<b>Valerie / Darion</b><br/><br/><br/>"Uh-huh. Would you prefer something else? Purple Wombat more to your taste?" Kal responded flatly. "Word of advice, don't get to know people you work with down here." He turned around and continued forward. He whispered to himself, "They all wind up dead sooner or later."<br/><br/>"Wheels, I'm sorry but I'm commandeering you. This goes over well, I'll make sure you've got a few more months to pay off the boss. Hell, this goes over<i>really</i>well, you can just fuckin' pay him off."<br/><br/>"So here's the deal. We got a group of about Dregbangers from Hong Kong set up a ways from here. According to some well placed sources, they're toting around some interesting, high-value shit - trying to sell it off. More likely than not, they're out here because they jacked it from someone in Hong Kong that would like it back. Obviously they risk getting found if they try to sell it local, so they export it out here to try and run it through Gaoxing or one of the nearby bosses."<br/><br/>Kal ducked under a hanging pipe. "That probably means its a no strings attached gig. Probably."<br/><br/>"I figure we get in quiet, off a couple of 'em quick. Things get dirty after that we should be alright. That's where you come in<i>Purple Wombat</i>. Two guns against three is alright odds. Nothing I'm happy about, but hell what can you do. Nothing worth getting in hell that ain't got significant risk associated with it."<br/><br/>"Wheels, and I'm sorry but I'm only guessing here... but the joint they're holed up in was part of the old Jiangte block. Reasonably nice place about sixty years ago. Since its there, it may still have some functioning security shit left. Who knows. But, on the off chance there is, someone may be able to make our job a whole hell of a lot easier. And sorry kiddo, but you owe me one."<br/><br/>Kal paused, half turned. "Oh, the fuckers we're lookin' for got some kind of skull thing goin' on. Face paint or prosthetics or whatever. They've got some hardware with 'em, so the more we can do without drawing attention the better."<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><b>Nikki</b><br/><br/><br/>When the skulls had all come inside and Nikki, the apparent house guest had followed, they threw a deadbolt closed on the front door. The security device wasn't native the door. It looked more like someone had taken a spot welder to it.<br/><br/>"We talk fine... whoever you are. But unlike<i>some people</i>we're busy lookin' for people tryin' to fuckin' shoot us." The skull that spoke up in response to Nikki was one that had been carrying the case. He unceremoniously dropped his end on the ground with a loud thud. He gave a sharp glare to Skullface.<br/><br/>Skullface grinned and flipped the man off, shouldering the rifle in his hands. The other skulls who weren't tending to the case headed down the maroon halls to a staircase, passing a few numbered doors on their way. The two with the case hit the elevator near the main entrance. Skullface followed the ones headed to the stairs. The building, from the exterior had looked to be about five stories, and as the group ascended the stairs they passed by flights two and three, taking the door to number four. Two of them continued up the stairs to the top level.<br/><br/>The fourth floor wasn't much different form the first. The walls were beat up, a few holes here and there exposing wiring and pipes that had needed repair at some point. The maroon walls still had signs of a golden dragon motif that had once graced the halls. The floor had its fair share of spots and stains of a dubious origin. The building, Nikki could have guessed was at one time an apartment complex, as the various doors down the halls were all numbered. Nothing about the place suggested that it had any tenants left save the skullfaced dregbangers. She noted that the elevator doors at the end of the hall didn't reveal the case and its couriers arriving on the floor. One of the doors opened and another one of the gang poked his head out, bringing the tally Nikki had seen so far to seven.<br/><br/>"Yo, anyone buyin'?" He asked. He was bare chested, wearing only his pants. His eyes were natural, Nikki observed, as they were bloodshot and hazed.<br/><br/>"Yeah. Not all of it though."<br/><br/>"Well how much?"<br/><br/>"Two."<br/><br/>"Two things or two grand?"<br/><br/>"Two thousand."<br/><br/>"Nice." The high gangbanger nodded his head in approval. His eyes his Nikki and he blinked a few times. He looked at Skullface, who entered the room, pushing him out of the way.<br/><br/>"Get out of the doorway you dickhead. You didn't go smoking everything did you?" He waved Nikki in.<br/><br/>She entered an old apartment. It was small, gutted of its original appliances. A squat refrigerator had been rigged into a power line that had been pulled up through the floor. It buzzed quietly. Skullface set his assault rifle down on top of it and assessed the quality of the stash which was laid out on a table between a few chairs. Two doors led off the main room, both closed, their contents unknown.<br/><br/>The gangbanger that had started the party before they arrived sat down, giving Nikki a few cursory glances, though he didn't question her presence. Skullface chuckled a little as he pulled off his black coat. As he discarded it and sat down. "Alright... you wanna get high, or real fuckin' high?" He laughed.<br/><br/>"Actually, shit -" he stood up and opened the short fridge, pulling out a bottle of something presumably alcoholic.<br/><br/>"This is Frakkis, by the way... "<br/><br/>The man with the bloodshot eyes waved.<br/><br/>"I'm Cleaver."<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><b>Spook</b><br/><br/><br/>The bikes exited the tunnel, and merged into traffic. Empty roads didn't exist here like they did below. In so many minutes Spook had found herself pulled from the anarchic Dreg, and thrust into the beating heart of Pangu. The bikes didn't let up and didn't conform to any traffic rules. The women gunned it, dodging between vehicles, running on automated routes while the passengers looked on. Spook had to follow Cat's movements closely to keep on the bike as she made quick corrections around the vehicles. Through the windows, surprised faces were startled as the rides zipped past. Most didn't even notice.<br/><br/>On the flanks of the road, suspended over it, were massive video advertisements running in series. Products, fashions, places. Consumer direction in ten seconds or less. An overpass came and went, a walkway for foot traffic crossing the highway to the clusters and buildings on either side. Hundreds of people walked it, hundreds of faces. A fast transit suspended rail train ran along side the highway then dropped away.<br/><br/>The bikes dodged their way to the left most shoulder of the road, a huge complex of structures rising up like an alien cliff face of geometric shapes and lights. Hundreds of windows, roads and byways hidden within. A geisha occupying an entire stretch of wall overlooking the highway advertised a soft drink. The building dropped away suddenly, and below the highway edge, was a courtyard, a meeting of four different roads. Thousands of people occupied the space, coming and going across that meeting of places. An ocean of people.<br/><br/>An exit approached on the left and the bikes took it. Red bands of recessed lights on the road flew by and Spook felt the machines slowing, the engines winding down. The exit split into three lanes after a hundred meters, vehicles having come to a stop in each. Recessed lights on the road indicated the lane's required change of direction. The bikes slowed enough that Spook could safely touch a foot to the ground as they passed up along side the left most turn lane, bypassing vehicles currently stopped. The slow speed's induced sense of velocitation was jarring. It didn't feel right to suddenly not by rocketing past things. They reached the end of the line of vehicles and came to a stop at a red long red line light line, above which hung signs that flashed STOP in 5 languages.<br/><br/>The person in the car that Cat had stopped beside, a woman in her late twenties was busy moving her fingers over empty space in her vehicle. She was linked in to a neuronet interface, Spook knew, typing out on an neurally projected keyboard. The woman paused for a moment and looked to her left, looked at Spook. She blinked, surprised, even a little startled that she and the bike were so close.<br/><br/>The lights all turned to the green and the bikes were moving again, turning left, leaving the woman behind. They rolled casually down the street, people to their left and right. At the head of the procession, their pink haired leader lifted her hand and pointed right. It was a parking complex. The bikes rolled into it, away from the throngs of people, and came to a stop, gathering nearby. Mary pulled her bike around to face them.<br/><br/>She flicked a switch on her bike's flank and a container popped open. She pulled out a uplink unit and pulled wires from it, plugging them into behind her ear. The other rides similarly produced devices and linked up. Obviously they, like many i n the Dreg actively avoided wireless uplinks to the net.<br/><br/>"Shiva, check the traffic routes." Mary said, closing her eyes for a moment then looking around the empty space before her, looking at projected displays that only she could see. "They've moved."<br/><br/>"No... no they're out here somewhere."<br/><br/>"Fuckers." Cat muttered. She plugged in and stuck the mobile uplink between her breasts. She glanced at Spook. "Its not goin' anywhere down there." She grinned.<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>