[IC] Paint

[Commander]

What the hell, was she like eighteen or something. It didn't matter to him, he was to report to her, share some intel and get the fun started. Trevor extended his hand and gave her a firm handshake, "Pleasure is all mine. Northgate uh, it's one of a kind, I'm going to miss running people down with my truck though." he smiled a little, guessing she'd realize it was a joke, well partly so. "There are other cities trying to replicate what you have going on here which will most likely lead to similar, problematic groups popping up. The prediction is what starts with breaking curfew, leads to the spraying, which will just keep building up into more serious issues. My department wants to gather data and trends and all that kind of bullshit so we can try and hit it head on." he tucked his hands into the pockets of his hooded sweatshirt as he spoke.

"I'm going to be frank with you, I couldn't care less about this graffiti thing, that's a local law so personally I'm going to try and nail them for federal drug or weapon charges. I'll help drag them in for anything but look at this this way, we both win regardless and they're off the streets. So what's the scoop anyway? Got any current leads? I'm itching to hit the streets, it's where I operate best." Trevor stated, tilting his head to the female as he waited for a response. He thought about offering twenty bucks a head as a competition, but he figured he'd wait to see how she operates first.

[Swarley]

Carissa's eyes lit up when the one of the others offered her a place to stay. She hadn't slept in the city for a while so it would be nice to actually get some sleep on something that wasn't an uncovered mattress out in the abandoned suburbs. She looked over at him "Thanks man. I really appreciate anything you can give out" She said with a smile under her bandanna. She thought because he had a couch then maybe he could have a shower, and her hair had been getting a little too greasy for even her to bear it any longer.

Carissa heard the woman she now knew as Sass speak up again, seemingly pointing a lot of attention towards her. She heard her questions get answered and it calmed her nerves a bit, it was exactly the answers she wanted to hear. "Thanks" She said in reply "You just don't really want to jump into an opportunity without all the details being sorted out beforehand, but all this should work out." She smiled before realizing she had yet to introduce herself. "I'm Anarcho by the way, I guess my name kinda speaks for the artwork I end up putting out."

[Sam12435]

Jace smiled under his mask as he scratched his head. “Happy to help” He said to the girl as she thanked him. People would always tell him that he was too nice for his own good, but Jace never saw a problem with it. He couldn’t help but laugh as Sass got all serious about the orders. He saw what she was saying, and wholly agreed, but he always laughed in serious situations. It was his way of showing interest. It was when he heard a noise outside that he reached into his pocket again, this time taking hold of the knife stored there. Using a smoke bomb now may cause a panic, and that is not a good idea in a room full of sprayers. It was when Sass greeted the newcomer that he relaxed. ‘I may be a little jumpy’ He thought to himself with a sigh. He offered a wave to the newcomer, Relic it seemed. He followed Sass’s finger as she introduced the members of the new crew. He took note of the names. He recognized some of the names from pieces he had seen around the city. As she reached him, he scratched his head and laughed. He is not a person that is used to having a lot of attention, so being singled out was a little odd for him.

“No big deal” Jace said as Sass apologized. “It’s a form of expression in itself. All cool by me.” He paid close attention as the others were called upon. If he was going to have someone in his house, he would be interested to learn who they were. Nothing too personal, a name to call them by was all he really needed. He had housemates before, often helping out friends that needed a place to sleep. ‘Anarcho…’ He thought to himself. He found the name to very thought provoking. Freedom comes in many shapes and forms. In fact, freedom is all shapes and forms, unique to each person. Some people choose acceptance and compliance as their freedom, but it was people like sprayers that took their own freedom. Anarchy was one of the best forms of personal freedom. A name like that was something Jace could respect.

“Fitting for a sprayer” He said with an approving nod in her direction. He looked over to the others to see just who they were. Truth be told, he was really excited to be a part of a group like this.

[Gisk]

"My old name is compromised," Will said, still not moving much. "Call me Gray now." He was trying to relax, but there was a constant anxiety threatening to take hold of him. These people were trustworthy, he knew of them, even if he didn't know any of them directly. And what's more, Sass trusted them. He knew her, and he trusted her judgement, even if she apparently didn't recognize him yet.

"You said we're starting tonight?"

[Chantilly]

All they did was look at stupid video footage.

Every day, they'd review footage from the last few nights to try and catch faces, or any identifying traits. Every evening, they'd scan the camera feed for people breaking curfew. And there was almost always nothing, and if there was something, there was almost always nothing to do about it.

It almost bored Paige. But she had learned to pre-occupy herself while she was reviewing tapes on the few large screens placed right in front of her, angled so that she and the rest of the surveillance team could easily see all that was going on. There was almost nothing going on in the city that they didn't know about. Even still, there was little to no action. The Sprayers were getting better at their trade; hiding, that is. The dark alleyways could hardly pick up any light, and the cameras positioned there were basically useless after the sun went down. If they were so unfortunate to be caught on camera, they had their faces covered.

The only relatively exciting thing that had happened was the 'X'ing.

Only a few days ago, the law enforcers, along with the general population of the city, gazed at the red X's that were spattered about the city. Paige had only seen one, when she had walked towards the monorail station on her way to work, but it was a phenomenon everyone seemed to recognize. The surveillance team was still unaware of who had tagged the walls, but they were quick to call in the cleanup crew, who painted over the vandalism right away. As of that day, the team's responsibility was to find who had sprayed the X's all over the city.

Paige's eyes drooped a little, and she reached into her pocket, unwrapping a stick of mint gum and popping it into her mouth. Chewing thoughtfully, she crinkled up the metallic wrapper and aimed for the recycling bin. Drawing back her arm, she gave it a light toss, only using the momentum of her elbow and not her full arm to propel the bullet into the basket.

She missed.

Swiveling back around in her chair, Paige stared at the footage, waiting for Mallory to return.

[ML]

Relic sighed. He'd hoped she wouldn't call him that, but now the name would stick for the rest of the night, and probably forever. Should have just kept it Architect, Nate. You blew it. He shook his head, resigning himself to his fate, and memorized the names around him. Well, code-names, anyways. He wasn't sure if anyone would ever share their real names.

He glanced at Gray, confused by the question. "That's what the girl said, I think. It's just a matter of when and where. A watch patrol will probably be sweeping through here soon, so our business is limited by time. Then I'll need a few moments to remember the schematics of wherever we're going." He was more rambling to himself than anyone in particular. "The guards will definitely cause problems, especially since the X marks are very important to the officials. We'll have to be quick, light on our feet, and able to get the hell out of dodge."

"I'm not actually an artist," he admitted. "I'm an inventor, an engineer. I designed Northgate as it is now, but I never expected it to go this far."

[Wreck]

“Who the hell am I, and why should you take orders from me…First question. I’m Sass. You can figure out all you need to know about me by asking around on the streets. Do your homework. Second question,”

The ice in her voice chilled Tyven to the bone, and suddenly he decided he didn't want to test this woman anymore than he already did. Instead of opening his mouth to check her with a snide remark he decided to apologetically put his hands up in remorse and back off in order to prevent spontaneous hatred. Underneath his concealment, Tyven might have been biting his lips in an attempt to keep them closed for his own safety.

“Orders? If you’re gonna be making accusations like that, you might as well leave right now. I don’t do orders. I do damn smart suggestions, but it’s up to you whether you’re gonna listen to ‘em or not.”

As she spouted these words towards him, Tyven unconsciously looked down at the floor like he was chastised, then back up to meet hers. It was difficult for him to accept such options. He'd slowly placed himself at the back of the group to avoid being brought into the spotlight again, and shut up.

When a much older man entered the scene, all eyes suddenly were glued to the stranger, Tyven's included. He opened his mouth as if to ask a question but instead decided against it.

[Apokalipse]

The Repinski family had settled indoor for the night, each with a plate of pierogi and a bottle of Wyborowa vodka. Augustyna, the only daughter of the Polish family, was focused on the wall outside the house’s window. A beautiful, but illegal, mural had been sprayed into an advertisement for a dress shop Augustyna’s mother often frequented. The style involved many bright colors that brought a bystander’s attention to the elegantly designed wedding dress. It was interesting, to say the least, and Augustyna wished she could view it closer up, but it was past curfew and if she had gone out, it would mean trouble. So, she settled for inspecting it from the warped window that had a few cracks in it. Her parents were talking in Polish around her, musing aloud about her father’s upcoming novel. It was about oppression, funnily enough. Augustyna just couldn’t wait for it to be over with and they could move back to Poland where she could go out late at night if she wanted to and could watch all the ads she desired. That and her mother wouldn’t drag her everywhere anymore to go looking for a new boutique.

“I może być usprawiedliwiona?” In her first language, Augustyna requested her parents’ permission to leave the table. They both answered with a gruff ‘tak’ and Augustyna made her way to her room.

The room was splattered with drawings and Augustyna retrieved her sketchbook from its shelf: she began sketching out her own personal advertisement for the dress shop. Hours later, Augustyna’s mother came in and smiled at her happily. "What are you doing tomorrow?”

"I have work at the library, matka.” She replied, adopting the English her mother had been practicing.

"You should be getting to sleep then, kochanie.” Augustyna nodded and placed her sketchbook on the side of her table before snuggling into her bed.

(Note: I może być usprawiedliwiona means "may I be excused?" though she sort of explains this afterwards. Tak means yes. Matka means mother. And Kochanie means honey or baby or sweetheart.)

[Mach2]

Sass watched Tyven's reaction with some slight amusement. She'd been expecting a smart retort. Maybe some back talk. Instead, he retreated to the back of the room like a dog with its tail between its legs. She shook her head in amusement, and turned her attention to everyone's introductions. The tall girl was Anarcho; a fitting name indeed, as Free commented. And the other man was Gray. As soon as her mentioned his old name was compromised, the hope in Sass's mind lit up once more, accompanied by an awful and tempting certainty. This had to be Kraut. She was sure now. Which left the man now standing at the back of the room to be Jager. She had everyone’s name.

Gray asked if they were leaving soon, and Relic confirmed it. Sass doubled the confirmation with a nod, shrugging off her backpack. “Yeah, we’ll be leaving real soon. I used to have a guy who’d get into the CCTV system and help keep us off the cameras…” she trailed off as she unzipped her bag, realizing she may be giving away too much. Only Gray would know she was talking about Data. She shrugged. “Still working at finding a new tech guy for the team.”

Her backpack open, she pulled out several sheets of paper. Job commissions. Each sheet featured a description of what the client wanted. Some were detailed, stating the exact image, others were vaguer. They ranged from reputable, jobs for shops and businesses, to…less so; advertisements for prostitutes or drug dealers. “I do still got contact with a lot of people I used to work with, though. Which means lotsa jobs,” she said, the proud smile beneath her mask reaching to her unobscured eyes. “I figure I’ll send you all off in pairs, cover a lot of the city that way.”

She glanced around the room. It was clear that some people already knew each other. Clarion and Dodger, for example, were familiar with each other. She pointed a finger at each of them, the stack of painting commissions still held in her hand. “You two’ll make a good team,” she said.

Remembering Free’s offer to let Anarcho stay at his place, she pointed to each of them next. “If you two are gonna have a sleepover, might as well go spraying together first.”

That left Gray, Jager, and Nate. Sass knew who she wanted to hit the streets with. Pairing herself up with Gray would partially be for the need of familiarity. It was her first night Spraying in months, assuming she didn’t count the X’s she had tagged everyone’s work with. But mostly, she wanted to find out how he’d gotten out. Sass had watched the authorities of Northgate take Kraut, seen it over her shoulder as she sprinted away.

She looked to Jager. “You’ll team up with Relic. He don’t paint, but he’ll be a good lookout,” she told him. Looking at Gray, she continued. “Gray, you’re with me.”

“If no one’s got any problems with those pairs, speak up now.” Sass held out the stack of papers, offering them to all of the Sprayers in the room. Though she appeared confident as ever, there was perhaps the slightest hint of worry in her voice. Even though she'd just met these people, they were now her team, and she felt responsibility for them. For their lives, for their safety. “If one of you paints, the other can stand guard. Stay safe, stay on your guard. I don't wanna hear about any problems with the law the first night we hit the streets."

[Mach2]

Mallory listened to Trevor speak. When he made a joke about not being able to run people down with his truck, her expression didn’t so much as flicker. The joke itself wasn’t lost on her, she understood it just fine. But any aspect of humour went over her head. She didn’t bother with jokes very often.

Instead, she simply listened intently as he spoke, trying to get a feel for how he would function as a partner. He seemed to be decent enough. His attire, a hooded sweater, certainly got a stamp of disapproval from Mallory, who stood before him in sleek black pants and an impossibly-white shirt. But he seemed driven to do the work. He would do.

“I’ve heard a lot about the Northgate system being implemented in other cities,” she acknowledged. “As for catching graffiti artists breaking other laws…that should be a problem.”

She turned, clearly indicating for Trevor to follow her as she headed towards the elevator. Though she usually opted for the stairs, she wouldn’t force five flights of stairs on Trevor. “They call themselves ‘Sprayers’, and their culture is similar to that of graffiti artists in other cities. They’re a combination of anarchists, hippies, and artists,” she explained, hitting the button on the elevator when he was inside. “You’ll get drug busts for the hippies, and weapons charges for the anarchists. Paige, I’ll introduce you in just a moment, has caught a few video clips of someone carrying what looks like Molotov cocktails.”

The elevator stopped on the floor where she and Paige worked. Mallory walked out, heading towards Paige’s desk. She continued to speak as she did so. “As for leads…we have found something.”

She reached Paige’s desk, and stopped there. Nodding to the girl, a year younger even than Mallory herself, she introduced the two of them. “Agent Westbrook, this is Paige Waters. She’s an intern here, but her work surpasses most of the veteran members of our surveillance team. Paige, this is Trevor Westbrook.” The slightest smile, icy cold as always, crossed Mallory’s features. “Do you want to tell him about the X’s?”

[Swarley]

Carissa turned to Free and simply said "Thanks." Before she turned back towards Sass and heard the rest of what she had to say. When she mentioned the part about needing a person who could manage CCTV footage and other high tech things she remembered Ethan and all the times he's gotten her out of scrapes in the past. She piped up again. "I know a guy who could help, he used to be in my old crew and he keeps me off the cameras and records so I know he's trustworthy. If you want I can get you two in touch and you can work out a deal."

As Sass went on to rattle off the names of the pairings Carissa paid as much attention as she could, not only wanting to know her own partner but also the other pairings, for posterity's sake. When her and Free's name got called as being together Carissa was a little bit relieved, now she could get to know the person who she was staying with a little better than just a stranger with a paint mask, and he could get to know her better than the tall girl with dirty clothes and a bandanna. She turned towards him and gave a little wave, as well as a smile even though there was no way he could actually see it under her bandanna, before going to take a job paper.

[Sam12435]

Jace was a little surprised when Sass said they would split up into pairs. He had never been in a crew, so this was new grounds for him, but splitting up seemed strange to him. He decided to go with it though; after all it seemed like Sass knew what she was doing. Jace figured she must have had a crew before, it was just the way she conducted herself. Mentioning something like that seemed like a bad idea especially since they had just met. He decided to just smile and nod. Sprayers could sometimes be pretty defensive if you questioned them.

He grinned as he was paired up with Anarcho. She seemed like an interesting person, not to mention that he would feel a little more comfortable if he spent at least a little time with someone that was going to sleep in the same apartment as him. He walked over to where she was, a little surprised by the fact that she was as tall as him. He looked at the job paper with interest. He didn't really recognize what he was looking at, having never really done a contract before. He just sprayed his art, never for money, just for himself. Apparently he had missed a lot of the life of a Sprayer doing it alone.

“I don’t have a lot of experience spraying contracts.” He said to his partner as he scratched his head. He laughed nervously at his inexperience. “I can work as the lookout for this one.” He had always had a keen eye. After all, he spent most of his time watching random things like birds. He looked around to see the other pairs that had been arranged.

“So where do we start?” He asked, not entirely sure who he was asking. Was anyone else like him, or was he the only one without experience. Either way, he was a little nervous.

[DR_TRAPEZOID]

"Alright Clarion. Let's go!" Dodger said enthusiastically, still attempting to keep his voice down. He strolled forward to Sass and took one of the commissions. He flicked on his lighter again, just momentarily, to read the paper. "Looks like we get to advertise for a drug dealer." He muttered, shivering. He had seen some druggies in the past, working at Northgate Prison, and it had legitimately scared him, how their lives had gone so far down into the gutters.

Dodger briefly checked everything on him, his mask, his duffel bag, etc., making sure that nothing was loose. As soon as his bag was zipped up, and his handgun was in his hands, he walked casually over to the window. "Well, it won't be long 'till the cops get here, so I think it's about time that we jet. Oh, and Clarion?" Dodger said, turning to him.

"Try to keep up."

He noted in a friendly voice, before vaulting out the window. He looked around for a minute, to get his bearings, as he wasn't in this part of town too often. He slowly stalked through the dark ally, peering out into the street. In the murky light it was difficult to tell, but he was fairly sure that he was alone. He turned to the fire escape on the building, and began to scale it, pulling out his climbing pick to assist him. As he pulled himself onto the rusty old metal, he sat down, waiting for Clarion.

[Polyphemus]

Clarion smirked under his mask. Rangy as he was, his greyhound body and long arms were well-suited to this kind of thing. "Extreme!" he said as he launched himself out the same window, landing on his wheels. Good momentum, he began rolling right away, picking up speed.

He stretched out his long arms above him, easily grabbing the bottom rung of the rusted old ladder, maybe eight feet above the ground. There was the hiss of his wheels as they left the cracked concrete. The two antique Rollerblades arced through the air, coming parallel to and then above Clarion's head, then coming to rest on the deck of the escape. Clarion dug his front wheels into the rusted metal, pushed up with his hands, finally coming to rest in a pushup position on the deck of the fire escape. The acrobatics had been showy and wholly unnecessary, he knew. It would have been much easier to simply climb the ladder than do the little horizontal bar routine. But he was in to good of a mood. Besides, he didn't want Dodger to think he wouldn't pull his own weight.

Without waiting for approval for his gymnastics, Clarion whispered to Dodger. "So how do we handle this commission? You want to paint or stand guard?" Clarion shrugged. "Either one's fine with me."

[Commander]

Trevor followed her into the elevator, listening and giving a few short nods as Mallory explained the various types of criminals and the possibility of their respective charges. "Perfect, so we're dealing with a more organized group and not some after school special, got it. Not a problem though, I have no issue with coming down on them hard." he stated. Granted he knew little about her, he would be reluctant to admit he was impressed by her so far, all things considered. Though, he was curious how by the book she was.

As the pair reached the sixth floor, introductions were then made, "Nice to meet you." Trevor told Paige, before getting some details on the 'X' markings. He'd follow up at the end, "That's interesting and the note that was left, it appears to be some kind of code. Have you guys been able to break it, or at least cross check the cameras at possible locations? They have to be aware they're on short time, so I doubt we'd be able to just round them up." he ran the backside of his fingers along his facial hair, as he thought. Trevor would turn his gaze from Paige to Mallory, "I need to ask, what do you prefer to go by? Hate to call you something over the airwaves that might upset you."

[ML]

Nate's--no, he was Relic tonight--Relic's eyes locked on his partner for the night. "Nice to meet you, Jager." He folded his arms over his chest, then turned to the wall. "Let's just hope we both survive the night, eh? This way." He stepped forward, running his hands along the wall of the dingy room. "When we planned some of these smaller buildings, we decided to put in some concealed exit hatches along the walls, in case of fire. You know," he explained, "something useful but hidden, so the room still looked nice. Ah, here we are." His hand snagged on a nick in the wall--a latch--and he slid it free.

A simple push on the wall did the rest. A slab of the house swung out, leading to a back street. Well, they were all back streets in this part of the city, but this one was even less visible, with no cameras. "When Northgate decided to police-state it up, they abandoned use of these side streets. Why give fugitives another method of escape? It's how I get around unseen." He looked back at Sass. "Remind me to share where they all are, sometime. As far as I know, there's maybe one camera, at most, per each of these streets."

He took a contract from Sass's stack. "Huh. Roland's Emporium of Curiosities. Sounds like a real stand-up business." He shrugged: jobs were jobs. "Location...Donelly. That's district three. He tossed the paper at Jager. "Here, you lead. I'll see what I can remember about the place." Relic motioned to the hidden door. "After you."

[Chantilly]

Still chewing her gum, Paige stared at the screens in front of her, her face expressionless, save for her lips, which had been pursed thoughtfully. She tossed her hair behind her shoulder, typing something into the keyboard. After a few clicks with the little bluetooth mouse, Paige found herself looking at another empty alleyway. Riveting.

Reaching over and grabbing the energy drink by the edge of the table, Paige tilted her head to take a sip from the can. With an unsatisfied grunt, she set the empty can where she had grabbed it, too unmotivated to chuck it in the recycling bin. She adjusted her position - switching the way she crossed her legs - which was a lazy attempt to get the blood flowing in her lower body.

Hearing the elevator ding[/], Paige sat upright, her eyes narrowed at the screen as her body went rigid. Mallory Teken had that effect on her - Mallory had this sort of [i]effect on her that forced the young intern to always be alert, always ready. Her eyes tracked a waving tree, its silhouette a stark black against shades of navy blue.

"... we have found something."

Paige cracked a smirk when she heard Mallory note of the quality of her work. Yes, tonight was going slow, but when it came down to it, Paige knew that she worked at least 3 times harder than the average person on the surveillance team. "Nice to meet you, Agent Westbrook," Paige replied to the new guy, swiveling around to face him towards the end of her greeting. Behind her were the frozen computer screens, depicting near-empty streets and buildings.

"Yeah, the X's," Paige restated Mallory's indirect order. She buzzed through the files on her main computer terminal, and pulled up 6 video clips , which spread themselves among the several large screens around the room. Whirling around, she folded her hands in her lap, slightly gesturing to the screens as she gave Trevor a quick briefing on the X'ing.

"A few nights ago, I caught someone spraying a whole bunch'a X's around the city," she started. Behind her, a shady figure pulled out a can of red spray paint and proceeded to vandalize the existing artwork, working with uncommon speed. "Judging from how quick the sprayings were, I determined that the perp is someone skilled - experienced. All around the city, we got a load of ads marked with these "X's". We got them covered up straight away, but we basically have some sort of tagging going on - whoever this artist -" Paige pointed at the figure in yet another video, on the screen directly to the left of her "is, they're cooking something. I'm surfing the current vids right now to see what's going on."

After listening to Trevor's question, Paige offered: "The code completely flew by my head. But like I mentioned, I've been cross-checking cameras, trying to follow this Sprayer in particular, but I always lose her. Mallory?" She asked, turning to her superior, looking to hear Mallory's thoughts on the ordeal.

[The book of bad juju]

In a half-illuminated corner of his apartment, Matthew slowly lowered a thin slice of cheesecake into his mouth. It was a good slice of new york, so think you could drop it in the street and the tarmac would crack. It tasted of the quark cheese matthew could still smell on his fingers, an essential ingredient specially imported from wisconsin, along with the thousand or so dairy products shipped daily to supermarkets around the world. Matt breifly grinned as he imagined the sort of people who would transport this stuff, before finishing off the slice and getting up to wash his hands.

Matt walked out of his bathroom and turned left, straight into the large room full of computer hardware spinning at full peak. It smelled like an oven in there, and -Matt thought - Not one where pigs and cows came to be turned into so much mince. No, an oven that large and that hot would only be used once, before being declared a war crime. Mat sat down, and for a brief moment wondered why he was wearing gloves. He pulled them off, and pulled up a keyboard.

---

Matt stared at the screen through half-lidded eyes. They felt like spike-studded gelatine. But he had finally managed to write the documentation and work out a few little kinks in one of the subroutines that kept throwing exceptions. He smiled, and slouched off the uncomfortable chair and onto the nice, soft, confortable bed. It had a lovely wollen design his mom had made and sent over, and had almost been singed by city limits control guards trying to fumigate it for drugs. It absobed him like a sponge.

[Mach2]

She laughed under her breath at Clarion and Dodger's eagerness. Yes, they would make a good team for tonight. It was obvious that the two had worked together before. They were competitive in only the way that close friends could be.

"I know a guy who could help, he used to be in my old crew and he keeps me off the cameras and records so I know he's trustworthy. If you want I can get you two in touch and you can work out a deal."

Anarcho came forward, grabbing a paper from Sass containing a job description for her and Free. Her offer of someone to help with the security cameras and technology elicited a curious eyebrow raise from Sass. "Yeah?" she questioned, her voice filled with a reluctant eagerness. No one would replace Data, but she certainly needed someone to keep this new crew safe from the omnipresent gaze of the Northgate security. "Think you can get me in contact with him tonight? If you and Free finish early, stop by his place. Tell him I'll be at the Eastern Ridge at say...4:30? That oughtta give enough time to get back before daylight."

The Eastern Ridge was Sass's favoured meeting place from her old spraying days. It was situated, as the name implied, to the eastern side of the city. It wasn't, however, a ridge. In fact, it was a line of five skyscrapers of roughly equal height. They were old, built in a time when elaborate architecture was still valued, and had not yet been torn down. The walls were made of carved stone, allowing them to be easily scaled. From the top of any of the buildings, Sass would be able to see Anarcho's friend approaching. It was a safe lookout for her.

"So, where do we start?" she heard Free ask.

The cloud painter was evidently new to the task of Spraying for income. He'd learn soon enough, but for now, she imagined he would follow Anarcho's lead. And Sass would give them a push in the right direction. "If Anarcho's gonna stop by her friend's place, you can start your paintings around that area. Not too close, though," she added as a slight warning. "Don't wanna hang around the same spot too long."

[DR_TRAPEZOID]

"C'mon Clarion, you and I both know that you're the better Sprayer. I can keep watch while you work your magic." Dodger said. It didn't take much to be a better sprayer than Dodger, but he could get some really nice things done when he took his time. Now was not a good time to be going slow, not with cops presumably on their way.

"Anyways, I know a place we can do this one. It's not too far from here, and it's got some space to work with." He said, spinning in a circle as he oriented himself. Finally deciding on a direction, he turned to a nearby building, a rather low one, compared to the other monoliths of concrete. It was no difficult task for Dodger to leap onto the other buildings roof, rolling to a stop.

"Looks like this guy wasn't too specific." He muttered, reading the sheet of paper. "Blah, blah... Angel... Blah blah... Rainbows... Holy crap, that's a lot of drugs." He thought. The man they were painting for had a simple request, but he also requested they list his rather extensive inventory of pharmaceuticals. He thought to himself, waiting on the short roof.