they weaken each other a bit."

"That's right, Cord. We need to start a fight between gangs and keep ours out of it if possible. I'm not really confident about having an 'alliance' with a rival gang since it would be an excuse to get backstabbed by them.

Also, if we go talk to the BPA and it doesn't work, we could use a hit and run tactic. We would come back here and if they follow us right away, there's an ambush waiting for them."

Thorn returned downstairs after helping to move the body.

"Anyone know any docs, he might survive long enough to get one here. We could be jumping to some big conclusions. If someone else was responsible for this then having someone on their side that owes us favour is not a bad option."

"Has anyone gotten any info out of Muddy yet?



Thorn shruged, and vanished back upstairs.

Going back to the injured BPA member he continued to try to keep the bleeding down and fix what he could.

Locksman, back downstairs after having subdued Muddy, offers some information. "Some BPAs had a run-in with him last year. Something about a deal gone bad. Got nastier as everyone played the bigger revenge game. Last I heard, one of 'em gave his little brother some bad smack and nearly killed him. Mighta even been this one here. Couldn't say for sure."

It's only a matter of about twenty minutes before one of the Babies reports back to Kid and whoever happens to be in the room with him at the time.

"There's two Beeps headed this way. They got their colors on inside out, though." Inside-out colors is generally a pretty good sign of deference and respect for whoevers turf you're on. It probably means that they mean no harm.

"Let's go see what they want. Whoever feels like taking a walk, come with me."

His right hand on his good old predator, Kid steps outside in the direction of the two Trolls.

Cord follows the Kid's lead, watching for the Beepers as he stands over the Kid's shoulder. "Well, on the bright side.... guess they ain't blamin us for anything as that don't sound like no damn warparty to me..."

"Mmmn-hmm."
Nikolai covers the group leaving the building through the window.

"You never know Cord, it could be a trick somehow, although I doubt it. "

The biting cold is the first thing that anyone outside notices. The lack of proper jackets is a big problem. Whatever happens here, it'll have to be quick.

The two trolls seem rather downtrodden. The one with the chrome inlay on his horns is a notorious hitter, famous for his hatchet-work, but he doesn't seem to be carrying his famous troll-sized hatchet today.

"You seen any of our guys lately?"

"What are you looking for ? Has one of you got lost ?", the Kid answers on the same tone.

Nicolai develops a minor tic which he suppresses immediately.
He keeps acting like that and I'm not sure who I'll shoot if this develops problems.

Ash leans back in his chair and takes sips from a bottle of synthohol, and occaisonally glances over to the front room.

Guess we'll know whether I was right or wrong soon enough...

Cord continues standing behind the Kid, flexing a bit to make sure everyone knows where he stands with the Kid. He tightens his fists enough where all the knucles crack, reverbrating off the echoing snow which covers the area, making it brighter than usual this time of night.

"Yeah. One of our boys had a spat with his missus and walked off without a coat on. We needs to find 'im, yanno?"

"Well yeah, we found one of your members on our doorstep not long ago. Come on inside - it's so damn cold out anyways. We did our best to help him but he might not make it. You can see for yourself."

When the 4 men come in, Kid says to everyone "They came here to get their member back, I'm bringing them upstairs."

Lav paces around a bit nervously upstairs, waiting for any word on what's going on. He heard the two Beepers and leveled his Defiance at the door, daring anyone he didn't know to come through.

Several moments later, he heard the Kid's voice. He heard him announce his intent to bring them upstairs. So, the shotgun lowered, but the spurs came out with a rather audible *snikt.*

They try anything funny. Anything. They go to that little place where all trogs dream to go. Or maybe these ones will go where the breeders constantly spit on them. That'd be nice for ones such as they.

Once the Kid and the Breeders came up, Lav made his intent to suffer no tricks quite clear.