[WrongConcept]

[Wednesday 11:40 am, Oct. 23rd, 2075 | 4th Ave. | Downtown Seattle]

He was not an elf, not a toy for some Chromed Gangster, he was no more flesh, he was in all aspect an S-K Bentley Concordat, Bright Red, he was speeding trought asphalt, feeling the hot temperature produced by his tires friction which produced the speed he was now ejoying, and the wind course trough his aerodynamic frame, there were no problems, he could not hate himself he was a superior being, not a lowly maggot, it was this feeling that drived him onward, nothing could stop him he was Red and everyone knows that: "Red Goes Fasta!".

FlashGiTz engine purred like a kitty as he threaded the asphalt top speed, his VR display showing everything and anything of interest he with a tought dismissed the uninportant, a red haired elven woman put herself in front of his path, and truck that was coming his way, he imediatly left himself drift a bit to his left to avoid the elf woman and then pressed the peddla to top speed avoiding the elf and the truck neatly, it was a simple maneuver but he felt good, he slowed down and parket near the almost tragical inncident and answered his commlink withouth Jacking Out of his "True Body"

[obidancer]

[Wednesday 11:40 am, Oct. 23rd, 2075 | 4th Ave. | Downtown Seattle]

The advantage of being hooked up to your 'link was that DNI command were deadly fast. A blink of an eye and the call was answered. Another thought and his cybereyes' camera feed was broadcasted to his caller. That's all The Frenchman could think of to make the Dwarf Armorer Emilio Estevez wait a bit. How rude it was to put him on hold, might as well give him a show. Right now his full focus was on the redhead elf - not because she was pretty - maybe because she was the 'damsel in distress' - certainly because his first instinct was simply to run straight at her to get her out of harm's way.

When one suspects to have been a cold blooded killer, it felt good to know there was some compassion and heroism left in him.

He had to act fast and smart, the second not necessary his forte. The Bentley was going faster but much was more maneuverable than the heavy truck. Thus a better chance to avoid them. The Truck... They'd have to avoid it. He could help it. The Frenchman sprinted at the woman, and using all of his agility almost tackled her to get her away from the Truck's trajectory.

If his quick assessment was right, and the Bentley managed to get slightly out of the way, he should stand right in between the two vehicles as they passed by on each side of the two pedestrians. Might be a close call. If the Truck had the bad idea to also go this direction, he would do the only thing that was left to do: push her away from both vehicles and take the blunt of the impact. He braced her tightly ready to make that last moment decision, hoping it wouldn't come to that.

[Bewilderbeast]

[Wednesday 11:40 a.m, October 23rd, 2075 | Pepperface's Basement Apartment | Downtown Seattle]

Pepperface cast an irritated glance at the ceiling as more plaster rained down on him. He wasn't going to let anything distract him from possible work, however. He reaches out with an AR glove and presses Y on the window in front of him.

'Well if it isn't my good friend Charlie. What have you got for me?"

[Nemo157]

[Wednesday 11:36 pm, October 23rd, 2075 | Outside the Honeypot Cafe | Auburn]

Gerome? That big orc that ran the dairy down the street, why would he be calling? How would he have even got my contact details?
…
No, that was Jeremy
…
Gerome
…
sz-ai-r-oh-m
…
Ah, my new fixer, that’s right! Has he got a job for me already?


Glad he’d finally made the connection Dacre stepped out of the flow of pedestrians, sheltering next to the stairs of a big brick building as he answered the call.

[BestTeaMaker]

Daisy
[Wednesday 11:41 am, Oct 23rd, 2075 | Reggie's Kung Pao Dojo | Redmond Barrens]

>>Hey, Daisy trog, you there?

Daisy recognized the rude voice of his fixer, Rhino. He was glad he didn't have to see the face of his fixer. There was a reason he was called "Rhino".

>>I'm right here, you ass of an ork.

>>Ha! Good to see ya still have some guts, kid. Anyways, as yer troll brain has already guessed, I've got a job for you. Johnson wants you to go to that new Stuffer Shack Max place Downtown at three today.

>>Johnson wants me to do his fucking groceries?

>>Stop interrupting kid, an' maybe you'll get some information ta stick in that empty space in yer head. Anyways, there's this elf chick that will be over there. Pick her up and escort her safely to the Johnson, where he's offering five thousand. It's just the first half of the job he needs ya to do. He'll negotiate prices when you meet 'im, and give you the second half of the job. Any questions?

Johnny
[Wednesday 11:41 a.m, October 23rd, 2075 | Loveland | Puyallup Barrens]

>>I'd like the special for two. For me and my idiot cowboy poser of a friend.

Johnny grinned. It was good to hear the voice of his fixer and mentor, Solomon Soaring-Hawk.

>>Only if you'll wear the bonnet I got you last Christmas.

>>Ever the joker, kid. So I got this job here. It's rather interesting, I have to say. Johnson wants you to pick up this nice-looking girl at three, an elf, over at the new Stuffer Shack thing. The, um, what was it...oh right, the Stuffer Shack Max one. It's a new place that opened Downtown, so make your way down there if you can. He'll give you five grand and more information about the job when you do it. Think you can handle this, cowboy?

Knockout
[Wednesday 11:41 am, October 23rd, 2075 | Bruno's Lights Out! Boxing Gym | Puyallup Barrens]

A feminine voice replied back.

>>Oh, babushka, that is not how you talk. Now, start again.

Ugh, it was the eldest sister calling him. Out of the five sisters, he just had to have the human who had motherly issues.

>>Okay, okay...ahem, Hello, Mama, what do you need today?

>>Babushka, you make this old lady blush. Now, you got job. Johnson wants you to go to this new soopyermahrkyet Downtown, Stuffer Shack Max at three o'clock today. It's a nice place. Very clean. You will pick up krasivyy lady, an elf, like Baba, but much much younger. If you bring her back to Johnson, then you get five thousand and extra. Any questions, babushka?

Dacre
[Wednesday 11:41 pm, October 23rd, 2075 | Outside the Honeypot Cafe | Auburn]

>>Answer the damn comms when you're called, scrub. Jobs are going rather scarce lately, if you can believe that.

Dacre rolled his eyes. Did Danny really recommend this asshole? Sure, I'm new to Seattle, but I'm definitely not a fucking scrub. He felt it wise to keep his thoughts to himself, however.

>>So this one is a simple find n' escort job. Just get your ass over to the Stuffer Shack Max in Downtown at three. There'll be a female elf that you'll need to protect and escort apparently. Do the job right and it's five grand plus some sort of bonus afterwards. Not sure what it is. Honestly, I wouldn't give this t'someone like you, but the Johnson asked specifically for your name. So get to it.

Cross
[Wednesday 11:41 am, Oct. 23rd | Cross' Apartment | Downtown Seattle]

Eagerly, Cross awaited the voice of his good friend, Mr. Green, to give him his first job. The hasty words that followed took him by surprise.

>>Cross? You okay? Ah whatever, I need to make this quick, so don't speak. This is a job, but it's a weird one. The Johnson wants you to pick up a girl, an elf chick. Ready for the weird thing? He said you'll find her right outside your apartment. Like, right now you'll see her. Johnson says to follow her orders and escort her where she needs to go safely. Five grand when you finish escorting her, and something more. Look, be careful, Cross. I have no fucking idea how he got your information. Watch your back on your first job, rookie.

As Cross listened, the ever-growing thumping sound was now accompanied by what appeared to be faint voices. A sudden screeching erupted from outside the window.

Pepperface
[Wednesday 11:41 a.m, October 23rd, 2075 | Pepperface's Basement Apartment | Downtown Seattle ]

>>Pepperface, how you doin'? That arm treating you well?

A grin crept up on Pepperface. Not many people had fixers who were also good friends and fellow ex-anarchists. He knew he could count on Charlie to get him something.

>>Good as ever, Charlie.

The following bout of paranoia caught him off guard.

>>So the job, I've got a weird one for you. Johnson wants you to go outside and find some elf chick. No, not just any one. Apparently she's going to appear outside your apartment. Did you hear that? The Johnson knows where you fucking live. I would go and barricade your doors, or maybe even just move somewhere else. I dunno. Anyways, he said to find this girl in your neighborhood, escort her to wherever the fuck she wants to go, then return her to the Johnson. Do that, you'll get five grand and something else. I'm not sure what it is, but considering the weirdness of this situation, I wouldn't stay around too long to find out.

As Pepperface listened to the spiel, he could hear the thumping grow louder. In fact, this thumping sound was definitely distinct. It was the sound of boots. Many heavy boots.

The Frenchman
[Wednesday 11:41 am, Oct. 23rd, 2075 | 4th Ave. | Downtown Seattle]

The Frenchman was warmed up, so a sprint across the road towards the elf was a simple task. As he reached her, the incoming Bentley had swerved deftly out of their way. However, there still was the matter of the truck. The truck that was now accelerating towards them.

"Over here!" He quickly grabbed the elf girl's arm and pulled her towards him. As she quickly fell into his chest, the truck came careening by, barely missing the two by a hair.

>>Shit, Frenchie, you okay?!

He ignored Emilio as he quickly attended to the damsel in distress in his arms, who was now visibly shaken.

"Wha-what the fuck was that truck doing? And that car? And.." She suddenly cleared her throat and straightened herself. The Frenchman could see a blush forming on her cheeks. The red-headed elf looked up. "Thank you. Thank you very, very much."

>>Well, fucking hell, you damn prince. You just nabbed yourself quite the princess. Wait...that face...

The elf began to tug on her bag, as if making sure it was still intact. "Well, anyways, I've got to get going. I need to meet someone."

>>FRENCHIE!

The sudden volume almost caused The Frenchman to wince.

>>That girl! She's your Johnson, I mean, your job! Johnson called up just now. He wants you to escort and protect this lady wherever she needs ot be. Goddamn, are you one lucky sonavabitch.

FlashGiTz
[Wednesday 11:40 am, Oct. 23rd, 2075 | 4th Ave. | Downtown Seattle]

WOOOO DAMN That's a crazy human!

FlashGiTz had been watching the feed in VR space, his Bentley parked about twenty feet from where the guy had ran across the road to reach the elf chick. FlashGiTz himself was able to maneuver out of the way just fine, but that truck worried him. It was fucking accelerating!

>>Son, please be more careful.

The icon, which revealed itself to be his fixer and "father", Father Santiago, had been watching through a VR stream.

>>I dodged them just fine.

>>Well, in any case, I got a job for you, since you're just freewheeling on the streets right now. Johnson wants you to escort this woman, an elf, to wherever she needs to go to. Protect her, my son, and you'll be awarded five thousand and some bonuses that the Johnson will detail later after you return her to him. I'll send you an image right now.

As the image loaded, FlashGiTz simply wanted to get moving again. He looked over the picture. It was a female elf, young, red hair, slim build...and looked like an awfully lot like the one he just avoided crashing into.

[Silence]

[Wednesday, 11:42 a.m. Oct 23rd, 2075 | Loveland | Puyallup Barrens]

"Gettin' a cab now, partner.  Anyone else on for this gig, or am I lookin' to call this filly Tonto?" Johnny chuckles as he waved down the cab.

Solomon wouldn't be sending this his way without a reason.  Might be because it was a great opportunity.  Could be because there was something about it that might help him grow the way the old man thought he should.  While he let Solomon fill him in, he thought about it for a moment.  The money was easy.  The second half might be a lot less easy.  But it could also pay for that guitar he'd had an eye on, too.  Somewhere, n the back of his mind, he thought of his sister, and decided that the girl's safety was the priority.  Job be damned, if he was going to shave come morning, he'd need to be able to look in the mirror.

[Red_Cap]

[Wednesday 11:41am, Oct. 23rd, 2075 | Cross' Apartment | Downtown Seattle]

>>Thank --  The commlink clicked as the fixer hung up.  "-- you."  Ignoring the crashing sounds from downstairs, he went to the window and saw what appeared to be the aftermath of an almost-crash between a Bentley, a truck, and. . . No.  Can't be.

He grabbed his saddlebag and pocketed his commlink, then rushed for the stairs.  He pounded down both flights, ran through the lobby and out the front door.  The Bentley was still idling in the street, but all he had eyes for was the dark-haired and bearded man helping a flame-haired elf to her feet.  He swallowed the sudden lump in his throat, took a deep breath, and crossed the street.  I just need one look at her face...

"Hey, are you two ok?"

[JackVII]

[Wednesday 11:41 am, October 23rd, 2075 | Bruno's Lights Out! Boxing Gym | Puyallup Barrens]

The job sounded easy. A little too easy. But he could handle "a little too easy" for 5,000 nuyen.

>>Da Mama, a few. Please forgive so many questions... What is address of soopyermahrkyet? Do you have image of pretty lady? Is woman expecting be picked up or must convince her? Also, where is drop off?

For some reason, Knockout generally didn't like to work with the human Matryushka. Considering they were all so similar to one another, it was probably just a latent prejudice.  Finished drying off his horns, he placed his commlink on the bench to hear his fixer's response and started to dress: underwear, undershirt, armored vest, socks, dark grey suit pants, wingtip shoes, white dress shirt, black braces, "throwback" Hammer & Sickle cuff links, black tie, dark grey vest, and wrap-around mirror shades. Shrugging into his massive coat, Knockout buttoned himself up, completing the look of a typical wiseguy. Tucking his Hardliner Gloves into his pocket, he grabbed the commlink off the bench, clipped it inside his jacket, and secured the subvocal mic to his throat.

Checking himself out in the mirror, he nodded. Pretty lady can't help but say yes!

[Nemo157]

[Wednesday 11:42 am, October 23rd, 2075 | Outside the Honeypot Cafe | Auburn]

>>Great! I’ll be there. Although, any clue as to how this Johnson knew my name and that I was in town?

While waiting for a reply Dacre pulled up the Metro Transit Company’s route planner to work out how to get there. 2 hour trip to downtown, 40 minute walk to the Stuffer Shack Max, next bus leaves at 12:15… shit, that only leaves half an hour to get ready. Leaving the shelter of the stairs Dacre starts jogging back towards his apartment to get changed into more appropriate gear.

[BestTeaMaker]

Cross
[Wednesday 11:41am, Oct. 23rd, 2075 | Cross' Apartment, 2nd Floor| Downtown Seattle]

Before he reached the first floor, the combat medic ran right into a person going up the stairs, causing them both to nearly tumble down.

"OOF! Watch where you're going, citizen!"

"Sorry, I'm..."

Cross picked himself and his bag up from the stairs and looked at the person he had run into. He was wearing full body-combat armor emblazoned in a green and black deco. The words PD were stenciled in large, white letters on the front. He could see another person at the bottom of the stairs with his back turned to him.  The letters KE were on the back.

Shit. Knight Errant.

"Sir, do you live here? Please return to your room as there is a dangerous criminal on the loose."

[Red_Cap]

[Wednesday 11:41 am, Oct 23rd, 2075 | Cross' Apartment | Downtown Seattle]

Shit.  Knight Errant.

Owen's mind raced, punching through the adrenaline-induced fog of fight-or-flight syndrome.  Maybe appealing to their concept of the public good would help?

"Did you miss the two-car pile up outside?  I'm an EMT, and those people might be hurt!  Let me check them out and get them away from the building and whoever it is you're looking for, please."

[obidancer]

[Wednesday 11:41 am, Oct. 23rd, 2075 | 4th Ave. | Downtown Seattle]

Thanks for short dance, Milady. The Frenchman loosen his embrace but didn't let go of her. He took her hand and brought it to his lips for a polite kiss. His eyes, however, quickly focused and zoomed on the truck trying to find any identification, physical or broadcasted. With today's modern collision warning there was no way the Truck driver would not have noticed the girl and at least try to get out of the way. It took up on speed instead...

A mental note sent the following message to the Dwarf Emilio Estevez : <<I take it I've just started my run. Message me details. Gotta go.>>

Let me take you to that 'someone' then. Those streets aren't safe apparently. Never letting her hand go, he scanned his surrounding, and stopped on the Bentley, glad to see it hadn't flee the scene like most punk would do. Lucky us, our ride has arrived, he said to the Elf with a warm and reassuring smile. Come!

The Frenchman approached the car. One hand holding the Elf's hand, the other reaching for the grip of his gun on the small of his back after knocking on the car's window.
Open up, my friend. Is everything ok? Are you hurt? The Frenchman didn't really care, nor the person inside was any close to being his friend, but he needed to get inside the car fast, one way or another.

[WrongConcept]

[Wednesday 11:40 am, Oct. 23rd, 2075 | 4th Ave. | Downtown Seattle]

He was thrilled with the maneuver until two things happened, first Father Santiago called, not that he was a bad person or that he had anything agains't him, its just that he still couldn't figure out what the father wished of him, and the fact that it looked like the truck intentionally speed up like if he was trying to ram the Elf Girl, when her photo appeared on his VR display everything took a diferent tone, if she was to be protected then that truck did not accelerated by chance that was an intentional raming attemp, the rescuer and the rescued girl was aproaching in his direction, he smiled in Full VR, he also had a lot of questions for the run but apparently the Run had alredy started...

>> Bless me father i may have to sin, target is on sight, as you tend to say father: There are no coincidences everything is in god's plan, but this plan is just to perfect... FlashGiTz out.

The physical body of the elf was resting on the driver’s seat completely out, when the Human knocked on his windows three things happened simultaneously first all of the windows of the car polarized themselves making everything inside the vehicle disappeared by reflecting it like a mirror everything surrounding it, secondly the vehicle stopped transmitting any wireless signal, effectively cutting communication to the outside world (and Father Santiago Included) and stopped transmitting plate, License and SIN. The last thing to happen was that the door behind the driver’s seat opened and a voice sounded trough the internal sound system at top volume.

You have three seconds to enter, Miss I’ve have just been contracted to be your driver and bodyguard, Hero i don't know who are you, but you saved her and that gives you a free ride! Two seconds! Time is ticking!

His voice was sure, and the engine was already pouring, he was completely in focus his electronic senses at top output (sensors) and he was actively scanning for trouble specially but not exclusively from that truck. He was being naive of course, but he had seen what he believed was an action his meat flesh would never be able, maybe he found someone worth something in the sprawl, who could say maybe this man could actually live up to the name Hero…

[obidancer]

[Wednesday 11:41 am, Oct. 23rd, 2075 | 4th Ave. | Downtown Seattle]

The Frenchman frowned upon hearing the voice from the car. Putain! Things can never be simple! Grand Scheme of things in action.
He ushered the Elf girl inside, then followed suit before the stupid countdown would finish.

Just tell me you didn't try to play chicken with the Truck...Epic Fail! Now Drive!

[reyjinn]

[Wednesday 11:41 am, Oct 23rd, 2075 | Reggie's Kung Pao Dojo | Redmond Barrens]

>>"Sure I got questions. Is this a solo gig? Are we talking protection or 'extraction'? Do you have any idea about what the opposition might be?  I'm assuming that you'll send me a pic of the target."

Shit, 3pm.  I'd better get a move on if I want to make it in time.  Should I use my good SIN?  Too big a chance of some drekhead KE asking about it, no way I can take the risk of using my throwaway.

Daisy mutes his mic and yells at Reggie: "Yo, Reggie.  I've gotta split, job in the works."