[Bewilderbeast]

Pepperface's eyes widened as Good Friend Charlie spilled the details. "Drek. Thanks for the warning, Charlie. I'll give you a call if I live longer than ten minutes."

Finally placing the thumping sounds upstairs as a rush of boots, Pepperface sprang into action. As he felt the familiar, crackling hum of his wired reflexes kicking on, he tried to figure out who could possibly be coming for him. Knight Errant? Neo-anarchists looking to snuff out a traitor to the cause? Or maybe this was just some very heavy-handed negotiating tactic on whoever decided to "hire" him? Either way, Pepperface wasn't about to take this lying down.

He rushed to his closet and assembled his hidden arm slide, stuffing his Predator in the slot. He barely felt the stiff metal against his synthetic cyberarm. He then threw on his armored suit, his taser already secure in its built-in hidden holster. While he prepared his meat body for action, he quickly configured his built-in cyberdeck. First things first, he made sure it was still in silent mode. Then he powered down his attack programs, diverting the excess processing capacity toward his firewall. He needed to keep a low profile, at least for the time being. Finally, he booted up his Encryption, Signal Scrub and Exploit programs.

As he finished getting hastily dressed, he booted up an AR window and directed it toward the ceiling, trying to get a sense of who his new guests were.

[Nemo157]

[Wednesday 11:49 am, October 23rd, 2075 | Dacre's Apartment | Auburn]

Rushing in the door Dacre starts ripping off his clothes. Grabbing the armour vest from under his bed he straps it on and pulls a long sleeve shirt over top. Next comes the concealed holsters, one strapped to his inner thigh, the other in his right armpit. One of his Streetline Specials goes in the holster on his thigh, along with a spare clip attached to the edge of the holster. Then his Ares Light Fire 70 goes in the other holster with 2 spare clips and its silencer. A grey jacket and dark jeans completes what Dacre calls his "anywhere, anytime" outfit; with the right mannerisms this same set of clothing could fit in perfectly from "smart casual" right through to "raving street lunatic". Although that last one normally required rubbing refuse all over it to give it that lived in look, which was hell on the cleaning bills.

Hovering over his shock gloves for a second Dacre shakes his head, bit too conspicuous when he has no idea where in Downtown he may be going. Grabbing his commlink and subvocal mic on the way to the door he rushes back out and down the three flights of stairs two steps at a time. Turning back north he jogged along 1 block then across 3 to the nearest bus stop to Downtown. Finally pausing for the first time since getting the call Dacre forced himself to mentally slow down, there was no need to get the adrenaline pumping hours before the run was to begin. Checking the clock in the top right of his vision he sees that’s it’s only 12:05, still ten minutes till the bus was due to leave. Beginning the Pranayama breathing he’d learnt at his adept circle he attempted to bring his heart rate back down and recenter himself while waiting.

[BestTeaMaker]

Johnny
[Wednesday, 11:42 a.m. Oct 23rd, 2075 | en route to Downtown | Puyallup Barrens]

@TheDude [Hawk]>>Nothing else. The Johnson was strangely tight-lipped. He did say to follow whatever the lady says, so if she decides to have some friends tag along, I'd suggest to go with it. I'm not saying that you won't be alone, but I have a feeling that this will involve quite a number of people.

@Hawk [TheDude]>>What makes you say that?

@TheDude [Hawk]>>Not sure. Guts and experience. You'll understand the more jobs you go on. Just be careful, and don't go full cowboy on her. It's gonna weird her out. Gods know it weirds me out.

@Hawk [TheDude]>>Thanks, Solomon. Glad to hear you're on my side.

@TheDude [Hawk]>>One last thing, I'm sending over a pic of the lady. She's pretty nice looking. Anyways, good luck, cowboy.

Johnny watched as the image loaded in an AR screen. A ginger female elf, probably in her mid-twenties, was looking at the camera with a somber look. Her complementary reddish eyes seemed to almost sparkle. And so, Johnny sat in the cab as it made its way out of Puyallup into the metropolitan Downtown area.

((Roll a Navigation test to determine how fast you get there: Navigation + INT))

==
Knockout
[Wednesday 11:42 am, October 23rd, 2075 | Bruno's Lights Out! Boxing Gym | Puyallup Barrens]

@UrsaMinor [M1]>>So many, questions babushka, but I'll answer them bystro. The soopyermahrkyet is on 4th Ave. The krasivvy elf will be waiting for you there. I will send picture to you. I think you will like.

Knockout watched as the image popped in front of him. The lady was quite the looker. Red-head with light skin and soft reddish eyes. The troll tightened his tie as the Matryoshka continued.

@UrsaMinor [M1]>>Drop off? Johnson never told me. I think the elf will know where she wants to go, so just follow her, ya. Anything else, babushka?

==
Daisy
[Wednesday 11:42 am, October 23rd, 2075 | Reggie's Kung Pao Dojo | Redmond Barrens]

"That don't mean you get our of the workout! 180 will be waiting for you when you return!"

Rhino contined as Daisy hurried about.

@DazedT [Rhino]>>It's protection, probably with other people. Johnson didn't make it clear, but it sounds like you'll meet up with some people. I'll send the pic of the elf girl. She's pretty hot.

Daisy watched as the image of ginger elf popped into view. She looked young probably in her mid twenties. Her red-tinted eyes complemented her hair quite nicely.

@Rhino [DazedT]>>Thanks, Rhino.

@DazedT [Rhino]>>No prob, Daisy-trog. It should be an easy job. Don't muck it up.

With that, his fixer hung up.

==
Dacre
[Wednesday 11:51 am, Oct 23rd, 2075 | Cross' Apartment | Downtown Seattle]

The bus arrived, and Dacre jumped in. For now, he would have to wait until he arrived. But sure as heck he was gonna be jittery the whole way.

((Roll a Navigation test to determine how fast you get there: Navigation + INT))

==
Cross
[Wednesday 11:42 am, Oct 23rd, 2075 | Cross' Apartment | Downtown Seattle]

The Knight Errant stared at him momentarily, then turned to his friend at the bottoms of the stairs.

"You, escort this man outside. We'll get the building secured." He turned back to Cross. "Make it fast. Lives are at stake here."

Cross relaxed. He had somehow managed to convince KE to let him out. Whatever they were doing here was most likely not good. In fact, why were they here in his apartment building in the first place?

The second officer saluted Cross as he arrived.

"Sir! Let's do this quickly. I cannot move away from this post for long."

Cross nodded then headed out, KE following him closely. Out in the sun, he began to scan the area. He finally saw a red Bentley parked with a couple standing besides it. It seems that they were in deep discussion.

==
Pepperface
[Wednesday 11:42 am, Oct. 23rd, 2075 | Pepperface's Basement Apartment | Downtown Seattle]

@KEBeta1 [KEAlpha]>>Beta1, do a sweep of the host to make sure it's clear.

@KEAlpha [KEBeta1]>>Right, sir. Also, Beta2 just left the building with a civ. Is that alright?

@KEBeta1 [KEAlpha]>>Yeah, some EMT heard about the almost accident outside. Just keep watch. We need to secure the area if we're gonna to bag her.

@KEAlpha [KEBeta1]>>Yes, sir. Scanning area now.

Pepperface's thin-man icon was nicely hidden as it spied a bulkier icon, a "man" dressed in riot gear. Emblazoned in large letters were the letters KE. With a blip, what appeared to be two flying cameras flew out of the icon and began to search through the apartment's host information. For now, it seemed that they weren't looking for him specifically. However, Pepperface was a cautious man. With a few keystrokes, he had his own icon "point" to the other icon, probing for more information. An AR window promptly opened in front of him.

>>Scanning icon...
>>Scanning complete
>>Identity: Knight Errant
>>Processing: 3
>>Firewall: 3
>>Current running programs: Signal Scrub, Toolbox

==
The Frenchman & FlashGiTz
[Wednesday 11:42 am, Oct. 23rd, 2075 | 4th Ave. | Downtown Seattle]

"Excuse me! Get your hands off of me!"

When she was in her savior's embrace, she was quite taken aback. He looked cute, and he did save her. However, the elf was truly taken aback as she was dragged to the Bentley by the man who had just saved her.  Her suspicions went on high alert when she saw him take out the gun and bang against the door of the car.

"Open up, my friend. Is everything ok? Are you hurt?"

"What are you doing? What's with that gun?"

"Milady, just please stand by me, ok? I was called to help you, ok."

"What?"

She became frightened as his grip tightened on her arm. "Milday, please just stay he-"

The Frenchman had been slapped in the past before, but the elf stung him on the cheek hard. He doubled over towards the polarized window, where he saw a bright, red mark on his face in the reflection. The elf tightened her grip on her bag and dropped her voice to a growl. "You let go of me. I don't know who you are, but I am not afraid to fight back and--"

Immediately the car (not the driver, the car) began to speak. "You have three seconds to enter, Miss. I've just been contracted to be your driver and bodyguard. Hero, I don't know who you are, but you saved her and that gives you a free ride!"

The Frenchman, still smarting from the blow, began to exchange words with the car. The elf stood still, trying to process the situation in front of her. These two men were told to protect me...then...that must mean...!

"Where are the other two?"

The Frenchman turned. "What?"

"The other two. This is Fourth, right? And both of you said you were contacted to protect me?"

"...Yes."

"Then I cannot leave yet. There are supposed to be two more who are meeting us right now!"

[JackVII]

[Wednesday 11:43 am, October 23rd, 2075 | Bruno's Lights Out! Boxing Gym | Puyallup Barrens]

@M1 [UrsaMinor]>>Spasibo, Mama! Please forgive, simply trying be professional'nyy.Tell Johnson am on job. Proshchayte!

Killing the connection to his commlink, Knockout checks himself out one more time. He takes the gym's side exit to the adjoining alley and fires up his comm one more time to see if he can get an actual address beyond what the Matryushka had provided him. She had seemed a bit annoyed, so he hadn't pressed the issue of an exact address. Once he zeroed in on the location, the troll checked the bus schedules before attempting to secure a taxi, not always the easiest thing to do in Puyallup...

[Silence]

Johnny watches the roads as he rides in the back of the cab, and frowns as the guy drops him off in a spot swarming with KE personnel.  "Pard, I sure as hell do not think this is where I asked you to drop me.  for one, I don't see a damned Stuffer Shack anywhere"

The cabby looks around, and peels out when he sees all the KE personnel around.  "You worthless piece o' drek fraggin' moron!  This ain't where you were s'posed to drop me!"  And for a bit, starts cussing the cabbie up one side and down the other in Sioux.

[spoiler]Getting to the meet (5d6.hits(5)=0) Critical glitch.[/spoiler]

[obidancer]

The Frenchman was taken aback a bit but then again, with what he was wearing he may have had given the wrong impression.
I was more hoping for a kiss darling, but I can adapt if that's what you're into. He said, more to himself that directly at her. Needless to say, that elf girl had a mighty punch, If he wasn't enhanced to withstand great amount of pain and damage, it may even have hurt.

..."There are supposed to be two more who are meeting us right now!"

So the run was quickly evolving, and now there were supposed to be four of them. Not unusual. Only the suddenty of everything was.

Once again, the Frenchman scan his surrounding, using all necessary vision enhancement from his cybereyes. 

[WrongConcept]

[Wednesday 11:42 am, Oct. 23rd, 2075 | 4th Ave. | Downtown Seattle]

FlashGiTz was getting pretty nervous, things were to quiet... Except for the two passengers he had in his back seat, and silence was never a good signal, however he did not pushed on the throtel as he desperately wished, she was the boss so he would make an exception to his instincs, first of all he lowered his seat, making the couple a tad inconvined but lowering his profile, if bullets started flying he would not get hit by a bullet trough the windows. He kept scanning his surroundings, in search of anything wrong, but he informed his customer of some clausules about his services of course still speaking trough the sound system of Lola.

Understood Miss, i will wait as much as possible, however if bullets start flying, the police or the ancients go gangers appear, your other bodyguards will have to take a cab. Also i am not prepared to accomodate Trolls. So no ride for any Troll.

Suddenly he realized what the words of the elf girl meant, her saviour was contracted to protect her... That was not weird, nor a coincidence, could certainly be a plan of god but most likely it was a metahuman's doing, for the moment he had to play ball and be smart, but  he was making a list of questions he wished to be answered, as soon as the unnatural silence would stop... He spoke again trough the internal sound system.

Miss you can call me FlashGiTz, hero to your previous comment: Im a professional i don't play, i drive and im very good at that. Its a pleassure to meet you both.

He keept scanning the area with his electronic senses in full VR Hotsim, his engine keept making a very softly purr noise, it was ready to become a lion at a moments notice.

[Bewilderbeast]

"Drek. KE." The good news is they weren't looking for him. The bad news is it looked increasingly like this job was a complete and total trainwreck. When law enforcement shows up during the meet, things aren't exactly off to a great start.

Still, he had a job to do. And he personally did not appreciate the fuzz kicking down the door to his apartment and rooting around in its host. Invading his neighbor's Matrix lives was his job, thank you very much.

Tightening his AR glove into a fist, Pepperface's creepy persona extended its arm, tentacle-like, to brush up against the KE officer's persona, trying to scour a mark on it. Pepperface was always careful never to leave any traces of his hacking activities sitting around the apartment host, but he still didn't like the idea of some pawn decker on his home turf.

"Christ, listen to me, I sound like some idiot gang-decker. Home turf." Pepperface straightened his tie and made for the stairs, trying to head out to the street to meet this young lady that was causing so much trouble.

[Red_Cap]

[Wednesday 11:42 am, Oct. 23rd, 2075 | Outside Cross' Apartment | Downtown Seattle]

Well, better than nothing, I guess.  Just going to have to beat feet...

Cross nodded to the cop and headed outside, jogging over to the Bentley.  Granted, having a cop following him wasn't exactly ideal, but he didn't have much choice at the moment.  The last thing he needed on his first run was to get on Knight Errant's shit-list.

"Hey, folks," he said as he jogged up, brandishing his medkit.  "Is anyone hurt?"

[WrongConcept]

[Wednesday 11:42 am, Oct. 23rd, 2075 | 4th Ave. | Downtown Seattle]

He heard the muffle voiced from outside his car, and dam! that was a blind spot for him, he knew he should have bought that full sensor suite that he was offered, but with all the other modding he got installed on himself, an attempt to stop being a worm. The thing was that things where getting weird and dangerous at the same time, his seat lifted up again and he jacked out from Full VR and whent to AR, his meat body awakening and coming back to life, he saw trough the window and he sees someone coming to him with a Medkit, and behind him a KE, just his luck, he looked first as his passengers and talked softly and with confidence, more a tactic to calm them and himself than care.

No speaking unless extremely necessary, Hero prep your gun just in case and cover the Lady, also belts on.

He turned again to the window and with a tough he lowered a bit just to let his face be seen, he made everything possible to look shaken and scared, as would be normal after almost killing someone, he took a Sperethiel marked accent (more marked than normal) and spoke with simple words to the man with the medkit, his hand whent to the inside of his actioner bussines clothes, he did it slowly reaching for his gun trying to be as concealed as possible.

Yes... Yes... We... Ok, Almost not Ok, but Ok, We go to Hospital! Check in Case!

His right hand firm on the gun and his left on the wheel, he hoped that was enough but one would never knew, he was attentive of the stranger but even more of the KE behind him.

[Red_Cap]

[Wednesday 11:42 am, Oct. 23rd, 2075 | Outside Cross' Apartment | Downtown Seattle]

He nodded to the driver of the Bentley.  "Actually not a bad idea.  We should probably take them as well," he said, pointing at the redhead and her erstwhile savior.  He looked over his shoulder at the Knight Errant.  "Just to be safe.  I can check their vitals on the way, and it'll get us all out of your way to deal with. . .whatever's going on inside."

[WrongConcept]

[Wednesday 11:42 am, Oct. 23rd, 2075 | Outside Cross' Apartment | Downtown Seattle]

This job was getting more dangerous by the second, some unknow dude with a medkit and a bad case of "i will kill you, eat you and spit the bones" look wearing a leather jacket, he had seen scary, this dude had the aura but not the intention, not the black soulless eyes... Either way if said no then KE would get suspicious, if they weren't alredy, he took a choice and hoped he could live one more day. He spoke again in softly as if calming down, and whas quickly trying to make up a plan.

You Doctor?! Good! Come, we go to hospital!

With a mental command he raised the window of his seat closing it, and oppened the passengers door, in the interval of closing the window and opening the door he took his right hand from the grip of his pistol and tryed to signal the "hero" to "be alert about that guy" not that he trusted the hero more than the new guy but at least they in theory had the same job. Before the human with medkit entered the vehicle the Red Haired elf put his right hand on the Wheel of the car, and prepared to only drive trough AR. He was hoping he wouldn't be needing to clean blood from his real leather seats...

[obidancer]

Easy Hotwheels, let's not make a mess of this situation. The Frenchman told the Elf Driver.
The Door started to open and he moved his body so he would somehow hide the girl from the outside view. He didn't like the idea of taking the pretending to be Doctor. That's how you get innocent killed.... Neither did he like that Hospital idea, but he had to play along; good run succeeded with good teamwork. He held his arm at the wrist and up at his chest. With a discomforted face he addressed the KE cop from his seat.
Sorry for the disturbance Officer, I was jogging and didn't pay attention while crossing the road. This driver managed to avoid me, but I got scared and fell down, I think I broke my wrist. These people kindly offered to take me to the hospital. Can't say no being offered a ride in such a car, you know.

[BestTeaMaker]

Pepperface
[Wednesday 11:45 am, Oct. 23rd, 2075 | 4th Ave. | Downtown Seattle]

What was there to worry about?

Pepperface stood outside in the shining sun. Behind him in the building the two Knights continued their sweep of the building. He wasn't sure what they were looking for, but he was glad that they didn't really bother to stop him. It seemed that they were concerned with something else, something that piqued his curiosity.

Luckily, he had surreptitiously marked the KE techie before he walked out the door.

@KEBeta1 [KEAlpha]>>Beta 1, do we have a description of our perp?

@KEAlpha [KEBeta1]>>Yes, sir. Image is loading right now. Sending to all units.

Pepperface watched as his AR feed began loading a picture. Cute girl, he thought. Ginger elf, young, nicely tanned. Complete opposite of myself. He opened another window where another image loaded, courtesy of his fixer before he hung up. It was the exact same girl.

Now, who is this girl that compromised the safety of my home? Pepperface looked up and down the street. He noticed a red Bentley down the street to his left where several people were crowded, including a KE officer. There seemed to be some sort of confrontation going on. A young girl stepped out of the car. She was a ginger elf, young, nicely tanned...and looked exactly like the girl on his AR windows right now.

Cross, Flashgitz, The Frenchman
[Wednesday 11:45 am, Oct. 23rd, 2075 | 4th Ave. | Downtown Seattle]

The Knight Errant officer was no fool. There was no crash, no totaled car, no bodies torn apart, no grieving bystanders. He was almost disappointed.

And now, this guy, and EMT he said, was trying to fool him. Even better, this guy, a Frenchie in jogging shorts and a sweater, was trying to distract him with a broken wrist of all things. And this guy in the car? Totally suspicious.

Knight Errant 101. When people lie to you, then they are hiding something. And his favorite thing to do was to find out what with his trusty FN HAR, pointing the barrel at the two men.

"Don't try to fuck with me. You are lying to me, thus you are hiding something." Ha, I love this job.

The Frenchman and Cross did not experience the same enjoyment from the situation as they raised instinctively raised their arms up, their minds racing for a way out of this situation. Flashgitz froze in his seat.

The elf just sighed. These guys are supposed to protect me? And this third guy? Good thing his acting was bad.

She got out of the car and slammed the door. This immediately caused the men to turn their heads towards her. "Look, officer, these boys are with me." She pointed to a wide-eyed Cross. "We were just going to pick this guy up. He's a bit of a ham, so whatever he told you, just know that he was just nervous. I know I'd be when I see KE in my neighborhood. Can we just leave this alone, officer?"

A moment passed. Then the officer lowered his gun. Shit, there was a cute girl in there. Better make myself look like a man. "I'm sorry ma'am, I was just doing my duty." He turned to Cross and The Frenchman. "If you were here to escort this lovely lady, then you should've told me. I understand. Nice girl like her needs all the help she can get. And you, c'mon. Broken wrist? Really?"

Cross and The Frenchman relaxed. Flashgitz was just happy he wasn't called out on anything. The officer turned back to the elf and nodded. She smiled back. Score! "Once again, I'm sorry ma'am. I will be on my way and--"

Suddenly, he stopped. They could notice his eyes slightly moving, as if he was looking at something through an AR feed. His eyes then darted from his visor to the elf girl. Visor. Elf girl. Visor. Elf girl...

Man, I really fucking love this job.

"GET YOUR HANDS AGAINST THE CAR. ALL OF YOU NOW!"

The sudden command caught them all off guard. The officer raised his gun, but this time focusing his aim on the elf. Her eyes shot wide open, realizing was going on. He began to shout into his two-way. "SIR, I HAVE THE PERP RIGHT OUTSIDE. I REPEAT, THE PERP IS OUTSIDE IN A RED BENTLEY. I HAVE HER AND THREE OTHERS. I REPEAT, THERE ARE A TOTAL OF FOUR RIGHT NOW."

[spoiler]Preparation Order

Dacre
Johnny (Crit Glitch)
Knockout + Daisy[/spoiler]

[WrongConcept]

[Wednesday 11:45 am, Oct. 23rd, 2075 | 4th Ave. | Downtown Seattle]

He was scared, he couldn't handle this... This was not his area of expertise, this was... they were... He saw Toshiki grabbing Sihadriel from the hair. He was angry at himself, he look for a second a the rear view mirror and he saw himself, weak, pathethic... Worm... Les than worn, he hated himself and fear was replaced by rage, wich he used to focus, this focus nurtured him, he first though of the problem in a fraction of a second.

THINK! First Problem: The client got out of the car, Second Problem: The KE, Third Problem: The Doctor was an unknown variable, Fourth: The KE had alredy tagged them. What to do?! THINK FOR FRAGS SAKE THINK! One: Get the client in the car, best solution the Hero, second disarm the KE, options He was alone he had a nice weapon but no support, he also hadn't considered him a factor, his mistake my advantage. The doctor had to become an asset, momentarely he would offer him nuyen if need be.

He was completely focused, he draw his light gun from his concealed holster on his suit while lowering the window of the pilot and pointing the gun at the KE head, his short red hair flashed, his attitude and corporal behaviour changed drasticly and he did everything in his power to imitate his personal nightmare: Toshiki, he tried to make his stare as soulless as posible, his tone got serious bording on dangerous, and he looked straight to the eyes of the KE, he spoke with authorithy and elegance.

Mr. Hero grab the client, and get her inside the car. You KE have two guns pointing at your head, think carefully, your support wont be here before we blow you a new breathing hole, drop your gun and kick it to my associate Mr. Doctor, or make us waste bullets in you, while achieving nothing. You have three seconds to comply.... Three...

For the first time in his life he was feeling ready to kill someone to hurt him, maybe it was the attitude maybe it was the intensity of his focus and sheer rage, either way KE had his face, a face that he hated.