[badneighbor]

Expo watches Knucks carefully as the ork speaks in his frantic stream-of-conscious, Drek, this guy makes me nervous. Hard to tell if he’s a timebomb that wants to go off, or if it’s all talk, he thinks. He glances over at MW and tries to gauge his reaction, thinking maybe another ganger might understand this better, or at least understand the risks. He waits for Uffington to return before suggesting a plan.

“Ok, so we know we ain’t gonna talk to ‘em til Wizkid’s been geeked. So we gotta shoot first. We know they got home turf advantage if we go uphill to them, so we gotta draw ‘em out. We know we can’t have a firefight here on this street—‘” he glances again at MW, then away, “’cause we can’t. So I think we set up shop a block or two outside their base. Maybe the Chulos make some noise in the street, keep their attention off us. We pick a spot, maybe from the surrounding buildings, maybe sneak up from behind. Cap Wiz, maybe then the rest break and run, or wanna talk. Don’t wanna kill ‘em all, that’s bad business.”

He pokes a finger in MeatWagon’s direction, “’s your turf. Know a spot where this’ll play out right?”

[Zweiblumen]

MW seems a bit surprised at the business-like attitude but after thinking about it a bit comes around.

He pokes a finger in MeatWagon’s direction, “’s your turf. Know a spot where this’ll play out right?”

"We ain't gonna go draw them out by rattlin' around up there.  They know we are waiting for them down here, if we Chulos go up to them they'll bunker down.  Naw, that ain't gonna work."

"Why we gotta go to them?" he finally blurts out, his mind a few seconds behind his tongue as usual. "They dumb kids comin on foot, right? No bikes, no rides. If they were driving, sure, maybe they pass over the freeway up at 20th or under down on 25th because fewer turns that way. But they walkin, ain't they? That means they taking the direct route, which is 22nd. Let's just meet 'em along the way and POWCHICKAPOWWOW!"

He nods in approval of Knuck's tactical assessment.  "Not bad for an extraño, but dem slums over there are bad biz.  'Kidz are gonna have to go around one way or the other.  Walkin' cross 20th ain't bad and is the most likely.  'Course they may be crazy and willing to come down through 22nd if they are looking to rumble already figurin' war is war."  He shakes his head knowing that's a bad idea, but there's no way to know if they/ know that.  "So, ya got three options.  Take it close and ambush them in the park a block over from here, wait on the 20th st bridge and try and lock 'em in, or hide with the slummers under the highway on 22nd st.  Would be wiz if we could tell which way they were coming ahead of time.
Ya'll got our support so numbers won't be a problem, just gotta figure where you want to drop 'em."

[Tecumseh]

Knucks puts a fist to his chin and tries to look muscular and contemplative at the same time, which is somewhat undermined by the size of his hands, which are disproportionately small compared to a normal ork's. He listens to MeatWagon's analysis, nodding discerningly at intervals socially appropriate for a ganger.

"They ain't gon' look for early friction. They gon skip 22nd, not wanting to get scuffed up before the real rumble. They takin the 20th St. overpass, they will. Friction-free, good sightlines, tougher to ambush.

"We gotta pounce 'em right before they step off the bridge. Ain't no cover backward, going forward just pushes into our loving arms." He flexes to demonstrate his love. "We'll have 'em on three sides. Crossfire, wire to wire, our love become a funeral pyre."

He looks for ratification from Uffington and Expo before heading to the newly designated kill zone.

[rednblack]

Using his astral vision Uffington chuckles to himself as Knucks strikes a pose as if he could still be seen by the rest of the group.  Unabashedly, the young elf lifts his ballistic mask and picks his nose while the conversation turns to the 20th St. overpass.

"Sounds like a plan to me," Uffington says.  The ork is nova with the tactics, and the bridge seems like a great place to lay their trap.

"Let's head that way," he adds, rubbing a booger on the wall, and replacing his ballistic mask.  "We'll want to roll with our gear turned off until we come out swinging.  If they're living up to their name all this invisibility won't do squat if we're broadcasting a bunch a icons and drek."

[Zweiblumen]

MeatWagon listens to the runners discussion and nods.  "Sounds like a plan, we'll ride across the bridge ahead of you and make sure they can't retreat across, unless you want us to wait in the park and provide backup."  He digs into the inside pockets of his coat and pulls out a burner.  "We'll keep our gear on so we don't look odd for not having any icons floating around.  You can just turn this on and we'll see it come online, that'll be our signal to come out."

With that, he and Chulos get in or on their rides and head out.

[Tecumseh]

"We'll give them the buunda!" Knucks says with an obscene gesture, not remembering until it's too late that he's invisible and nobody can see the gesture, making it superfluous.

He swings his fists in front of him for some shadowboxing, but for the first time in his life he doesn't cast a shadow. He'd delights in being the invisible man. "Wells, not Ellison!" he shouts gleefully.

"Just let me at 'em," he says, more controlled. "I'll wade right in the middle. You chums don't have to do nothing but watch."

Expo and Uffington express an interest in a more developed plan.

A more concrete proposal forms. The location is set, with Knucks assigned to cut off the head of the snake. Expo makes some salient points about providing avenues of retreat so that the Technoids do not feel compelled to fight to the death. Knucks recognizes the wisdom of this and strokes his chin thoughtfully (before, once again, remembering that he is invisible, and sticking his hand down his pants instead). He appreciates the tactical thinking of Expo, and reminds himself that men in suits are capable of higher thinking too.

"C'mon, cerri," he says, using the word for "battle brothers". "Let's go show these karts our rutra."

[Zweiblumen]

Having worked out their plan the runners set up on the south side.  The scene begins to feel almost out of time as the ruins of the area and the smog from the south blow through making everything a timeless grey.  The entire area around the bridge almost seems to hold its breath as they wait to spring their trap, or at least it feels that way to Expo, Uffington and Knucks.

Time starts to crawl and seconds feel like hours as they continue to wait.  It's almost unbearable knowing what's about to happen and yet powerless to do anything.  Maybe the Chulos decided to just take the fight to the Technoids early, or they got tipped off somehow.  A wary vagrant that happened to overhear the plans and thought they could trade the info for some cheap chips.  Knucks its having a particularly hard time of it, though its difficult for the others to tell while they are all cloaked with Uffington's magic.

Just as the "ork" is about to give up in disgust thinking the plan is shot the Technoids crest the rise in the bridge.  Ten "kids" come across the bridge making a awkward and messy "line abreast" as they try to strut and or saunter down the street in an attempt to take up the whole width of the bridge.  Behind them are two more figures, one moving with a purpose, the other seems to more skittish but trying to look brave.  As tightly wound as they are, Expo nearly forgets to turn on the burner to let the Chulos know to close the trap on the north side of the bridge.

[rednblack]

When the Technoids come into view, Uffington leaves his crouched position and moves his vision to the astral, taking them in.  There's the same fear and uncertainty, more pronounced now that they're on the move, and he recognizes the leader, presumably WizKid, immediately.  His air of confidence hasn't lessened any.  In fact, if Uffington had to hazard a guess, he'd think the leader is almost eager for his upcoming fight with the Chulos.  If he gets that far.

He approaches Knucks cautiously, and eases up behind the big ork.  "Hey," he whispers.  "Back right is our guy.  Lay him out, and I'll drop the bomb."

With that Uffington returns to his position, and shifts back to his physical sight.  Despite the earlier stench of their fear, the gangers are sauntering forward at a mindnumbingly slow pace.  Come on, come on, he tells himself, almost more afraid of them doing so than he is of continuing to wait.  They make their way closer, and closer still until Uffington can't take anymore.

Now, Knucks, now! he screams to himself, focusing all his attention on a soyburger wrapper he's mapped out as just beyond the ork's distance for his spell. 

And then he hears a scream.

[Tecumseh]

Knucks is jittery. It's the Cram, not nerves. He's been in plenty of scraps in his life and come through each time. He's built for war and knows it and he's not seeing anyone or anything that's going to challenge his dominance today. The fact that the Technoids are just kids isn't comforting, nor morally quarrelsome. If anything, it's discouraging because it suggests that there won't be anyone the least bit of competitive in the coming rumble.

He makes sure that his eyes and ears are turned Wireless Off, lest they betray his position. Crouching along the side of the bridge, he nimbly flips a throwing knife around his knuckles, unconcerned that the small floating object will give him away.

The Cram tells him that it's go time. The fact that his target is 100m away doesn't factor into the Cram's suggestion, so Knucks tells the Cram to shut the frag up for another 90 meters.

"GOONGALA GOONGALA!" he screams as he leaps forward, his arm arcing down as a scythe. He throws the knife at WizKid with all the force of his artificial muscles. WizKid, alert to the danger, angles his head away at the last second. The knife flits by, doing nothing more than giving WizKid a close shave.

Knucks is torn between frustration that he missed and delight that this might be a real fight after all.

[rednblack]

Uffington sees the knife whisk just past WizKid's ear, and he draws the mana in around him.  For a brief moment, as the focus of his attention, the soyburger wrapper spins in place as if pushed by a small cyclonic wind, and when he releases the spell Uffington is surprised at its strength.  Usually, keeping three chummers invisible would be more than enough to slow him down some, but when the ball of lightning erupts into the crowd of Technoids, it does so with a ferocity that sends nearly all of them flat on their backs, twitching, or moaning, or all too many of them still and charred, the smell of ozone, and burnt hair and skin suddenly thick in the air.

Whoops! Uffington thinks surveying the carnage.  I may have oversold that one.

[Zweiblumen]

As Knucks' knife flies through the air, the jumped up decker feels a sting from his right and he clumsily flinches back in surprise from it.  This flinch causes him to not be in the place that Knucks expected him to step into and the knife sheers of a few locks of hair from the startled teen's head.  He gasps in surprise.  The oddly dressed man next to him glares in Knucks direction, seeing through the illusion hiding him.  He shouts an alarm to the gang warning them of the impending attack.

Before any of them can react any more than that, a devastating blast of electricity emanates from a spot a dozen centimeters in front of the young decker.  He and the oddly dressed man attempt escape the blast, but are thrown to the ground a meter away, fairly singed for their efforts.  The young gangers are not nearly so lucky.  Of the ten that were forming a protective line, nine are blasted where they stand.  The effect is straight out of an action trid.  The young metas are thrown from their feet like rag-dolls, landing is various heaps of disarray.  Several literally blasted out of their shoes leaving smoking carcasses where ever they landed.  The remaining ganger looking lost and confused seems breathless.

[badneighbor]

Expo’s mouth drops open as the lightning ball detonates amidst the group of wannabe gangers, sending burned bodies to the pavement in what feels like slow-motion. Wizkid falls backward, hurt, but luckier than most of the others.

<<What happened?!>> , he subvocalizes as he tries to keep his cool enough to line up a shot. His sights are set on Wizkid, but his mind is doing re-runs of that explosion. He licks sweat off his upper lip and squeezes the trigger. The shot goes wide. Maybe the kid was wired up so good he could dodge a shot from an invisible gun. Maybe Expo subconsciously missed on purpose; there were already more casualties than he’d expected. He growls a little and shakes his head to refocus. That sort of thinking is a good way to get killed.

He’s doing so much thinking, in fact, he forgets to turn on his ‘link to call in the Chulos. Not that they would be needed.

[Tecumseh]

Knucks watches with detachment as Uffington turns the Technoids into a giant bowl of snap, crackle, and pop. Expo fires off a couple rounds which don't connect but which do draw WizKid's attention the other way. Knucks takes advantage of WizKid's distraction by charging in at full speed. His martial arts training in Wildcat emphasized the lethal parts of Muay Thai and Karate, both of which he employs here. He leads off with a kao loi (flying knee), which slams into WizKid's solar plexus, driving his ribcage up into his lungs and heart. WizKid sprawls backward on the pavement. Knucks lands and follows quickly with a fumikomi geri (stomping kick) right in the teeth.

A shrill voice cries out practically in Knucks' ear: "You fools!  Do you know the investment you've just destroyed?!?!" Knucks feels a heat building up in him, almost as if he were being boiled from the inside out. The pain overwhelms his NoPaint, leaving him feeling like he just spent fifteen seconds in the microwave. He staggers, skin blistering and stomach lurching as he turns his attention to his left.

[rednblack]

Uffington sees a bright flash as the man Casts a spell?!  Where in Dunkelzahn's asshole did this hoop come from? the elf wonders.  He doesn't remember any awakened among the Technoids earlier, and if experience has taught him anything it's that this chummer wasn't slinging some low level drek. 

Ah frag, Knucks.  Hope he's still up.  If anything there plan was coming together too well, but a spellslinger certainly put a spanner in the works.  If they lost their muscle, this could get a whole lot more interesting dangerous.

Pointing his invisible finger at the unknown addition to the Technoid's crew, Uffington speaks to his spirit in waiting through the astral.  Sic him."

"Gladly."

The hulking wolf springs into action, and rushes toward the man just as his words start to sink in.  "You fools!  Do you know the investment you've just destroyed?!?!" he had said.  No, this must go a little deeper than just a turf war, or at least it does for somebody.  Somebody important.  The spirit lunges, a mess of teeth, claws, and fur, trying its hardest to bowl the man over and rip out his throat, and Uffington levels his crossbow as best he can in the spaces between the spirit and its quarry.

"This ends when you say it does," Uffington offers from behind cover. 

[Tecumseh]

Knucks does not know the investment that he just destroyed, nor is he curious enough to find out. This man screaming rhetorical questions is standing between him and a payday and that can't happen.

Knucks grew up Native, which meant being surrounded by magic. He knows what it feels like to get hit with a spell - spells you couldn't see, couldn't dodge, couldn't do anything about but to eat the pain - and he doesn't like it. The NoPaint is taking care of half the pain but Knucks knows that his skin is blistering and that he will likely lose some hair, maybe even a tooth or a tusk. But, worst of all, he's knows he's going to miss several days at the gym while he waits for his guts to knit themselves back together.

With a howl of rage, Knucks channels his anger into a scything uppercut that turns the magician's jaw into powder shortly before propelling the man's teeth through the roof of his mouth. The odontoid process of the second cervical vertebra breaks from the force of the blow and hits the man's medulla oblongata, killing him.

The lone survivor of the Technoids soils himself and runs back up the hill. Knucks has little difficulty running the boy down and grabbing him by the scruff of his neck. He holds the boy up as the kid's legs pedal helplessly in midair. "Stay out of Dogtown!" he screams, failing to think of something witty to say. "OR UNCLE KNUCKS IS GONNA GET YA!"

He stares at the boy, the sad little human, so small, so fragile, so weak. Instead of pity, he feels disgust, revulsion for everything he himself used to be. He assuages the uncomfortable comparison by throwing his forehead - protected by the ballistic mask - into the kid's nose. He then throws the kid down and kicks him in the rear until the boy gets up and runs.

Knucks wants to linger, to savor the victory and the pain of the breeders. Instead he feels a hot ache inside that suggests that his ribs might not be in the right place. Looking around, he sees a few dead bodies and is reminded that that the local authorities may not approve. He breaks into a trot as he heads downhill toward Expo and Uffington, pausing only for a few moments to frisk WizKid and the magician for anything valuable. Turning his commlink and wireless functionality back on, he jacks up his augmented hearing to listen for approaching sirens.

Rejoing the elf and the dwarf, the ork says, "C'mon, let's get off the street."