"It'll work out," she said in a nervous tone, her hand reaching for Rave's as she walked. "It always has for us. Mr Henderson always looked out for us when we were kids, and now that times have gotten hard for him, well... it's up to us to do what we can to help him out now. We're all in this together, after all."<br/><br/>After they had walked two blocks, they were met by a young woman dressed similarly to them, with the same world-weary expression that Switch was cultivating on her own persona. Switch stepped up to the girl and embraced her tightly. "Tina! It's good to see you, at a time like this. Thanks for agreeing to do this for us."<br/><br/>"Of course, uh, Trixie," said Tina, taking a moment to adjust to the script Switch had set up. "Slab is doing his rounds of the business owners right now, so I guess this is the best time for it. Juliet, you're looking lovely tonight. I hope you get what you're looking for out of this."<br/><br/>She led Switch and Rave through the back streets of Avondale, between hulking warehouses and dangerous-looking tenements, until they came to what passed for the neighbourhood's central business district. Usually there would be shoppers and workers frequenting the area, but tonight everyone who was fortunate enough to have a home had shut themselves up, and only the Halloweeners lurked outside. A few trundled around on motorcycles, while others lounged against doorways and abandoned cars. They ignored the three girls at first, but when Tina made her way towards Slab's location, she drew more interest, and a moderately un-crazy ganger intercepted her. Upon exchanging a few words with Tina, he escorted the three of them across the street to where a small knot of Halloweeners had clustered around a storefront.<br/><br/><div class="floatright">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/0/00/Slab.jpg)<br/></div><br/>Slab was a dwarf man a little over four feet tall, and almost as broad, sporting obviously vat-grown muscle on his arms and legs. He was berating a shopkeeper in slow, clipped tones, informing him in no uncertain terms what would happen if he fell behind in his protection payments again. Upon Tina's approach, he turned and scowled at her. "Tina, right? What do you want? You see I'm busy, right?"<br/><br/>Tina swallowed hard, her posture drawing inwards. "I'm sorry, sir. I just need to... there's... you know how Henderson is behind on his payments? This is Trixie and Juliet. They work for Henderson, and they're... uh... they're here to pay his debt. Whatever that takes."<br/><br/>Slab fixed his full attention on Tina, then looked from Switch to Rave and back. "Pay off his debt. Huh. You two? Right, then. You've got thirty seconds to show me how you're worth ten thousand nuyen each to me. Time starts now."