Marco nodded his assent to Colin. The guy was right. Even if these people destroyed his shop, well...The thing was going out of business anyways. He hadn't made a cent off of it since he started. He went over to the door, and flipped the sign to closed.

"Here's my number." He said, writing it down on a piece of paper. "We'll discuss business later. Where nobody can hear us." He said, a little louder. "I'm going to go. I'll see you guys later." The bell chimed, as he left through the backdoor. There was a VR arcade not far off. He wanted to mull his decision over there. He had his suspicions that he'd either signed his own death warrant, or made the best decision of his life. Maybe both.

Alexis was in her usual place, in a bar. At least 10 bottles of the hardest stuff the barkeeper had were in front of her, all empty. Alcohol didn't affect her and she could only get buzzed for about 5 minutes until her body fought it off. There were some downsides of her mutations but this was the biggest one.

With a look at the barkeeper, he quickly produced another bottle. He was too afraid to tell her to piss off 'cause most customers knew better than to visit the bar when she was around.

But. Some didn't knew better.

A big human with a t-shirt that barely contained his muscles approached the bar and took the bottle from the barkeeper and looked at Alexis, smiling. His friends were looking at him with grins on their faces and some even cheered.

The barkeeper tried to say something but the big guy cut him off with a glare.

" You have about two seconds to put that bottle back. said Alexis, her eyes turned black and she smiled. Way to many teeth were in her mouth. Too sharp to be human.

The big guy pulled back a little but then saw his friends look at him and he stopped. He took a swing from the bottle, glared at Alexis and said " Or what, bitch ? "

The barkeeper knew what was about to happen and went under the bar.

Alexis's hand changed into a spike and she quickly put it at the big guy's neck. His friends stopped laughing and cheering.
" You're in luck that I don't want trouble with the local militia or you would've been dead by now. Barkeeper ! He'll be paying whatever I drank. "

The big guy started sweating and nodded. Too afraid for his life.

'Your friend inside is all suited up and ready fer da crusades... Look, the drones are already watching.'

I know what I'm doing, mouthed Giggles in his hood. He stood and waited. The situation outside resolved itself in due time. He lowered the von Goethe, and lowered his scowl.

"Another cup. Right." He rolled his shoulders one at a time, his voice a mechanised rasp in the smoke filter. Giggles's disposable phone appeared from somewhere. Paper was for people with time. "Gotcha both a proximity buzz. Number starts with two-nine-three-kappa. Jot me down as Gucci." He chuckled for no apparent reason, as Marco went off to think through his off-planet dreams.

"Looks like it's you, me, and-" the Hound barked. "Muttsy over here. Where'd you get a dog like that?" Giggles raised an eyebrow at Colin as he palmed some Valentine bombs Marco had left behind. "He's not a shipmate's breed, that's for sure. Speaking. You were looking for contacts, right? We're in a boat, then."

Colin fumbled into his pocket for the SHIPBUDDI as he walked back into the store. He began punching Marco in as a contact, as soon as he was done, he got the ping for Giggles, which he named Gucci as instructed.

We're in a boat, then."

" Oh aye mate. Yeah Hound is no jump-frigate lap dog, but he is mighty handy as a engineer's assistant 'bliev it or not. We sort of 'got' each other. We are both just forgotten leftovers, from a war neither of us wanted." Colin eyed the assortment of weaponry in the room as Giggles took his share of merchandise. Colin thought to himself, I can't expect Hound to be our sole protection on this journey, in case something like this happens again, I'll need more then a glorified pipe wrench. He looked over the display case of guns, he saw some that both sides of the conflict used on Wiklow. Many more were beyond his knowledge or expertise. Giggles seemed to know a lot about guns, so he sheepishly asked for help." Say mate, if this armory really is up for grabs, what would you recommend for some one who, let's say, is more accustomed to hiding from gunfire , than administering it? If I'm gonna keep running into bloke's like the badger/humvee hybrid out there, I should at least have some kind of real weapon." Colin scanned the names, calibers and ammunition types of all the weapons as Hound leapt from the couch and sniffed about the room.

"And as far as contacts go, yeah, I'm just looking for some work. I'm more than capable with a ships engines, my hopes right now are to just get out of here, see some more of that great wide wonder. You wouldn't happen to need a ship's engineer, would you? Or know if that fella Marco is changing careers?"

Lucca pumped a fist as he played with his lip ring in victory. YES! He'd just won a combat tournament inside the VR Arcade, and he was feeling excited about it. But his excitement was short lived, however, when his opponent came out looking angry. The dude was tall, but he stood half a foot shorter than Lucca who was 6'6. The human male got in his face, and Lucca firmly pushed him out of it.

"What's your deal, mate?" Lucca demanded.

"You cheated, ya bastard!" said the other male angrily.

"I did no such thing, ye delusional horse's ass!" he snapped. "Ye're just jealous that I beat ye easily, ye twit!"

"Yeah, right," snorted the human. "Cause I'm that easy to beat."

"Actually, ye are," Lucca spat. "Ye couldn't win a fight with a feckin' butterfly, ye thick skulled pansy!"

"Them be fightin words, you Irish bastard!"

"Bring it, asswipe!"

The two began to fight, and while the human was good, he was no match for Lucca's speed. He resorted to trying to pull Lucca's lips ring out, but got a broken nose for his efforts. The cheetah shifter pinned the human and placed sharp, slightly pointed teeth at his throat. The human went limp, having realized his mistake. Lucca got off of him, but he helped the human up, though. They clapped one another on the back, and the other male apologized to Lucca, who dipped his head in acceptance. He had a black eye and a few bruises on his ribs, but his heightened healing process would heal them much more quickly than a human's. He took a deep breath, wincing when his ribs screamed in protest, and ran a hand through his black hair, playing with his lip ring with his teeth.

Giggles tapped his chin, then slung his machete from his belt and handed it to Colin in its leather sheath. "Hit someone real hard with it- Oh, you've got a basher already? No prob. Mm."

Crossing to a display case for pistols, Giggles realised he was a little out of his depth. The first thing to catch his eye was a revolving flechette that would shred a man from twenty paces, and his instinct was to curse the fact that Valentine didn't seem to stock hollow-points (not in the open, anyway). Fun times for him; not quite the kind of thing an out-of-work mechanic would gravitate towards.

"Marco's definitely taking a sideways step on the ladder, yeah," he chatted as he checked the mechanism on a white polymer handgun. "And the two of you'll be in luck real soon if you're looking for a ship on its way out. Things are gonna go a little haywire the longer we're cooped up. Say, I'll help you, I already owe Marco a ride." He passed Colin a pistol with a short barrel and a firm grip.

"Rilke J9. Glove attachment makes it quicker to draw. Not too picky about bullets, so take three magazines and reload whenever you get the chance." The Hound pricked its ears, and Giggles looked up abruptly and somewhat late. "Hey, this might just be mask stank, but do you smell smoke? Crash smoke."

---

---

---

_{Note: Following on from @SIGINT's intro on character sheet.}

Near the outskirts of the city, on top of the last tall building overlooking a long bridge, a sniper lay. Belly flat against the hard merciless concrete ledge, surrounded and embraced by the cold nights unforgiving air. A near full moon hung in the air behind them gifting illumination to the scene that unravelled below.

Through the sight of a military grade scope a young girl in her late teens could be seen upon the bridge. In minutes two teams of fully prepared and armed private enforcers suddenly emerged seemingly from nowhere. Moving with a professional haste and efficiency they quickly took formation around her. Although flanked and vastly outnumbered with nowhere to go, through the crosshairs trained on her face, the sniper saw no hints of concern or regret. In fact the target just smiled...

Was she bat shit crazy?

"no" Anya silently begged as the young girl stared defiantly at her accuser. Before she could retrain her scope a loud bang sliced into the nights still silence echoing violently through the air.
Anya never saw her tumble off the ledge, only catching the faint sound of a distant splash. The result of a long fall.

A second later the nearby radio buzzed to life with a static message. "Sec█ring th█ per█met█r █f th█ c█ty...t█rget ██ █ young woman ███████ █ ████n bodysuit, susp█ct█d to ██ ██ military-grade arms protection...do not █ngage with ballistic fir█..."

Frantically searching around, it was sometime later from the other side of the roof that Anya once again located the target in her sights.
The girl lay washed up on the riverbank like so many other discarded, broken and unwanted things. Drenched, injured and probably confused, Anya watched her as she futilely reached up for the moon.

She didn't seem so special. In fact she seemed barely alive. Anya wondered hard why such a high price was on this girls head. Literally. What was it about her that was worth so much?
"You better make me rich little girl." Anya whispers to herself as she loads her rifle and aims the barrel at her target."At the least you're paying for all this ammo, and you can buy me a damn strong drink!"

Next she flew through a rapid succession of holding her breath, squeezing the trigger, breathing out, reloading, breathing in, eyeing the scope, adjusting her aim and then again pulling the trigger.

Six silenced bullets pierced the cold nights air ending their journey with a wet "Thwack" followed by a small red spray and the thud of a falling body. With those six shots Anya took out 5 operatives, including the lead commander, from her advantageous position. It was only then that they finally caught on to her hiding spot and began sending back stray bullets in her general direction.

Rolling to safety Anya contemplated what to do next as a symphony of bullets whirled loosely over her head. The reasons why she didn't just shoot the girl herself and take the bounty wasn't due to apparent age or gender, God and a few vile men knew that she had killed younger and more innocent targets for less. No. She wasn't aiding her because it was unfair or the right thing to do either. It wasn't out of some sense of heroic honour or righteous justice.
No, the simple fact as she told herself was that what ever this girl had or knew would be far more valuable and advantageous in her own hands over who ever the hell hired all these goons.
Despite this self justification deep down, truly, she would find any excuse to save her. Un-admittedly Anya knew all to well the pain of having a faceless corporation wrench your life away from under your own feet in pursuit of their own selfish greedy agendas. Secretly she always hoped to someday stumble across those responsible for robbing her of her own childhood.

Maybe this girl could be that key. If she could keep her alive.

Colin took the lightweight stubby pistol and looked it over. He did as he was advised and loaded up on magazines, he also grabbed an under arm holster and put it on under his jacket. It seemed the weapon he was given was simple enough, just point and click. He would research more on it on the SHIPBUDDI when he got the chance.

Say, I'll help you, I already owe Marco a ride."

Colin smiled a big, mad smile," Savage, mate! I'm with ya. Bless you." but his jovial attitude's return was cut short. Colin should have noticed what Hound was doing when he sniffed about the room. He wasn't getting the smoke smell, but he was sure that Hound's keen senses were. Colin clicked his tongue to get Hound's attention, " Hound, troubleshoot, smoke." he commanded with the appropriate hand signs that Hound understood.

Hound bristled, as his tail went straight and his nose locked onto the smell. Find the smoke's source.

Colin looked at Giggles, " He'll show us where this crash is if we let him lead the way. That is if we want to jump from one dangerous situation to the next, which seems to be how me day is going. Either way I'm witch ya."

"T██m B, r██████. Respon██"

"████ A repor████...████ B is d█wn...r█t█rning fire ██ ███ top of..."

The sound of faraway gunfire rattled the girl's mind. She was still mired in her dreams from her underwater adventure, as fun as it had been to drift into near-death. Her suit offered superior protection against ballistic weaponry, at least as far as the bullet itself was concerned — but what it couldn't protect against was the force of the impact. A .50 to the clavicle was still enough to sprain her shoulder and knock her body off of the bridge, even if it never reached her skin.

But what had rattled her senses so wasn't the bullet at all, but the moment that the back of her head hit the water. The Mnemonic could correct for chemical imbalances, but it wasn't a shock absorber — a concussion, caused by physical movement of the brain within the skull, was beyond its ability to regulate.

Still, SIGINT felt herself coming back, bit by bit, as she realized that she was in the crossfire of something. And for there to be a crossfire, there had to be...another person firing?

Going over the backlogged intercepted transmissions in her mind, she caught a segment where one of the operatives had named a building that they were firing at. Plugging it into a mapping service was enough to place a neat little red, pointy marker at the location in question.


Reaching out to anyone was a dangerous proposition. She could ping any electronics at the area, but without anything to proxy through, it meant giving away her own location as well — and as far as proxies went, there wasn't any time to commandeer one.

"Te██ C, keeping rout█...h██ding t█war██ city per███ter..."

With an armed squad fast approaching, she didn't have the luxury of thinking her moves through. Firing off a unidirectional, all-band signal, she got something back from...what seemed like another radio that was intercepting the same frequencies as herself. Either it was someone who had mapped their spread spectrum just like she had, or one of their agents had gone rogue. Either way, enemy of my enemy...


"Heya. D█dn't think I'd hav█ a guardian █ngel. Normally, p██ple who are going t█ hell don't get those, r█ght?"

On the top of that building on the outskirts, the mysterious sniper's radio crackled to life with a much younger voice than the ones it had been intercepting up until that point. Moreover, the signal was coming across an entirely different frequency than those of the armed operatives, and was under a heavier in-transit encryption. The encryption was a symmetrical algorithm, so simply by receiving the first message, a return channel had effectively been opened as well. The source could easily be traced back to the girl in the green and white bodysuit, now standing weakly with her back against a wall, holding her left arm gingerly.

Her voice was coming across the radio, but...her mouth wasn't moving? There was no way that the girl could pick out the sniper from her distance, but she was looking in the direction of the building nonetheless, her eyes holding both amusement and wonder in equal parts. After accepting her own death with open arms, she was saved by a stranger? Such a ridiculous turn of events was something that she couldn't help but smirk at.

"Lo█k, I dunno who you are █r why you're helping me, b█t...thanks." The radio crackled, as the girl finally seemed to recover from the ordeal she had just survived. "I hope you kn█w what y█u're doing, though, taking on █hree squads by yoursel█. Well, two, now."

The fact that an entire unit had been annihilated in such short order made it hard to believe that it really was just one attacker. But regardless of the time or place, there were always exceptional people in the world. Like herself! It wasn't outside the realm of what was possible, and there was only one radio atop the building, where all of the fire had originated.

"Say, uh...I don't sup█ose that rifle of yours can shoot tranqs? These aren't gover██ent guys, they're private sector. The company will just hire mor█ people to replace them a█yway, so...really no point in murdering them █f it's all the same."

A beggar and a chooser. Anya had certainly picked out a piece of work to save.

"Well that's fucking creepy..." Anya whispers to herself as a voice takes over her radio. Taking a quick glance towards the girl it seemed to definitely be her but how did she find her so fast? Why weren't her lips moving? How did she access the radio? Anya quickly rolled back to cover. Creepy little girls were the last of her worries.
With her location blown and her actions known she couldn't risk another shot. It was too risky now that she had lost the element of surprise.
Undoubtedly they would be working as a team providing cover and slowly moving forward. Anya was also weary that there would be more closing in around from behind.

Snatching up the radio it was time to move. Firing off a few pointless rounds Anya ran to the the apartment building stairwell. She moved with haste, the large sniper rifle awkwardly swaying around under her arm. As she began descending the stairs she decided to talk to this mysterious stranger.

"OK Got it, shoot for the kneecaps." Anya replied flatly to the voice's last request while rolling her eyes. Her voice was bumpy as she bounced down the steps in rapid succession.

"So who is this?" Anya finally asks as she pauses for a breath at a mid level.
"How can I be sure?" Was her instant follow up question.

As the voice on the radio talked Anya looked around the empty stairwell. Pleased by its in-occupancy she knelt down and began disassembling her rifle as much as possible.

"Look, just 'coz I pissed 'em off doesn't mean that they'll all be coming after me now. Your still the money target and top priority. You better not still be standing around smiling like some dork..."

Anya had stopped on this level deliberately. Hearing a door swing open somewhere in the stairwell below she knew it was time to act.
"Sorry, call you back in a minute darl."
With that she punched out the fire alarm with the walker-talkie. In a matter of minutes the apartment building complex erupted into a raging flood of chaos. Alarms were blaring, people were stumbling around screaming. Others banged heavily on others doors in worry while shouting. Some dashed panicky towards the stairwell clothed only in their sleeping gear. Everywhere people were scrambling around for one reason or another seeking safety and answers.
Anya tried not to laugh, the worry seemed to spread contagious through the building. She couldn't help herself from further instilling that panic by screaming lies at passing people only further feeding their fears and encouraging them more so to quickly vacate.

With the sirens screaming in her ear and her sniper parts bundled in her arms Anya used all the commotion to quickly slip into a recently vacated room. Locking the door behind her she got busily to work.

---

"Can you hear me?" Anya asks over her now modified hands-free head set connected to the walkie-talkie tucked into a small back pack on her back.
At her side she carried an old suitcase almost over flowing with clothes. Cleverly hidden throughout were her disassembled sniper rifle components. Moving with the crowd she just appeared as another worried resident leaving the building.

"Where are you now? Time to meet your guardian angel." Anya smirked as the words left her lips and she passed a confused and irritated operative. Thinking him a man of authority many of the confused crowd had surrounded him and began hurling questions his way.
@SIGINT

"Good lad," nodded Giggles ambiguously. The Hound made an appreciative 'mrff', but if Colin heard it too that was ideal. They were both good lads, really.

But as they moved outside Giggles started to get the feeling that something was off, precisely because the Hound was so excellently trained. All mammals have a keen nose for smoke, and a riot dog like Hound could find Marco's ill-fated pond smack deluxe blunt from blocks away. Now that they were outdoors, Giggles could hear a siren, but...

Giggles and the Hound met eye to eyesac. The Ophan kit was an extraordinary piece of equipment. With his exponentially magnified sense of depth and colour, Giggles could scan the horizons for miles and more, see the faintest stars in the brightest daylight, contrails and windstreams that were invisible to the naked eye.

But the other half of his headgear was not nearly so esoteric. And the airborne soot that should have stood out like a beacon was nowhere to be seen.

A gunshot cracked down the street, dislodging the penny just enough to drop.

"Shit!" yelled Giggles abruptly, smacking himself in the head. He repeated the motion of pulling at his own hair several times until it became clear that he was working at the smoke mask under his hood. "Fucking! Scent simulator! Must've broke in the carp box, I was using it to rebreathe."

A particle filter that allowed its wearer to inhale enough particles to smell was no good to anyone. A better one would have a chemical sampler that plugged into the user's neurons, effectively giving them a safe, artificial nose, but Giggles's kit relied on audiovisual to better calculate what he was supposed to be smelling.

Giggles flipped the switch he was looking for and started to run towards the electric wail, waving for Colin and the Hound to follow. "It's overcompensating for the sound of the alarm! There's no fire. Someone trigged it for cover." A turn and a few metres later and they were at the side of a, well.

Whether it had once been a true river or never anything more than a canal to drain rainwater and provide coolant to the adjacent factories was impossible to tell. It was much easier to see what had happened at its banks.

Someone shot all five of them so quickly that you can see exactly what they were doing. Fucking mercs. Giggles looked back to signal where he was to Colin and the Hound, nothing but a pair of scowling eyebrows still studying the carnage with the Ophan. Bloodsplat angles converge at... Top of one of those buildings there. Firing squad positions, a few shells on the ground...

"Looks like we're late to something," rasped Giggles as his new friends arrived. "Could've been corporate revenge, but all these were killed by one shooter. You don't hire one guy to kill five. Bad practice. Besides, snipers that good ain't cheap." They were at the back of the not-burning building. The canal foamed lazily below. "I have a feeling this was either a failed rescue, or a target theft by one really confident mother fucker."

Giggles could easily fit his submachine gun in his backpack, but he was still holding it in hand. Now he had good reason. "You seem like a good guy, Colin. I'm not gonna ask you to follow me into this kind of business meeting." His head was uncannily still. "But I think my people need me."

Someone was popping corporate cherry, and Giggles was not about to get left out of the action.

As the operative team C moved through the outskirts of the city, the holographic sign of a nearby bar flickered, cut, and then, reappeared with a different image — one of their target standing proudly and smirking at them with her arms folded. The moment they encountered it, it was promptly shot up, before they realized what it was — and before another sign in the same intersection flickered and cut, putting her smug face on a high-up billboard.

In just a few moments, it was everything. Traffic lights, TV screens, holo-projectors, signs, advertisements...every single digital screen in that intersection was replaced with a different image of her face, in a different pose, the only constant being that they all had the same shit-eating grin.

"Oh, you kn█w. Just st█nding aroun█ smiling like a dork."

Deeper in the city, the move would have been an even better distraction, though that would outstretch the number of devices she could affect at a time. A city intersection was filled with dozens, maybe hundreds civilian devices that could be taken over one by one with enough advance preparation. That interstice of streets were chaos without guidance, cars honking, people shouting, and the operatives were frozen, not sure just what kind of trap they were walking into.

It was a psychological one, more than anything else. They were primed to look for her face, picking it out among a number of images that were not her. But plaster it everywhere, and suddenly that classification became troublesome.

Her camo-suit was damaged. It was bulletproof as long as it didn't have water in it, and waterproof as long as it didn't have bullets in it, but it turned out that both at once was a bit much for it to handle. At most, it could change her image to one of the same shape, but with a rapidly shifting, prismatic outline...

...in other words, just like a malfunctioning hologram. The infrared displacement was still functional, so even with their goggles, they ended up not being able to tell the difference. They ran right past her.

---

"L█st 'em. You can hear their radi█ ch█tter too, right?" The voice came across, "I lowered the encryption lev██ a bit, so that this signal sh██ld mix in better with th█ ambient ones. Stealth ██ better than strength at this point, █ ██████"

A strongly encrypted signal couldn't be read if it was intercepted, but the endpoints could still be picked out. And even if they couldn't tell exactly what was being said, a signal with that level of encryption, with an endpoint at a riverside location, was a dead giveaway. Lower the security to be the same as every other signal flying around the city, though, and there was no way to pick it out. Even if they cracked every transmission and listened to them all at once, they would just get a cacophony.

"I'm back ██ the river, same drawbridge as before. Scene █f the crime~ He he he~" Returning to a location where they had already found her, in order to escape, was one of those things that was either a crazy idea or a crazy-brilliant one, depending on context. The girl had trouble reading context sometimes, but she loved crazy, and it was crazy either way, so why not? "As for who I am, y█u can call me SIGINT. I don't give o██ my real name." At some point, she had started using her internet handle as her identifier in the real world. When had that been...? "As for whether ██ █ot you can trust me, wel█, you can't, sorry not sorry. But, you already m█de the decision to side with me, didn't you? ███ could have shot me just as easily, back ther██" That precocious smile of hers damn near came across the static. "I'm interested ██ hearing your reasons, too. People like yo█ don't see a situation like that and go, 'oh no, that po█r person is in trouble, I must save them!'"

Even though she said that, she was still entering a situation where only her 'guardian angel' would have any leverage. There was only one reason that a gunman would want to meet her in person, when they could talk just as easily over the radio - that reason was, as always, guns. SIGINT carried no weapons and was useless in a firefight, as the other person no doubt knew at this point. Even though she was strolling up as confident as ever in form, in terms of function, she might as well be laying herself at the woman's feet.

But, even in a situation like this, she still had a back-up plan. The drawbridge location hadn't been as randomly selected as her crazed demeanor would have someone believe. She had already hacked into the waterway control system, and could raise the bridge at any time with just a thought. As long as they stood on opposite halves of it, she'd have an easy escape, and she knew which side the interloper was arriving from.

"Nice job with ███ fire alarm, by the way. That one██ █ classic, I love it."

---

Drenched, glasses tilted, and with a giant hole punched in her 'bulletproof' suit, SIGINT looked like she had just stepped off of a roller coaster as she leaned back against the same side of the bridge that she'd taken her tumble from a few minutes before. The gunman had already shown her that she had access to this general area, as evidenced by the bodies that were still around somewhere.

...Why would someone save a person like her? The question burned in her mind. She hadn't exactly gone out of her way to get on anyone's good side. Ingratiation wasn't in her playbook. But if what they wanted was value out of her, well, the bounty had been right there all this time up until now. Someone she didn't know, but someone with a vested interest in keeping her alive, that wasn't tied to money...

She was grinning widely before she even realized it. The girl's mind was like a dog, chasing cars and chewing on bones whenever it could. And it was fun. Fun to wonder, fun to think, fun to plot, to unplot. Fun to tie apart the tangled threads, bit by bit, like a jigsaw puzzle.

Common sense dictated that someone with a bounty like hers should have just ignored the person completely, taking advantage of the situation to escape both of them. But instead, she leaned on the railing with a relaxed pose, risking her life in exchange for one simple thing...

...to know.

"Oh my god! Why do I see your face everywhere?
And did you just say your back at the bridge!?
Wh, Bu, Oh. Alright.
At least I know where you are, just stay put and don't get shot again alright." Anya's voice came across in a scolding manner, she didn't even realise or understand why the situation angered her. The more she thought about it the more Sigint's actions actually made sense. Also the more she began to realise that Sigint must be in possession of something that allowed her to override signals.

"Ok then Sigint." Said Anya as she calmed herself and navigated the crowd. "You can call me Kate. So Sigint, I'm hearing a lot of curiosity from you but not much appreciation, how about you start with the answers, like why are all these guys after you?"

It was then, five stories above her, a loud explosion suddenly tore through the sky as an apartment window was blown out by a massive fireball littering shattered glass and burning debris down onto the street far below.
Chaos once again reigned.

Anya picked up her pace and slipped into a nearby alley way that housed a small underground parking complex. Her escape didn't go completely unnoticed though.
"Hey Signal, any chance your voodoo can open this here garage door?"
Anya rattled the barricade searching for a physical lock or way in. Nothing.

The sound of heavy boots entering the dark alleyway could be heard at either end. Anya silently cursed to herself as she activated her camouflage outfit and pressed herself into a dark corner.

"Any second now Signal, just open it a foot then close it. C'mon and help an angel out."

Colin, Giggles and Hound left Valentine Armaments behind them. The ringing of the customer bell it's last occupant. Hound bounded down the street after the smell, but the olfactory target quickly switched to audio when a gunshot cracked out over the drone of the city. As they continued down the street together, the gunshot was shortly followed by the wail of a far off fire alarm. Giggle's gear seemed to give a much better understanding of what was going, something Colin was thankful for. As he lagged behind Giggles and Hound he couldn't help but feel like an old world hunter, following two of the most capable blood hounds in the universe, there wasn't a fox in any system that could hide from these two for long.

As they neared a drawbridge, Hound's tail spun counter clockwise as his haunches lowered to the ground, he was hitting the brakes hard, his nose twitched even harder. without prompt he leapt the guardrail and made his way down to the bank of the old canal. " Slow... down.. Hound.. Oh, Saints preserve us."

The smell of blood recently spilled drew both of Colin's trackers to it's source. A massacre of five corporate mercs under an overpass similar to the one where Colin stashed his tools.

...really confident mother fucker."

Colin backed up under the bridge, trying to hide his vitals as much as possible. He looked down at the mercs as Hound paced from one to the other breathing it all in. Colin clicked his tongue for Hound to come to him, which he didn't do right away, his more predatory instincts wanted all the info he could get about these cadavers. Colin clicked his tongue again and Hound relented.

....But I think my people need me."

For a moment Colin was back on Wiklow, the dead mercs before him dressed just like the Belocorp thugs. Another corporation ruining the lives of people caught in their crossfire. A younger Colin would have hid or ran, he would have gotten in line, pulled out his pockets and put his hands on the wall. Today's Colin had Hound, who looked at him expectantly almost saying Really!? We are just gonna tuck our tails again, this close to finding a ship?! Bare your teeth man! Colin felt the weight of the gun on his ribs and looked at Giggles, machine gun at the ready, head pointed in no discernible direction yet everywhere at once. " All my people are gone now, cause of jacked up gobshites like these fookers. I'm tired of watching that happen to people. I says I was witch ya and when I'm witch ya, I'm witch ya." Hound had wandered back to one of the bodies, clenched his teeth on its collar and shook it for good measure." That clearly goes for Hound as well. "

Colin's SHIPBUDDI screamed to life. He flinched and flailed trying to get it's traitorous beeping to stop. A young girl, about 18, sporting a wry smirk was the only thing on its screen. Try as he might, he couldn't get it off or tell where her picture had come from. Then it dawned on him, he turned the screen to Giggles, as if wasn't already seeing it. " I think this wee lass might just be involved. Your omniscient optics, see her anywhere? See if we can get a word with this smug colleen."

"Why they███ after me, huh? █ gues█ you could say they want my head." SIGINT's words came across the radio calmly, as she stretched out her left arm. It was beginning to feel better after the impact, but it would probably still be sore for a few days. "Well, that██ ████ me being coy with the truth, so █f I'm wanting y█u t█ trust me, I guess I should say somethi██ ████ straightforward, like, 'there's a computer in my brain that they want to take'. Or █s that too str██ghtforw█rd?" The girl frowned a bit dipping her head back and forth as she weighed the matter. Her mouth hadn't moved the entire time, so to an onlooker, it might appear that she was simply thinking to herself very emotively. "To be h█nest, I'm missing s█me piece█ of the puzz███ myself. This can't be th█ only Neural Implant in dev███pment, or ev██ on the market. Something mus█ be special about it, but...eh, th█y are a bunch ██ fat cats, so maybe they're j██t being vindictive, for al█ I know."

---

"Why did you come after me!? I told you to stay home!!"

"We want you back, Anna! Please—"

"You idiot!! They followed you here!!"

"I...no— I— I was sure that—"

---

...She knew that wasn't it. It had gone way too far to be simple vindication, even by the most wealthy person she could imagine.

There would have been no reason for her to be involved, if that was the case.

With a long sigh, the young girl cracked open a can of beer that she had picked up on the way here, from a roadside vending machine. She couldn't remember the last time she had actually put money into one, let alone valid identification. The factory and maintenance codes were things she could track down online, so she just had to ask it for its model number and run a search. Hardly even counted as hacking.

It was then that the explosion rattled her eyes and ears. Slowly turning towards it, Anastasiya rested her elbows on the railing as she gazed out over the reddened water, reacting with an impressed whistle at the scope of the destruction. "Wow, things are getting pretty explodey over here, huh?" She said out loud, straightening her glasses. "...I should prooobably skip town after this."

Reason was beginning to return to her, slowly. Up until that point, she had still been in the mindset of accepting an imminent death, like the last player in a board game doing everything they can to screw over the person in the lead just out of spite. She wouldn't have done something as hopelessly reckless as plastering her face over the airwaves if it hadn't been for that. It was only now that she was realizing, that thanks to Kate's interference, she actually did have a chance to get out of this alive. Probably. Maybe. Eh.

In either case, abandoning her to corporate goons after all of this wasn't the kind of dick move she had in her playbook — although she certainly had quite a few others.

---

Pinging the sniper's radio for a z-coordinate-inclusive location marker, and quickly downloading the blueprints of the nearby building from public records, it didn't take too long to figure out what door she was talking about. There was a slightly worrying period of silence while that information was compiled, though — internally, the girl was cursing that she didn't have her bag of robots with her. Not having visual on anything she was doing was making it a lot harder, and take significantly longer...not that she'd ever let someone else see her sweat.

"You g█t it, act█vat█ng voodoo. Just lemme m█ke a doll █f the buildin██" Kate's radio crackled, followed by a short chuckle. A few moments later, the garage door opened by exactly a foot — and then immediately lowered again, about halfway, as though it were going to slam shut. "Kkkkhhhehehehe...nah, j█st kiddin██" After a short delay, the door was raised to the interloper's requested height. "You've gotta b█ th█ only angel I know who rolls ar█und █n the ground, though. Not that I me██ many angels in my l█ne of w█rk."

"Colin," wheezed Giggles appreciatively, "I get the feeling you're gonna be one hell of a shipmate." His knuckles briefly rapped the engineer's shoulder. "Both of you."

Elsewhere, something exploded. Probably nothing important, but Giggles ducked by instinct only to whip around and watch the falling glass gun-first. Now there would be fires. All good, though. The adrenaline was finally running.

Looks like one smug bitch, thought Giggles, as the advertisement board on the side of the damaged building fell off and gave him yet another view of the smarmy brunette. "Don't worry too much about her or bloodsport for now. I see a chain motor under that drawbridge, 'bout a metre left of the first railing. Do you think you can lock it up?" Giggles kept his head neutral, subtly pointing to the strutting girl with a free hand. "I really don't trust her not to put a river between us, and I really don't want to meet any more fish this week."

He kept studying the young woman. Her hair was wet, her eyes just a little unfocused, and though Giggles gave her at least a six, he doubted that skin tight suit was civilian gear. It wasn't clingy enough, damnit.

...

Oh yeah, and there was a sizable puncture in it, just above and outwards from where Giggles had been looking. His foot tapped. The skin underneath looked bruised. Ideas came into his head, some of them concerning.

He felt like he had a good idea of how to get this smirking piece of shit's attention, though.

"Hey, four-eyes!" Giggles turned towards the girl and waved with his free glove, though he didn't take his aim off the exploded building behind him, or lower his gun too much. He could shoot backwards if he had to. "Nerd with the ponytails! We heard someone was shooting corps and came running. Better scurry and let the big girls take care of it, huh?"

Familiar face? What familiar face? Giggles hadn't seen that face in his life. He put his hand on his hip and fell into a slight pose, then wagged his eyebrows at SIGINT, once.

@SIGINT@LPRKN

"Holy Shit..." Anya cursed in disbelief as the large steel roller door began to lift. Of corse she had asked for this to happen but a part of her remained in doubt, that was up until now.

"Fuck!" She cursed again, this time at herself for moving too slow. The door had began to close already. Then it stopped and raised again.
The footsteps grew nearer and faster undoubtably in response to her not-so-quiet cursing. Wasting no more time Anya dropped her case and pushed it across the floor with a firm fast kick before sliding under the small gap herself with the skill and finesse of a well trained acrobat.

"Shut it! Quick!" Anya demanded standing up and spinning around just as two operatives crashed into the grating from the other side.
Anya recalled they were quite well armed so she didn't hang around or take any chances.

She had wanted a car but unfortunately no one was working overtime tonight in this particular office building. Her shoes slapped loudly across the concrete floor, echoing off the nearby walls with every step. She raced throughout the open small space, closely watched by security cameras tracking her every move.

The bottom level seemed to be fully enclosed. There was no obvious escape from here. Still lugging her suitcase Anya sprinted towards the second level ramp. She was hit by disappointment as a solid wall filled her immediate vision with a possible elevator entrance and another solid security gate. Anya was about call for help when she noticed the thick solid chain binding it shut.

Unable to go forward she looks back. This level had a small opening above the ledge that looked out over the alley way. Directly opposite the alley and in a perfect line of sight from where Anya stood was a four by four foot closed window. From recollection Anya knew the alley way couldn't have been any more than 15ft in width. Or so she hoped.

"Hey babe, how's things on your side? I might be a little while. Gotta stretch my wings a bit." She thought she was being cute but truthfully she grew nervous.

On the floor below her a loud bang was followed by the thundering echo of rapid heavy steps. Still hot on her trail Anya ran. Sprinting as fast as she could she had to time her steps carefully. She only had one chance to get her foot placed perfectly on that ledge.

Bringing up her suitcase like a shield Anya took her first leap. Pushing off her left leg she had to raise her right thigh up high as to land her foot up on the ledge.
Stubbing her toes on the very corner she made it up, but her poor footing had twisted her. Unable to do anything but follow her momentum she continued the jump. Instead of face on she hurtled herself in an almost shoulder-barge position while clinging the suitcase tightly to her chest and awaiting the horrid crash of splintering sharp glass.

...

It never came. Instead there was a heavy thud as she hit the ground hard, landing awkwardly on her shoulder before proceeded to slide right into a nearby wall smashing her head. With blurry dazed vision Anya looked back to the unbroken open window that held the silhouette of a man beside it.

At least her getaway was silent, but what had she got herself into now.

@Dark Light
Lucca had gone back to his rather cheap apartment after he'd won the small fistfight, having had his share of getting into trouble. He didn't like to go looking for it, because it always went looking for him instead. And then he'd heard a strange noise, like a gun going off outside his apartment. He'd gone and opened the window to have a look, the famous feline curiosity of his cheetah side taking over. just as he was about to stick his head out, and object was launched at the window, and he reared back with an Irish curse, instinctive life saving reflexes coming into play.

There was a heavy thud as the object hit the ground and it proceeded to slide right into a nearby wall. The object-no, the girl lifted her head to look in the direction of the window with obviously unfocused vision, judging by the way her pupils were dilated.

"What the bloody feck?" Lucca swore. "Listen, gell," he pronounced girl with a hard G sound. "I dinnae ken who ye are or what ye're doin launchin' yourself at windows, but ye could have killed yourself with a stunt like that." When she didn't respond, still apparently dazed, he shook his head and went over to her to scoop her up and set her on the bed gently, then backed up. Blue eyes flashed into green with slit pupils, the trademark of his cat.

"No' tae mention ye would have injured me as well, and I can't afford an injury," he continued in an irritated voice. "No' until I've got a job and therefore money to feckin pay for said injury." He wasn't about to let her know of his advanced healing process.

She didn't look dangerous, but one could never be too careful, and looks could be very deceiving and deadly. On that train of reasoning, his nails sharpened, lengthening into razor sharp points. No way was Lucca gonna have his good deed turn into punishment.

Anya was just regaining her vision and gathering her thoughts at the same time as a small squad of troops neared the second level parking. It was at that precise and exact moment, not a second to soon, all the power in the building went out. A sudden and instant darkness swept the building. As the mercenaries looked to building there were no signs of activity or escape. _{"Clever girl."} Anya softly whispered.

Back inside the now dark room Anya went to sit up and instantly let out a muffled hiss of pain through gritted teeth as soon as she put weight on her right arm."Holy fherg... that smarts." She whispers with an awkward smile.
"Ah god, it's dislocated. Damn!" Although highly frustrated and in pain Anya managed to keep her voice down.

"Well you gonna introduce yourself or not?" Anya asked speaking to the darkness. "I mean I did just leap through your window and ended up in your bed so how about we just stick to that pace and skip all the awkward dating and romance stuff and hop straight into the friend zone area where you lend me a Friggin car or Atleast help me get the Hell out of here before I scream to God and those Damn Mother fuckers in the parking lot out there turn this Shitty little room into a bullet piñata. Yea a piñata filled with bullets instead of candy!"
After her long breathless angry impatient rant Anya had to pause and breath. Sweat trickled down her forehead as she shivered in pain.

With a soft sigh she spoke again, much more gentler this time.
"There's a bar downstairs right? Take me there. Oh and bring my suitcase."

Anya wasn't in her politest mood. With her current injuries, even though it was a second nature for her, she just didn't have the time or energy for seduction tactics. Hopefully just hopefully, this guy would see her as a damsel in distress and help get her to where she needed to go. And she normally had such good manners.

At this point Anya wasn't sure if her headpiece was still connected or even working at all. Maybe Signit had heard her rant, maybe/hopefully not. She just had to wait for Signit to speak. Meanwhile hoping she was still alright.

Colin smiled and rubbed his shoulder, " Aye, Thanks, We hope to be."

Somewhere off in the distance an explosion shook the air. Hound couldn't help but let out a lone angry bark. This place was starting to look more and more like Wiklow.

Giggles pointed out the chain motor with one gesture, and where he had located the smug lass with the next. She was connected to these bodies for sure, and had enough guts or stupidity in good measure to return to the scene of the massacre and plaster her face halfway across Frixion. She was standing on the top side of the bridge directly across from them. If they were to make contact with her on the bridge, the drawbridge would have to be disabled. Not a problem. Colin looked back at the merc bodies and Hound's eyes followed his," Hound. Fetch carabiners." Together Hound and Colin collected all the carabiners off of the dead mercs. Their gear held a few each, either for weapon carrying, repelling, or what other nefarious needs they had. Colin took the hand full of strength tested clips and crept over to the chain and motor. He clipped all of the carabiners in clusters on the chain. As the chain was fed through the winch, the clusters of steel would gum up the works and burn out the motor.Colin caked some mud from the canal in the motor as well to assist in the burn out process. With his tools Colin could have torn apart the whole motor in a matter of seconds, but sometimes you have to work with what you got.

Before Colin had finished, Giggles attempted to speak with the girl. Colin wasn't sure if she would run or seek their aid. If it was the former, at least the drawbridge wouldn't separate them. Colin eventually hustled back to Giggle's side with Hound in tow. The masked figure was putting on a pose and attitude that was the most feminine he had seen since they met, throwing confusion about Giggles gender into Colin's mind again. Either way, they would be brother's or sister's in arms if this went south, it didn't much matter to Colin or Hound.