Description: Naerose and Daniel and Ayame had some time together and it was good. Good that Naerose forgot all about it. But she did, and now we are were we are.
Amazing how plans work out. Stealing a NESTS uniform was easy. Stealing the tank? Turned out also easy. Stealing Daniel? Also easy. This whole leading thing was turning out to be really easy. Naerose, still dawning a NESTS uniform, plus her shades, witches hat and broom, isn't trying to pretend very hard. As the tank runs over cars and generally looks like it is being driven by an untrained pilot isn't going to fool anyone. But just incase someone glances at them, sees the uniform, maybe they'll look the other way. Still, all that rocking was hard on the witch and she sort of wanted to know, what was up anyway? So knocking on the tank, the witch points to a destroyed food stand, to you know, forage.
"Hey Daniel, help me look for something to eat in this rubble, we'll let Aranha try to get more used to the controls or something cause I'm totally getting tank-sick. You know?"
The witch leads the way, but soon reveals her true intent. "Hey so umm, this person, do they pay well and would they be interested in a stolen computer from that er.. Gedo high? I'm looking for someone to pay the bills you see.." Naerose adjusts her shades and looks up at Daniel after finding a sample sized bag of chips. Lucky~
Stealing Daniel? I suppose that is one way of looking at it. Still wearing the hospital greens, he just clutches a radio, trying to work through the 'polite' USPL rank and file. So far, he only got laughter and verbal abuse. Primarily directed at the color of his skin. Grumbling, Daniel Jack listens to Naerose's offer, and nods firmly. "Decent idea, Cherry. Lets jack up on niblets, you dig?"
Dropping down, Daniel Jack goes through the different sweets. Candy Bars, mostly, though a few crushed chip bags were around. Lifting up a Snickers, he just tosses a glance aside to Naerose about the 'true intent.' "Don't know for the first, and no for the second. Besides, if you want to fence it, you could probably drop it to some poor family out in the boonies. Maybe $200-300, I figure, unless you are a fast talker."
Daniel ran the bar between his fingers. Damn. Melted.
Most people with any good sense would already be as far away as possible given the significant warning the rumbling, careening, car crunching rogue tank was giving. It was pretty hard not to hear it coming after all. But for some people in Southtown, figuring out exactly why some tank would break rank and go on a destruction derby tour across the city streets is part of the job. Case in point, one Syndicate Scout, Ayame.
Originally she took notice of it because reporting on the troop movements throughout the city tended to be her primary work as of late. But it only took one glance at its lack of coherent control that this rolling behemoth was most definitely not under the control of a trained driver.
That only made it more curious. Keeping up with it was easy. It might have done better driving in the clear, but navigating the streets and demolishing/rolling over anything in the way takes its toll on the speed the vehicle could muster, and that was enough for Ayame to keep pace. Hopping from building to catwalk to building to fire escape to rooftop to balcony, the street rogue turned light-weight Syndicate enforcer watched the armored vehicle finally roll to a stop and a few of those in control of it moving off some distance.
Time to find out what's really going on here. Someone at the Syndicate will want to know. Assuming, of course, the cartel hasn't been reduced to rubble yet. Ayame has her doubts. Slipping down a drain pipe to the street level, the girl makes her way closer to the duo that she say divert off from the tank proper. Two people stopping to ransack a food stand? Well, that's something she can appreciate. The city is full of easy-come opportunities like that lately. A byproduct of descending into utter chaos and all that.
And then there's the point at which she's close enough to identify one of the most recognizeable people in Southtown. Peeking around a corner, the girl spots the signiture hat immediately. Taking cover again, she tries to reason it out. Is Naerose part of the invasion force? That doesn't make any kind of sense. And who's the fellow with her? Doesn't look like a hardened soldier type. Looks more like the type out of his element if the hospital clothes are any indication. She could try to eavesdrop, but the witch is talking low and Ayame isn't feeling patient.
"I don't think that's a standard issue helmet," she observes, slipping out into the open.
Though she closes the distance a little, she doesn't move close, opting instead to stand about three yards away, paying careful attention to Daniel since she knows the least about him. "Playing at tank commander, Naerose?" the girl asks, cutting to the point.
Crunch, these chips are really stale. Well that is what you get when you dig through rubble to find a snack. She listens to Daniel and her hat seems to droop with the expression of utter and complete dismal disappointment. This wasn't what she wanted to hear.
"That's like ten times less than the amount my original buyer is offering, and two or three grand is not nearly enough to support a whole business. That is one thing I never did understand about that starting up funds." Naerose sighs a little and turns to Daniel, "Cause you know what I've been up to right?" He probably doesn't. Come to think of it, she didn't tell Aranha either, "This is just the beginning, see like, we do this, get paid, maybe sell that tank, I'm sure someone will buy it..." If it is still in one piece, she seems to think and her expression takes on a blank sort of grin to communicate that, "But I want to get a group to-"
Ayame.
WOAH!! Ayame.
"What the snap!" exclaims Naerose, turning and fixing her shades to observe Ayame. Come to think of it, she always was really good at the whole sneaky ninja thing. It was kind of neat, the NestsWitch had to admire the way she totally got dropped on.
"Oh this?" She looks over the uniform, "Totally not my style," The witch contents, "And not really useful anymore, I'm just er... well maybe it will come in handy again later," she shrugs, then smiles, "I don't suppose you're here for a snack too..?" More like afraid Ayame is here to try and take her tank. Totally wasn't in the plan.
Daniel nods, taking in the information carefully. "Look, that's a straight deal, but that sounds like a straight criminal fence. Gedo High are legit friends of mine, and that's sounds like they want a computer for security cracking. I mean, shoot, you talk like that, and I am going to make you give it back to them at a reasonable pri-" The detective stops when Naerose sighs. He just stares, a look of intensity boiling over as she began to reveal her secret plan.
Then suddenly, Ayame.
Daniel Jack drops the candy bar, and stands erect. Facing Ayame, he crosses his arms, now locking the frigid gaze upon the strange teenager. And there, he just listens to the back and forth between Naerose and Ayame. Ah. A clue. And right in tandem with Naerose talking about getting the group back together. Flashing a tight grimace of a grin, a twinkle formed in the man's eye. "Friend of yours, Cherry? I knew it. You want to get your gang back together."
Daniel cases Ayame. She was either a typical teenager, or a prostitute. Knowing Naerose put more weight in the latter. The punk elements brought it back into the former, though, and if Daniel's instincts were right, they were part of her 'gang motif.' She was also watching him. Both were stranger to the other. Apparently, Naerose didn't mentioned about Daniel Jack. "So what's your name, Skirt?" He deadpans, casting off the word like an abomination of the throat.
Snippets of the conversation catch her ears even before she makes her presence abundantly clear. A group? Naerose doing some kind of planning? That's a scary thought. By the time the startled red-hatted woman has corrected her shades, Ayame has assumed a relaxed position, arms folded loosely, her back up against the wall, feet crossed at the ankles, a certain patient calm on her expression, as if she was possibly being patronizingly nice for the time being.
Naerose speaks of the uniform and Ayame shrugs, "It's not very convincing. Might be the hat." she observes. "Not really interested in rummaging garbage right now," she responds to the question about a snack, "But I am interested in that tank you seem to be taking out for a joy ride. Just what are you doing with something like that? Could get into a lot of trouble once the wrong sorts notice. You know, like me."
Her eyes shift to Daniel as she pushes herself from off the wall back into standing, moving in a sort of circle around the two, keeping the distance constant as she looks him over, meeting his cold stare with a decidedly neutral analysis. "Could say that, perhaps... Coworkers of sorts might be more accurate."
She stops short when he asks her name, however, head canting to the side slightly, looking as if to give it a fair amount of thought. Eyes glance back to Naerose then back to the guy that looks like he's ready to go into surgury. "Oh, I get it. You're one of those nicknaming sorts. The kind that never call anyone by their name anyway. She's not Cherry, but that's what you call her. I could give you my name, but ultimately it won't matter." She grins, shrugging slightly, "Skirt's fine."
Attention shifts back to Naerose with a nod toward Daniel, "So who's this guy? Part of your tank stealing party gang? What're you going to do with that thing you've got out there? One doesn't just steal a canon on wheels unless they have something in mind to use it on."
Groan. More Groaning. A look of mild disgruntled frustration and then.. Okay. Take a deep breath. Naerose does. Ayame explains some of it, well the coworker part, but now it's time for Naerose to do some fill in. First for Daniel because he seems to taking the ball and running with it, in the wrong direction. Naerose saw Forest Gump.
"Hold on there Daniel, what I'm talking about isn't some sort of gang, it's an organization and nothing illegitimate. That old group? I'm not trying to get them back together," She flicks her fingers at Ayame for no apparent reason, "They didn't even break up, we just went our own ways. Forget about them. I'm talking about something better. And I didn't steal this computer from the Gedo high kids, I stole it from the people I stole this uniform from. They had.. or have or something, a base there. Dig?" Okay. One problem solved. Then there is Ayame. Naerose turns to her with a smile and says,
"Did it occur to you.. that maybe that's the point?" She angles her broom to point like an arrow toward the tank, a little ways in the distance. "Yeah, we suck at driving that thing, it makes noise. We're supposed to be taking it against.. against.." She looks at Daniel because she already forgot who, then shrugs, "Well anyway the way I understand it is we go against the people who brought the tank, er taste of their own medicine? Yeah and then we sell the tank, it's called having your cake and eating it too." Naerose Ayame a really big grin now, "As if we didn't realize we were making a ruckus. Besides.." Naerose pauses and adjusts her shades , dipping her head down with a look that seems to scream confidence. "Anyone like you we run into has to contend with me."
The gang that wasn't a gang. The same lingo Naerose dropped when they were down together underneath the casino... no wait, that sounds terrible. No no, Daniel was just stalking her down there. Wait, that's even worse. It was just an investigation. Okay?
Just an investigation.
Anyways, yeah, they were part of the same organization. Or were. Naerose's defense rattled solid in his head, weighing out their motives. Naerose probably just liked being part of gangs. Or groups in general. Something was mulling about in the detective's heart. A thirst of power, or perhaps a drive towards a greater good. However, such planning and scheme would be put on hold for a while.
The primary concern was now set on Ayame. "Damn straight, Skirt, damn straight." Withdrawing his grin, he grimaces as he looks over at Naerose. "That's smooth then, Cherry. Real smooth. I got a target ready to lay out, then. How about we lay down our contacts in private then, with your boyfriend present of course." Glancing back over to Ayame, he nods firmly. "Speaking of. You here to join up, or just part of the concerned citizen committee?" Daniel Jack had a straight forward look on his face. He was trying to figure out why they parted ways. And whether or not Ayame was indeed a friend...
Or an enemy.
Ayame goes immediately quiet the second Naerose speaks up, attention snapping back to Daniel, one auburn eyebrow arced slightly. "Daniel?" It seems like a coincidence. Too crazy to be true. But it's worth figuring out. She stays quiet, the curious expression fading quickly, replaced with a mask of bored indifference as Naerose continues to elaborate on the points he's attempting to interpret. Yes, yes, the mercenary group they both belonged to broke up - or, rather, collapsed under a lack of sane leadership. Ancient history to the girl and something she hadn't considered until seeing Naerose again for the first time in a long while.
She also doesn't really care about any talk about some computer taken from Gedo High or otherwise. With the state the city is in, no one's particularly interested in beat up ghetto district High School computers, or so she imagines. She'd have to see it to decide if it was anything more interesting (or uninteresting) than that. By the time she snaps out of her quiet reverie, Naerose is facing her again with a smile. That's usually an indicator that she's about to hear something that makes no sense. Then again, that's just about any conversation with the eccentric woman.
"Uh huh."
The strawberry-blonde lifts her hand, forefinger raised, "First off, whatever damage you might be able to cause with a single tank is going to get pretty short if you're rolling up aginst the firepower these people have got. One tank against dozens doesn't make for much of a distraction. Secondly, most of the very world powers with the money and the interest in cutting edge weapons technology happen to be in this city as the very invasion force. You try and sell them one of their tanks back and you're dead. You try to sell one of their tanks elsewhere and they're going to find out and whatever little game of putting a group together is going to be a high priority target all of the sudden."
She snaps her hand back down to her side, her thumb hooking into one of her three belts, "And finally, you being the line of defense against the tank getting in someone else's control isn't something I'd be expressing confidence about. Broom hockey and light shoes isn't going to keep everyone at bay."
Ayame shifts her focus toward Daniel last, "Concerned citizen," she smirks, her hand slipping away from her belt to point at him, waving her hand slightly for emphasis. "I saw a tank on the loose. Wanted to make sure of the intentions of its crew. Now that I know who's involved, I don't know what to make of it. I might be put more at ease knowing what it is, exactly, it was going to be used on..." Her voice trails off, her mind switching tracks to something else, "Say, funny guy, you an aquaintance of a no good trouble maker named Roland or some ol' crazy guy by the name of Ryuhaku Todoh?"
Drat, Ayame made a lot of good points. Suddenly a lot more is put together for Naerose listening to her. "So that's why we never had a constructive conversation before." Naerose murmurs, "You've spent all of your time thinking this and just never saying it huh.." Then again, Naerose, you're probably at least part to blame too. "Dang Daniel, she has a really good point, we probably won't be able to sell the tank and the only reason we've gotten this far is because all the powers that be here are likely too busy fighting other powers that be then bothering with a single rogue tank." Naerose shrugs a little then leans on her broom a bit, "Well this ain't exactly my sort of thing yo," Naerose says to Ayame then continues, "But it seemed important enough to these two that I went along with it." She gestures to Daniel.
Oh now they were talking, well that gives Naerose a moment or two to think about things. Obviously Ayame went her own way, but where? She couldn't tell. The way she looks at Ayame, just over the top rims of her shades, yeah, Naerose doesn't buy it. Concerned citizen? Not likely. No point in cornering her with it though. Instead she says , "Well if I can not sell it then.. we'll have to think of something else. Thanks for the heads up Ayame, but anything short of keeping it under raps..." A thought crosses Naerose's brow. She falls silent and lets Ayame speak to Daniel instead.
Log created on 15:32:51 05/24/2009 by Naerose, and last modified on 23:08:30 12/19/2010.