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

Seeing that their previous tactics weren't working, the gunfire from the junk piles came grinding to a halt. With the crane operator far more than dead at this point, blocking off the escape route was no longer an option for the junkyard dogs. Most of them scattered into the corridors where Rennik and Caffran were trapped. A few others began to slowly rise up from behind massive stacks of cars, each bringing round a massive spotlight as they reached their respective platforms. In the graying light, the lights were blindingly bright, casting a heavy glare among those still gathered in the main yard. Sammy let out a cry as some of the lights panned over to him. The salesman scrunched himself up further and tried to make himself look as tiny as possible. His plaid suit made for a perfect target.

"We have you all surrounded!" A voice came from the west. "Get back in your truck and leave, Dalton."

"I just wanted to b-b-b-buy some boats!" Sammy shouted back. He cringed as a bullet struck the ground between his feet.

"Why the muscle if yous just wanteds some boats, Sam?" This time, the voice was higher in pitch, and from the east.

"Muscle?! Muscle!?" Sammy started pulling at his hair with his free hand, waving the revolver over his head, "They were for the boats, you assholes! For the d-d-d-damn boats! They were for the bo-"

What shut Sammy up for a second was the extreme pain of being shot in the foot. After a good few seconds of staring at the bleeding appendage, he shouted out again, full on bawling, "YOU SHOT ME! YOU JERKS THIS HURTS REAL BAD! YOU SHOT ME! AGH! WHY WOULD YOU SHOOT A GUY?!"

In the nearby passageway, Caffran could hear some of the workers laughing.

"Hey Butch, sounds like they shot him, eh?"

"Yeah, sounds like it hurts real bad, eh?"

"Heh, you guys, I wonder if Miss Lucille is gonna come out an' put a bandaid on it?"

"Yeah, yeah! An' maybe- wait!" The laughter was over, "What's that smell? Smells like a cheap cigar. Hey, Butch. Hand me one of dem firebombs, yeah?"

When the shout over the PA system came, Rennik stood still, confused. What did that guy mean? Surely, whoever the voice was, didn't mean shoot the entire party?...right?
The answer to his questions came in the form of a stack of falling cars behind him, blocking his path back to the main group. He was isolated.
He was alone.
He began down the path again, sticking to the shade of the towering piles of vehicles, unholstering his pistol as he went. He couldn't see anyone, yet, but a continued stretch of path further into the junkyard.
He began to hear footsteps, hurried ones, of people heading the down the path into his direction. Quickly looking around for a likely escape route, he jumped inside the carcass of an old truck at the bottom of the closest pile.

And he waited.

The footsteps made their way past the entrance to Renniks narrow corridor and kept on running, leaving him alone in the emptiness once again. Faintly, in the direction they came from, Rennik could make out a small fire and the smell of gasoline.

Archie scooped up Sammy over his shoulder and carted him around the corner of the pilot house. Now if they wanted to shoot they'd risk hitting their boss, unless the house was armored, even better. As Archie put Sammy gently on the ground he peeked around the corner and grumbled.

"Surrounded, he says, we're right up against a wall. Such is the quality of education."

He quickly reloaded and looked around them.

"Where the hell have the others got to?" he muttered angrily.

Caffran listen to the workers laughing and shook his head. Poor Sam, he seemed like such a nice guy and these Feth-wipes were laughing at him. Just before he stepped out of cover Caff heard one of the workers say he smelled a cheap cigar. The former weapons tester frowned. Cheap cigars? He never bought cheap cigars. That irritated him more than them laughing at Sammy.

Caff stepped out from cover and stood behind the workers. In his right hand was a TV Remote, a little thing he picked up from a lovely one night stand just a few days ago. In his left he held his revolver. He drew on his cigar and blew it out slowly. “Now gentleman, I think it would be wise if you dropped your weapons and slowly turned around. Your comment about my brand of cigars has put me in a rather foul mood and shooting poor Mr. Dalton hasn’t helped either.” Caffran was talking for two reasons. First, he would rather not have to shoot these poor basters. Any Nepleslian could be used in the fight against the NMX. Second, it was part of cover. Talk a lot, make them think your either very sure of yourself, which Caffran Canterbury was, or make them think you were all talk and they would underestimate you.

“Course,” Caffran continued in a pleasant voice. “You could decide to shoot it out in which case I’ll have to kill you.” He smiled around the cigar in his mouth a very unpleasant smile. “And a word of warning, I can as the saying goes ‘cut my teeth with a six-gun’.”

Chrys walked through the shop with Minerva, only glancing back to see Alex and that vendor chatting while Lucas worked. She reminded herself to say something nice to Lucas later and something quite unpolite to Alex just to not fall out of the game.

"Sooo Miranda," she said to the smaller woman, her arm still wrapped around her shoulders. "Like I said I need some... special things you might have here. Mainly clothes, since all I have is this and some ugly jumpsuits and I would really like to look more pretty to Lucas. Then some more... interesting stuff. I hope you have things like that here." She said quietly winking at busty lady next to her.

Minerva led Chrys up the stairs in the rear of the store to a small apartment above the main floor; chatting all the way.

"It's, um, Minerva." She corrected. "But you can call me Minnie. Everyone else does. I'll look through my closet for some clothes for you, though, no problem."

After a second fumbling with a key, they were in. Minerva's apartment was sparsely furnished with simple sofas and cabinets. Her bedroom adjoined the living room by a curtain, with a window looking out to the street below. Two pictures stuck out on a vanity near the bed. The first was of her, Alex, and his brother Jacob. They were all dressed immaculately. Jake had a stern look on his face, far removed from the shaky grin of 'Princess Hanako'. Alex, on the other hand, looked youthful and exuberant, as well as ten years younger. His wiry hands held up a pair of fingers over Jake's head in the typical 'bunny-ears' symbol. Next to this picture was a picture taken by a photo-booth. Alex and Minerva were shown, passionately kissing. Minerva was quick to snatch these two up as she loaded her bags. Satisfied with her supplies, Minerva turned back to Chrys and without a moment's hesitation reached fer her butt, squeezing and pulling like a doctor looking for a hernia.

"Let's see..." She said with her head cocked to the side while her hand wandered around Chrys' hips. "I'm guessing about... size sixteen? I've got some bottoms that'll fit you. They'll look really cute." She smiled up at Chrys and added, "And I've got some of Alex's old clothes that might fit your top, for kind of a boyish look that'll go with that hair you've got!"

-----

Lucas heaved the the welding torch and it's customary tank of gas down towards Alex, who received it with little complaint. Next, a spool of wire came down, which was idly passed to Nika.

"Anything else we need up here, Alex?" Lucas asked, scanning the upper shelf.

"Get a sheet of that leather." Alex replied. He hefted the welding equipment to one side and stretched his hand out for the target item. "I need to find an appropriate way to apologize to Alexis Arms for the incident this morning. She seems to be making an awfully big deal of it. Galina, do you need anything from your stand? I think we're almost done here."

-----

"I don't see anyone moving for that truck!" The voice from the west echoed through the junkyard again, "If I don't see people steppin' in thirty seconds, we open fire. If your friends in the back keep their guns holstered, we'll see they get back home. Maybe we smack 'em around a bit first, but we'll get 'em home. So get back in the truck, Dalton. Call of your dogs."

Sammy shivered at the sound of it. 'Dogs' seemed especially frightening to the car salesman who got more than he bargained for.

"I brought the wrong pills for this, guys. I brought barbs, n-n-n-needed pain-killers." He told Archie and Alexis. Sammy tried to lean out and search for the others that had come with them.

In the back corridors of the yard, the men that faced Caffran sneered back at him. For the most part, they seemed to lower their weapons. Their stance was still hostile, it seemed.

"How many of us do you think you's gonna kill, tough-guy?" One asked.

"Yeah, I reckon you kin cut your teeth all ya like before someone else comes along an' cuts 'em for ya." His friend agreed.

The third among them didn't say anything at all, choosing instead to make his statement by lobbing the burning firebomb directly at Caffran and ducking into a nearby wreck while his friends scattered.

Rennik didn't like that smell or sight of gasoline and fire. He knew it was a combination for a bad day, and he was having one hell of a bad day.
He crawled out of the car husk he was in and began to head toward the gasoline in fire. He prayed that it was near something explodable, because he had one hell of an idea...

Jack made sure to kept as much as a low profile as he could, gripping his silenced pistol with enough force to make his knuckles turn white. He had every reason to stay that way, not actively exposing himself but still looking for the best opportunity to attack, until he could smell gasoline. That smell was always a combination for a good day on his book.

He followed the smell of burning gasoline, keeping very close to the piles of junk around him to conceal himself, while his cloak seemed to help immensely in doing so. He knew he got closer until he spotted the smoke from the fire, and even closer when he saw another man duck behind a wreck.He did a quick check to see if he wasn't just about to shoot a friendly, aimed his pistol towards the man and then fired, feeling the slight kick from the weapon and hearing the distinctive 'thwacks' as the .45 bullets were fired.

"Oh blood, me and names." Chrys said and slapped her forehead. "Sorry Minerva." Tall woman then started looking around. It was nice little apartment and Chrys wondered if Minerva will be sorry to let it go. She couldn't not notice the photos. Princess Hanako was there, although he looked liked serious young gentleman and Alex looked as if he had feelings. Past. Chrys knew she herself changed, but not so horribly as Alex.

"Meep," went Chrys as her buttocks were suddenly grasped by small woman. Chrysanthe's first reflex to punch that assailant, but she was experienced enough to know it was nothing. She still freezed solid. "OH warn me next time Minnie." Chrys said with surprised voice. "You know I am trying to grow my hair a little more. I think Lucas will like it more. And thanks of the clothes, I will be happy for anything." Chrys decided to not pay mind to the fact that some of the clothing will be Stalker's. It will actually be funny if he will see her in his old shirts.

Nika smiled kindly as she took the spool of wire. "When shall I collect my things? I have bird too... there must be room for bird." Nika shuffled around so that she could light another cigarette. "Its name is "Fidget. It is mostly only friend that I have." Nika let out an exhale of smoke with a look on her face that suggested indecent pleasure. Her shoulders shuddered and she let out a relaxed all-to-content sigh. "Is very good bird." Nika took another slow drag from her cigarette, nodding her head in an affirmative to herself, "... is very good bird."

Caffran was watching the third man the most closely. He had that look of someone who was about to do something very foolhardy. Soon as the man started to throw his homemade bomb Caff raised his shotgun, shot at it, then dove out of the way. He rolled out of the way losing his hat in the process, came up on one knee and performed a border switch by tossing the now empty shotgun in the air, moving the fully loaded revolver into his right hand then catching the shotgun with his left hand as the revolver came up and fired. He shot at the other two men as they ran for cover then ducked down and quickly reloaded both weapons. His cigar had gone out but he didn’t bother with it.
After taking a deep breath, Caffran got to his feet and ran towards the wreck where the third man had ducked and cut loose with his shotgun as soon as he had a clear shot behind it.

"Relax, man. Relax." Archie soothed as he turned to address Sam's wound, taking advantage of the quiet moment that seemed to have arisen. He quickly worked off Sam's boot and pulled out a small medical kit he'd learned to carry around by this time.

Quietly he disinfected and bandaged the foot tightly. "Don't worry, mister Dalton, you'll still be able to walk after a short rest." Archie said, patting Sammy on the shoulder and taking up his weapon again.

He peered out from behind the office, trying to catch sight of anyone moving or otherwise.

Caffran's stalwart ingenuity was rewarded with a shower of fire as two men fell to his well places shots in the glimmering glass where the firebomb once sailed. Burning gasoline and whiskey mixed together to form a powerful smell and a broad fire. So broad, in fact, the heat singed the edges of the weapon-tester's cigar, nearly re-lighting it. The flames licking at the husks of former cars and the waves of heat made for poor conditions for firing, even a shotgun. This, compounded with the thick frames of Nepleslian cars made the shotgun blast fired at the retreating form of the last attacker fairly useless. More importantly, both men would soon have to abandon that particular section of the corridor, lest they be baked alive. Despite being a simple firebomb, the burning petrol was catching to the oilstains and surrounding gas residue. It was spreading.

Even at the cautious distance Rennik had taken, a warm breeze and bright flashes signaled the detonation of the firebomb. As he stepped closer, the sound of shuffling greeted the appearance of a body slipping out of a car near him with two fresh bullet holes in the chest. It appeared that the freshly corpsified man was preparing to ambush Rennik before he'd met his untimely fate.

-----

With all the ruckus in the back, the more undisciplined spot-light operators panned their lights to the back of the yard to catch a shot of the action. Despite being unable to spot Caffran or Rennik or any of their allies over the masses of wrecked cars and twisted burnt-out shuttles; their spotlights scanned over the wreckage as they struggled to see anything. There appeared thusly a small opening in the blinding light, revealing the more fool hardy operators in the greying light.

Sammy squirmed slightly under Archie's care but kept what little cool he had left during the procedure. He fidgeted with his revolver for a moment before responding to him; all the while searching for a different pill-bottle than the one he'd been sampling throughout the morning.

"It, eh, it's f-f-fine, Wolfie. I, uh, I can..." Sammy's head drooped for a second to peer into his ticket pocket, "I c-c-can find the red ones. The red ones will help me out, yeah? N-n-need the red ones."

-----

"If I warn you, you'll suck in your stomach to make yourself seem smaller!"

Minerva giggled a little bit and turned back to her wardrobe. She produced a few simple pair of pants, along with some slacks and some jeans, holding them each in front of Chrys' frame. It became obvious just how short Minnie was as she held up all the pants that had been too long and too wide for her. They were a bit on the short side, but they all seemed to hang just beyond the tops of Chrys' boots. What was once a pair of dragging slacks was now a perfect boot-cut. Minnie then made quick with the top most drawer of her dresser.

Inside the dusty drawer were all of the clothes that Alex had worn as a teenager. Bowling shirts and simple jackets gave way to black t-shirts and the occasional rock band shirt. Towards the bottom of the drawer, Minnie came towards a deep grey waistcoat with a green silk tie peering out of its breast pocket. This one, she held in the light instead of holding up to Chrys.

"I made this outfit, bought the fabric and everything." She declared, tracing the pinstripes on the fabric with her eyes. "I begged Alex to take me to a dance at a classy jazz club forever, where all the girls wear black dresses and the boys wear ties. He saved up and saved up working for Tillman."

The begginings of tears former in her eyes. "They attacked Geshrinopolis just a few weeks before we were supposed to go. Alex went away to join the Star Army."

Before she had a chance to get choked up, Minerva stuffed the waistcoat into her own bag instead of giving it to Chrys and gathered it over her shoulder. Her smile reappeared almost insanely instantly.

"Oh well! Now I get to have Alex back, and I'll get to live with him on a submarine! That sounds really fun." She cheered, bouncing back to grab Chrys by the arm with the new clothes stacked on top of her bag. "And we can be friends, too!"

With that, Minnie dragged Chrys out the door and towards the stairs.
-----

"I do not keep pets." Alex told Nika flatly, as if that voided any reason for him to respond.

Lucas finished gathering the welding equipment and loaded it onto a dolly while Alex pulled out a cigarette of his own and joined Nika. After a moment of smoke, Lucas became frustrated with the smell and produced his signature cigar.

"I guess all we gotta do now is wait for the womenfolk to do their womenfolk thing." Lucas suggested as the room filled with a small cloud of tobacco haze.

"I do hope they are not taking their time. I have a resistance to run." Alex replied.

"Well, I'd go check on them, but Minnie could be, y'know... Changin' and shit." Lucas continued.

"I have seen them both naked. I do not think either would be concerned about it."

"Oh yeah?" Lucas raised his eyebrows, "Why didn't you keep in touch with Minnie, then, huh Alex? I never heard of her the whole time we were in the Star Army together. You always were lookin' for a quick fuck when we was in port. Why didn't you just call Minnie up?"

Alex didn't reply except to shake his head and motion to Nika. "Come Galina, let us go get your bird."

Rennik backed from the flames in despair. He had hoped to harness the firebombs before they were lit, but it seems he was too late. He backed into a wall, waited for a searchlight to pass, then quickly began to climb.
He reached the top stack of his wall o' cars, and took quick stock of his vantage point.
It seems he was at the top of a large hill of junk, which extended from the top (where he was) all the way back to where he had started near Sammy and Archie. He readied his pistol and was set to begin a downward hike when a spotlight fell on him. He reacted fast; twirling about and firing four rounds straight at the blinding light, or at least he hoped so. He took a step back and fired three more rounds, but on his second step back his foot caught on a rusty edge.
Caught completely by surprise, Rennik toppled backward into a container of some kind. After blinking out the popping lights, he looked around; he was in a boat...and it was moving. Now careening down the hill of junk, he tried to get to his knees to perhaps steady himself amidst all the bumping and rocking of the boat scraping along junk, but he only managed to set off his pistol in the direction of what appeared to be a group of people ahead.

Caffran jumped over the barrier to find the fire-bomber gone. The former weapons tester was about to follow when he realized much to his horror that he had left his hat behind. Without thinking Caffran jumped back over the barrier and picked the clearest path to where his hat had fallen. He quickly scooped it up and ran back to cover. Caff collapsed behind a large side of metal that was acting as a heat shield and went into a coughing fit. His face felt like it was really badly sunburned.

A glance at his hat sent him into another coughing fit with a heavy layering of curses and swears. His hat, his favorite hat was badly damaged. The brim was half burnt off. The crown had smoldered and burnt clean through. Even the sweat band was charred.

Caffran moved away from the spreading blaze to safer ground before he had to stop again to catch his breath. He took a closer look at his hat while he tried to get his wind back. Caff was a sentimental sort, though he tried not to show it. He kept some of his most valuable trinkets in his hat. A picture of his family, a few letters, some ‘emergency’ money, and most recently a lock of hair from a pretty young thing he had met only a few nights ago. The family photo had smoldered some but was mostly intact. The letters and money were almost completely destroyed. Much to Caff’s surprise, the lock of hair hadn’t been damaged at all. Alice…

Caff didn’t have any more time to dwell on it. A spot light fell on him and from pure reaction Caff palmed his revolver shot three times at the blinding light before setting his burnt hat back on his head and moving quickly out of sight. He was mad now. Really, really mad. His face hurt, he had lost a half smoked cigar when he really couldn’t spare them, and worst of all his precious hat had damaged. He quickly ejected his spent shells and reloaded. He was out for blood now.

Archie wasn't not time, he quickly leaned out of cover, took quick aim through his scope and fire before ducking back in away from the expected blast of return fire.

Archie quietly began reload bullets by hand into his rifles magazine, one at a time. "Let's hope the others are doing better than us." he muttered as he topped up the magazine and closed the chamber with a small snap.

Chrys did not jump too much into Minnie's words. It was obvious that the girl had few things on her heart and she wanted to let it out. Also Chrys liked to holding the clothes to see if they would fit. There were many nice things, not sexy, but nice. She can get sexy later. The Waistcoat was something that interested Chrys a lot, but it was not her to wear apparently.

Before Chrys knew it, she was holding pack full of clothes and was being dragged by a woman half her size. "Sure I would like another friend. I don't really have anybody except Lucas." Chrys said. She never though about it much, but it was fact. She did not really know anyone of the group. There were some member she believed in would be able to rely on like Grandpa, but none of them could be called friends. They could be hardly called comrades. Chrys made a mental point to talk with them more later.

Nika stamped out another cigarette and sighed as she waited for the group to assemble. "I would very much like this. Why Mr. Alex, did you get involved with this situation?" Nika tugged at the silver chain around her neck as she pondered lighting up another cigarette before deciding that she had smoked enough for ten minutes. She stretched her neck out left and right then looked over at Alex in askance.

Minerva burst into the bottom floor just as Alex was tucking his hands behind his back and preparing to give a long, drawn-out, lecture quality explanation of his purposes for getting involved with the conflict. He felt a little interrupted by the noise, and provided a raised eyebrow to Minerva's approaching form. Minerva, none the wiser, waved back at him and dragged Chrys through the shelves. As they went past, she emptied the money-box into her purse and kept walking. Eventually they were upon the rest of the group.

"Hi everyone!" Minerva said, bouncing into place clinging on Alex's arm (Much to his dismay) "Chryssie has clothes to wear now! And we're going to be friends."

Alex's face twisted up for a moment, like he was doing the neccesary calculations to figure out how Minerva's tiny clothes somehow fit on Chrys's massive frame. "You gave her... My old clothes?"

"Yup! You're tall and skinny, just like her! She'll look really cute in those baggy shirts you wore when you were still in school."

"Hmph. You are probably right." Alex responded a little briskly, "I had terrible taste in clothing back then. Perhaps it will look, as the youth today call it, 'sarcastic' on her."

Lucas thumbed his lower lip a little and suggested, "Uhm, maybe you mean 'ironic', Lexi?"

Alex frowned back. "Whatever, let's leave."

Outside, the dull grey skies had become more menacing, and the rumblings of thunder drew ever nearer to the group that traveled down the street. Alex, dragging all their purchases on a dolly behind him, had finally started his exposition for Nika's benefit while Lucas slipped off to grab at Chrys' ass on the empty streets. Minnie skipped along nearby humming an upbeat tune from an episode of Yami NekoNeko.

"...And so, as you can see with these numbers," Alex had been providing some carefully explained statistical analysis, "I am the only person capable gathering the resources neccesary and coming up with an effective plan of removing the insurgency in less than six months. Now if we examine the outlying factors; such as the strategists unknown to us and the influence of organized crime on the existing resistance-- then we come to see that my pre-existing relationships with the individuals involved in the uprising coupled with my previous command experience in the Star Army of Yamatai during the Fourth Elysian War provides me a great benefit over the 'stranger' strategists; what with their being unknown, they cannot possibly have the pull and sway that I do with the Black Syndicate and former Red Faction members in this region. Are you following everything so far?"

Minerva seemed to be in her own little world, away from Alex and Nika, away from Lucas and Chrys. "Hm-hm-hum-he-hum~♪ Yūjō wa watashitachi ♫ no unmei ya kūsō o kyōyū shi♪, subarashīdesu!♫~"