RP: Taking It Back [Time-out!] New Players, New Problems

Nika smiled, "Well isn't he cute." Nika raised her head with closed eyes and smelled the air, then slowly lowered her head. "Water..." She said quietly, "Well, this is place. Happy hunting now. Also that will be 15 DA for being guide." she smiled with a finger in her necklace absently tugging at it. "Perhaps I will browse crappy store as well..."

Chrys was looking at the store. She leaned against Lucas and though if there was something she needed to buy. She ignored the girl calling Lucas a dummy, especially since she ended with that. If she would not well... it was lucky for her she did.

"Say Lucas," she opened up a conversation. "What do we need? I mean except from explosives and all that stuff, we have chance to get things that would make our... alone time more interesting, don't you think?"

"Uh..." Lucas stared dimly at Chrys for a moment. If one could see figurative objects, there would be a bi-plane holding Chrys' question on a banner trailing over Lucas' crown at that moment.

"You can get whatever you want, sister!" He said cheerily, at last. "You can keep stuff in my room if you don't have enough room in yours!"

Ahead, closer to the store, Alex silently pressed a twenty-DA bill into Nika's waiting hands. Then, without saying anything else, he walked in the front door.

Inside, the store was a wonderland of hardware supplies. Massive machining tools and street-drills hung from the cieling of a cramped former storehouse-turned-storefront. Simple wooden racks towards the back held many items that could commonly found in a gun store; including ammo crates, spare rifle parts, charging stations for energy weapons, and other assorted military miscellanea. In a wide open space by the front was, sitting out for all to see, a massive chain-gun with a box of ammo fit for the back of a truck. Lucas noticed this as he ducked in behind them, a boyish gasp of excitement filling his throat.

"I'm going to look for the owner, Lucas..." Alex glanced over his shoulder at the gaping ID-Sol and sighed. "Try not to break anything."

-----

Sammy squinted through the glass at Mitchell once more before rapping on the glass softly with two fingers.

"Come on, guy, you owe me a lot of money." He said, "You could at least pay me back by giving me a good discount on some junk."

With a resigned breath, Sammy turned back to the truck. "You g-guys... Uh, you can go look around for some boats with intact hulls, if that's alright. Don't worry about the motors. We can handle th-that-- uh, the, um... We can put motors on them."

Archie debused from the vehicle slightly stiffly, he walked a few steps to shake it out as he surveyed the junkyard. The description seemed pretty accurate. Archie sighed as he saw Sam's attempts to wake up the fat man.

"Excuse me, sir, let me try." He said as he delicately shifted Sam out of the way.

Archie smashed the butt of his rifle against the glass near the foreman's head, once, twice, three times. Each hit widening the gap until he could reach an arm in, yank the man by the collar and pull him to the window so his face was pressed hard against it. Archie plastered a 50DA bill against his side of the glass in front of the mans eyes, a pretty clear message.

Having woke up now from his brief nap, Rennik hadn't heard Sammy say that the new guys might be better than him. He just rubbed his eyes and plodded on out into the junkyard. His mind was a little fuzzy, so he wasn't completely aware of all of his surroundings yet, just taking in the sights of the rust and thrown away objects.
He trudged along, looking for boats, or something that could be used as a boat. It was then his drowse-filled brain caught up with the rest of his body and he realized he was in an area full of scrapped cars.
~Great~ he thought.

Chrys looked at Lucas. She though for a while first. All her things were already in his room, and she never even had a room of her own in the first time. Maybe Lucas still did not feel too solid in their relationship. Maybe he changed his mind. Chrys dreaded such thing. She did not really see them married and with adopted kids in few years. Not at all, she was not naive. The tall woman would still like for this to keep going for a while.

"Well okay," she replied at first. Still holding his hand. "Well we will certainly need some lube. What else?" Chrys asked him.

Nika pretended she did not hear the part about explosives and went into the store. She wandered about inside and found various seemingly useless items, a handful of keyrings, a handful of small springs, and some nails. As she walked about she surveyed the lack of security in the place and when it was convenient she slipped the items into her satchel bag unnoticed and continued browsing.

Satisfied that she found all she was going to find of interest to her, she took to seeking out her recent tour group to spy on them whilst pretending she was shopping... she paused and grabbed a can of shaving cream to hold in her hand then sought out the other three. "What are they wanting to blow up?" she pondered, walking down an aisle.

Caffran got down from the truck and took a good look at his surroundings before following the Sammy. He smiled at the business man’s attempt to wake the owner then laughed out loud when Archie grabbed the man. “That’s one way to do it.” He turned and headed for the junkyard. “I’ll find you a nice yacht Sam!” Caff yelled over his shoulder. “A 35 footer sounds about right. With two sails, a full kitchen and bath.” He laughed at the mental image of Sam wearing a captain’s hat and an ascot aboard a privet yacht.

Alexis swung out of the truck with the rifle over her shoulder, and hooked her thumb on the smooth handle of her revolver as she moved up behind Archie.

As she walked, taking the place in, boot heels crunching into gravel, she couldn't help noticing that the clouds made it difficult to pick out the sun. Hazy gray, they let in only a few slivers of light, enough that what few beams penetrated seemed blinding. Sooner or later, when it started raining, there wouldn't be any sunlight at all.

After being on a submarine for so long, Alexis found she had to shade her eyes. Even the ride over here hadn't really acclimated her to the surface world, again. But wouldn't it be too much, to wear sunglasses just for a few streamers of light?

She stopped by Sam, and looked into the window with a frown and more than a passing amount of pity and a little bit of shame. Even if he was a bum, they didn't have to rough him around like this.

"Please just you know, do like he says."

Finally stirred from his slumber by force, Mitchell gathered his bearings and eyed the hand gripping at his lapel through the broken glass.

"Old man, whatcha doin'?" He snapped, his eyes wandering over to Sammy. "Oh, Sammy. You're here for the money I owes ya, huh? Brought an old man an' a lil' goil fer muscle I sees."

The eyes of the junkyard owner panned over the three of them as sweat began pouring down his forehead. In his tired state, Mitchell seemed mostly unaware of what exactly was going on. After a few seconds of staring hard at Archie, Mitchell snapped up a microphone on his desk and shouted, "SAMMY DALTON IS HERE WITH SOME THUGS TO STEALS ALLA OUR MONEY! SICK 'EM BOYS!"

Immediately, Mitchell ducked away, pulling free from Archie's grip and slippling into the safety of underneath his desk. As he dropped down, Mitch pulled a metal shutter along behind him, just barely missing Archie's outstretched arm.

In the next few seconds, everyone would be able to hear the sounds of guns being loaded and racked. The hunt was on.

-----

Just a moment after he left, Alex returned to Lucas and Chrys. He was alone.

"The owner does not seem to be present." He said.

Lucas pulled his train of thought away from lubricant to the matter at hand. "Maybe old man Tillman's in the john or somethin', Lexi. We'll wait for him."

"Perhaps. I saw one of the more recent models of my ocular implant under the glass at the counter." Alex replied into an anecdote, "So I would definitely like to stay insi-"

"Lexi?" A sharp, high pitched female voice interrupted Alex, followed by the sound of running footsteps. As if from the void itself, a short young woman emerged from the shelves. She had pale white skin and short black hair. A massive chest heaved its way infront of her and into Alex mere split-seconds before her arms wrapped tightly around his waist, engulfing the lanky mathematician in a deathlike grip of pure affection.

"Lexi, it is you! I haven't seen you in so long! I thought I'd never see you again!" She squealed into his chest. Alex looked down at her with some agitation visible in his face.

Still, he took a fairly mild tone as he stated, "Minerva Ipps."

"You remember me?!" She said, soft eyes looking upward into his cyclopean gaze. "Of course you do, we went through so much together! Oh, Lexi, it's been so long."

Alex looked back up to Lucas and Chrys with no visible emotion and said, "This is Minerva Ipps."

Lucas nodded, wide-eyed.

Archie sighed as he quickly examined his narrowly spared arm.

"Diplomacy has failed us." He said simply, opening the chamber of his rifle and inserting a round.

"I was hoping to avoid startling the locals and starting a needless firefight, now it seems we have no choice. Sam, just what did you do to these people?" Archie said as he scanned the wreckage in front of them casually, using the office for cover.

This was enemy territory, the junkyard dogs likely knew all the secret routes through the place. They'd have to enter carefully.

"Lets have at it, ya mongrels." he muttered darkly.

Caffran spotted the hull of a boat almost as soon as he walked into the junkyard. A big 35-footer leaning on its side against a pile of assorted scrap metal. The hull wasn’t in the best shape but it looked like it would hold water. Caff wandered over and gave it a quick glance. It looked like alright but he wanted to have a look at the inside. Climbing up onto its deck was a bit of a challenge but Caffran finally made it. He had just bent down to look into the hold when he heard over a loudspeaker: “SAMMY DALTON IS HERE WITH SOME THUGS TO STEALS ALLA OUR MONEY! SICK 'EM BOYS!”

Caffran spun around and ducked behind the pilot house. His “TV Remote” was in his hands and he looked back towards the front gate where Sam had stood talking to the owner. He was about 50 yards away and was about to yell and ask what the Feth was going on when he took another look around. If no one had knowtest him getting into the boat this he could be in a good position to provide some cover fire. Caff decided to keep his head down and not give away his position just yet.

Sammy made a nervous cry as a bullet seemed to emerge from a nearby pile of rubble and ping off of the shutter. Sammy reached into his coat and huddled against the wall of the small shack, to put his hands over his head clutching tightly a small snub-nosed revolver.

"I just gave them a loan!" He cried, "I was trying to be nice! I don't know what I did wrong!"

Nearby, a crane sprung to life and started turning slowly towards the truck. As it moved, it toppled over two stacks of cars, one blocking off the path that Rennik had wandered into. The other sealed in Caffran, leaving the two of them isolated in a maze of broken up cars, boats, and the occasional demilitarized troop hauler. Slowly, the crane lowered towards the truck.

"Call them off, Mitch!" Sammy shouted, "I just wanted to buy some stuff!"

The loudspeaker roared up again, "Yous guys in da back! Get the Killdozer running!"

"K-k-k-killdozer!?" Sammy shouted with tears forming in his eyes, "What d-d-did I do t-to these guys?!"

The bullets came again, this time from another junk-pile. Fortunately, it seemed like it was hard to aim from the hiding-places.

"That, could've gonne smoother!" Jack said as he jumped out of the truck and moved to take cover behind a pile of scrap metal. He tried to keep a low profile and find a way to flank the assholes shooting at him from another junk pile and get the drop on them.

He pulled his hood up, then searched his webbing to grab a small pipe bomb with one hand and his silenced sidearm with the other before he started moving to where he could just throw it over the cover and blow the shooters to pieces.

Archie didn't flinch as the bullet pinged off of the shutter. Instead he reopened the chamber on his rifle, catching the ejected bullet before it could hit the ground, and inserted a new red-tipped one.

"Alexis, can you take care of that crane operator from here?" he asked as he closed the chamber, quickly aimed at the first pile of rubbish where a shot had come from and fired.

Trash erupted as the mountain became a small volcano, a man fell from his hiding spot and tumbled down a short way before braking himself and trying to get back up.

Archie meanwhile and rapidly reinserted the plain old bullet he'd removed before, aimed quickly, and fired again. There was a cry and the dislodged shooter stopped moving.

Archie opened the chamber again and sniffed at his handiwork.

Raven simply smiled as he heard the commotion, unslinging his rifle from his back, dropping to a knee and as he sighted through his scope fired a pair of shots at the crane operator before ducking back into cover and attempting to locate the other shooters before they managed to flank the rest of the team.

Chrys was quite surprised. Someone other then Lucas was showing human emotions towards Alex the cold fish of the frozen lake. It was woman too and Chrys could plainly see, that the woman cared about Alex and was happy to see her. That surprise hug was good way of showing that. Alex did not seem to be so happy about it though.

"Well greetings," she said, still holding Lucas's hand. Her right hand extended into shake, when the girl would be ready. "I am Chrysanthe Chronis. I take it you know Mr. Sta- I mean Alex." She said with smile.

Minerva peered around Alex at Chrys. Her eyes scanned over the extremely tall woman before she answered, with a hint of excitement in her tone, "Lexi and I grew up together. We even shared a room with his brother at one point, when the orphanage was really crowded."

After a moment's more hug, Minerva seperated herself from Alex and stuck out a hand to Chrys. "Minnie Ipps, Owner and operator!" She proclaimed.

"Oh great! PLeased to meet you." Chrys said and smiled. She noticed the mention of Orphanage and looked at Alex, seeking how he react to some of his past being revealed. "Well we came to shop, but we can of course talk while we do that." Chrys said with cheerful smile.

Alex lifted up his hands to dust the Minerva off of his coat. He was only a few strokes into this act when Minerva crushed him in another powerful hug. The mathematician grunted in frustration and asked, "Minerva, where is Tillman? Why do you own this place now?"

"Tillman died last year, Alex." She said, backing up just enough to meet his gaze, "Left the store to me, since I've been working here since you went off to fight in the war all those years ago."

Alex frowned. "So the old man is dead, now. I had estimated another five years for him."

Lucas chimed in with, "So what about the stuff, then?"

"Ah yes," Alex said, "Minerva, do you have any fertilizer here?"

Minerva frowned. "No one really does any gardening around here... So, no."

"How about explosvies." Chrys asked aloud. She did not really care much about secrecy and all that. That girl is from around, if she did not own any of the black market things, which she most likely did, she knew where to get it.

"Miss Chronus!" Alex snapped back, "Do you care nothing for secrecy?! Ugh. Yes, we are trying to make explosives."

Minerva frowned deeper. "For what, Lexi?"

"It'S Chronis," Chrys jumped in. "I thought you know this woman and even if you could not trust her ti changes nothing. We don't have much time. So yeah I care nothing for secrecry. Are you going to tell her what we will blow up or should I?" She said with frown in her face.

"We keep our actions a secret not just for our safety. At this rate, we're going to have to take both her and the street vendor woman back to the ship with us, lest they be taken in the night." Alex explained. "We can't just bring the entire city aboard the submarine, can we?"

"That would happen anyway Stalker and you know it." Chrys said. "If we are followed, they would take them just for spending time with us. Her-" she pointed to Minerva. "Just for hugging you. It is clear she knows you, which means Misshu bastars will want her. Thought of that Calculator head?"

"She's right, Alex." Lucas agreed, nodding his head in a sagely manner with his eyes narrowed. "We have to take her back now, by your rules."

Nika watched the display of friendship with disinterest, only discerning that things were not as the travelers originally thought. Still hidden, it became apparent that this Alex intended to make a bang given the fertilizer and what that tall girl said . Nika pondered whether to make money off of this or return home. Feeling that the opportunity was ripe for being made awkward Nika stepped into view. "Well maybe not whole city, but leave my room open as I will be joining." Nika said with a grin.

"You guys are fighting the Mishu?" Minerva said, clutching at Alex's arm, "You should take her with you then. That lady was selling some weapons the other day just down the street from here."

"It's not like that, Minerva." Alex said, "We don't just take gun vendors off the street and-"

"What about Alexis?" Lucas interrupted.

"Shut up. Damnit. Okay, I need to think." Alex straightened his lapel. "Can I go look at the ocular implants, Minerva? While you stay here? I need to be alone."

Without waiting for an answer, Alex roughly seperated himself from Minerva and moved towards the back. Lucas sighed and shook his head. "Poor Alex. He thinks everyone is gonna be like him."

Nika lit a cigarette in the store while everyone bickered.

Chrys looked a vendor that came in with them. THat woman agreed all too happily. SHe might be a misshu spy really. That woman approached them, got them into talking. She might be playing them. Or. Or Chryst just might be awfully paranoid. Every Nepleslian should jump happily at the cause of killing MIsshu.

"I am sorry we dragged you two into this." She told , truning her head to Minerva.

Minerva shook her head sharply. "It's great! I'll get to live with Alex again?"

Lucas groaned, "Yeah, but it's more than that, lady."

"By the way Eyepatch... I am not simple gun vendor... I sell trinkets too." Nika said in cold seriousness.

"Well Welcome aboard you two. But be prepared for live on a Submarine. It can get little crowded." Chrys said, but then she looks at Lucas adn said. "Unless you have place where you can escape too."

"I tend to be able to find small places of escaping, anyway. Besides, I have had to deal with far worse." Nika shrugged.

"What all exactly is it that you do?" Lucas asked. He leaned forward enough to not be towering high over Nika as he waited for her answer. In the back, Alex could be heard shuffling through the piles of implants that were under the counter.

"Why, I sell toys and the like, my boy... what does look like?" Nika replied.

"Uh..." Lucas squinted at the response. "Yeah, I get that. Um... But why do you want to join the resistance? To sell toys?"

"Well now think about it. If the Squids destroy business, then no one buys toys anymore... better for business that they go." Nika said.

"Well, can you fight?" Lucas asked.

"So you know Alex?" Chrys asked Minerva while her boyfriend tlaked with the vendor-girl. "Was he always such a cold calculating b-... man?"

"What do you mean?" Minerva cocked her head to one side, "Alex has always been really nice, and he likes to make jokes. Maybe you're thinking of Jake? Jake was always the serious one."

Nika smiled and said, "I do not care much for fighting anymore, but yes... I can. I have lived on the streets for some time, after all." Nika put out her cigarette on the floor and continued, "my more valuable skills are not of the combat variety, however... I can get things... get into place I do not belong... and walk away with more money... or things to make me more money."

"Right, right." Lucas eyed the stamped-out cigarette hungrily. "Things, places, walking, money, nice. Maybe it's a good thing we ran into you after all."

"Well Minerva, if I may call you that." Chrys said and smile left her face. "You can call me Chrys by the way. Well I think you fill find out a lot has changed. Though it is better if Alex will tell what went on." Chrys said, not noticing that she actually called that man by his name.

"They had it!" Alex emerged from the back, looking satisfied. His eyepatch was pushed up onto his forehead and in its place, shoved into the metal socket where his left eye used to be was a white metallic ball with a blue LED peering around the store while his normal eye glanced over the people assembled before him. "How much for this, Minerva?"

Minerva ignored the question, running up to Alex with a distressed look about her, "Your eye! Lexi, your pretty marble-y eye! You got it taken out! When did you do that? Did they make you do that during the war?"

"I actually had it done on my own, after the war. It is much more efficient this way, Minerva." Alex explained, still fiddling with the socket.

"No!" She protested, "You looked nice the other way! You did just fine before."

Chrys could not believe what she was looking at. That little woman seemed to get to Alex a little. To Mr. Stalker, Mr. Coldhearted, Mr. Cool as Cucumber. And they only met again now. What will Alex be like after few weeks? Will try to evade Minerva? Chrys could not help but to look at Lucas with wonder in her face. Lucas only looked back with a similar expression of amazement, before whispering, "You should've seen his nasty eye that he had before he got the implant, Chrys. It was nasty-looking."

"You mean like it was worse then that mechanical he had up to know? Hard to imagine that." She whispered back and then took her attention back to Minerva and Alex.

"Well, Minerva. The other one is still in a jar at my apartment if for some reason you'd like to observe it again." Alex said with a casual air, "And I've thought about it and... The two of you can come along. But you'll have to do some kind of work."

"Ariana said she could fight, and somethin' about guns and walkin' and money, Alex." Lucas reported, suddenly looking upbeat. "She is a thief and a rogue." Chrys plainly stated.

"Oh, good. We need a theif." Alex replied, then turned to Nika, "Do you have any military experience?"

"Experience, yes... military? Not exactly." she replied.

"You could always frisk her. See if she has guns and how she has them holstered." Chrys said and shrugged. "If their are just behind belt of her pant thne she just thinks she is trained, if they are in proper holster and easy to draw, she had some kinda of training. It is simple as that."

"Say what you will... lay a hand on me and I will remove it." Nika retorted.

"I doubt that." Alex muttered, "But I don't need to touch you, anyhow. Your word will suffice. Mainly because a lie will probably end in your death on the battlefield. I should think that is enough to coerce the truth."

Nika smiled.

"Anyhow. Lucas. Gather that welder over there and whatever other things we need." Alex dropped the issue of Nika's record and moved on to instructions. "Minerva, go gather whatever you need to sleep. We will find something for you to do in the vehicle bay."

Before Minerve could leave though, Chrys left Lucas and joined her. She put and arm around her shoulders. "I will help you out," she said and then whispered. "I also want you to ask about some of the stuff you have here, but not in front of Lucas. I can pay don't worry."

After everyone went their seperate ways, Alex was left alone with Nika. He glanced at her with both eyes and said, "Now that they've all left, I think it's time that you told me everything I need to know."

"Such as?" She inquired.

"For starters, your actual name, then you can tell me how you managed to get out of the IPG without a hefty retirement pension and a nice house on Nepleslia Prime."

"..." Nika looked blankly at Alex for a moment. "My name is Galina... you need not concern yourself with the rest of the details... let us just say I was not happy and left a bitter taste in the mouth of others."

"For aiding the enemy?"

"No... politics reflect selfishness and little concern for little people... I stood by and watched countless decisions made by those over me that were of no help to the most of people and great benefit to an elite handful... I left because I wanted to serve my people and protect them... not bullshit around helping those that had enough as it was... I am not the intrument of corrupt politician." Nika monologued.

"You should meet our corrupt politician. I have him serve our breakfast." Alex replied. "What is your name?"

Nika sighed, "Mr. Alex, was it? Do you really want to go through with this... you will keep not trusting my name and I will keep feeding you new one until you stop... a name is not important anyhow. Actions are. I will give you my name in time; this relationship could prove a good one, but for now... well... forgive me, but I intent to remain cautious for time being."

Alex sighed and nodded along with Nika's statement. "A prudent decision. I was merely trying to save myself the trouble of hacking into the IPG database. Perhaps, though, I will come to trust 'Galina' for the time-being. I always did have a fondness for the Kennewisian flower of the same name."

Lucas' voice rang out sharply from a nearby step-ladder, cutting the conversation short. "Hey, Alex! Stop hittin' on Ariana and come help me get this thing down!"

Jimmy said:

Archie didn't flinch as the bullet pinged off of the shutter. Instead he reopened the chamber on his rifle, catching the ejected bullet before it could hit the ground, and inserted a new red-tipped one.

"Alexis, can you take care of that crane operator from here?" he asked as he closed the chamber, quickly aimed at the first pile of rubbish where a shot had come from and fired.

Trash erupted as the mountain became a small volcano, a man fell from his hiding spot and tumbled down a short way before braking himself and trying to get back up.

Archie meanwhile and rapidly reinserted the plain old bullet he'd removed before, aimed quickly, and fired again. There was a cry and the dislodged shooter stopped moving.

Archie opened the chamber again and sniffed at his handiwork.

Click to expand...

Alexis, who had stepped around the corner of the building for cover, said, "Whatever!"

She flipped the sight up on her rifle, which had somehow found its way into her arms. She could feel the weight in her left, but not her right; her right was fine. The trigger was the only thing she could feel - that was because it was artificially making her feel it.

In fact, it was the most sensitive part of her body. Or at least, it felt like it, just then. Trying to steady her breathing - all these gunshots had kicked her adrenaline into overdrive. At once, she felt sick, as if she were going to vomit, or wet herself, and Alexis knew that weak-knee'd feeling was sudden fear.

She'd never actually shot anyone before.

So being told to shoot someone. Specifically someone. I mean, you know, just shooting in the general direction was OK too, you might hit or miss and you never knew. She could just start firing and hope she'd hit something, and wouldn't even have to see it.

But no, this was something he'd... asked her to do.

Sliding down to a crouch, Alexis cradled the rifle and thumbed her sunglasses out of her coat pocket. She flipped the rifle sight back down. Yea, she'd just flipped it coz' she was being jittery and it was automatic, but he wasn't that far away from her. Even if her hands could sweat it would be hidden by the fingerless gloves; the grips might as well have been rubberized. Perfect grip. She glanced back around the corner and found the crane operator, centering her targeting reticule on him.

Distance wasn't that great. Wind speed was negligable, here; this was the calm before a storm. He was ducking - she could see the sparks from the bullets, from someone firing at him. He'd be hard to hit, like that.

Head bobbing... yea, yea, he was angry wasn't he? Or was he laughing? Or scared? And did it matter? She could take him. All Alexis could hear was the pounding of her heart, and under that, the rat-a-tat gunfire all around her. What am I doing here, shooting these people?

Not a person.

He's not a person he's not a person he's not a -

Krak!

The crane continued swinging - but it swung aimlessly. The man was dead on the console, a perfect spiderwebbing crack blossoming in the first window, and the spatter of his brains painted the rest of the cabin.

She was crying but the tears didn't matter; she was zoomed in. The only way she wouldn't see them dying would be to shut her eyes. Her hands were numb. Shaken, she ducked back into cover.

"God damn it," she whined, "I shoulda' pee'd earlier!"

Caffran looked at the mess around him. He was cut off by a wall of scrap metal. Like a child throwing a fit he sat down with this back to the pilot house and crossed his arms. The scowl on his face would have curled milk. He wanted a smoke but had weeks ago ran out of tobacco for his pipe. He did have a few cigars left and decided that now was the time for one. After lighting it with a match and taking a couple of good pulls on it he felt much better. The sun was shining, the guns were firing; aw this was the life. Having worked several years testing and designing weapons Caffran could pick out and identify every weapon that was being fired.

He heard the distinct shots of Archie’s Styrling Longbolt and Raven’s Standard General Assault Rifle. He could also hear the wide variety of shots that were being fired at them. “Well Caff,” He said to himself as he drew on his cigar. “Some friends they are. Having a party without you. Not that they could do anything about it.” He sighed as he looked at the wall of scrap metal. “Looks to me, ol’ boy, like you’re going to have to find your own way out of this mess.” With his cigar held firmly in his teeth and his “TV Remote” in his hands, Caffran jump down from the boat and began to search for a way out of this mess.

He hadn’t gone far when he heard the district sounds of a rifle firing. By the sound of it, it couldn’t be one of his friends. One look at any of their guns and you could see that they kept them in top condition. This weapon sounded as if it hadn’t been properly cared for. Caff knew the sound of a gun that was about to jam like he knew the sound of his own voice. He drew on his cigar and waited for the firing to stop. Once it did, he would move forward quickly and take the thug out.