ic Knock on the Door Job(IC)

[Gizmo]

"Somebody's gonna get hit," Lou grunted as he hauled himself out of the pile of laundry with as much dignity as the rattling confines of the van allowed. "Might as well be the guy who can stay standing after." Cracking his neck audibly he considered the other occupants of the vehicle. With a couple of hours of prep time and a pick-up team from the bottom of the barrel his expectations for evening had been pretty low but he was man enough to admit when he'd been wrong. "Job went smooth," he noted flatly, about as close as he was likely to come toping a compliment or offering an apology.

[Fox]

"I mean, I guess," said Alice, pulling off her liberated cleaning clothes - she'd apparently opted to keep her own clothing underneath - and absently throwing the stolen articles onto Lou's head. "Had to use a backup plan, got seen - briefly, in disguise - and you had to get in a fight, sounds like. That's not ideal. Ideal for a job is always you get in, you get out, nobody knows 'til way later. Maybe you do a different kinda jobs than me, I guess."

 

"Still. Coulda gone worse? Backup plan was pretty good, nobody's really badly hurt, nobody got caught, don't think we left anything bad behind, and we got the thing." She paused halfway through unwinding some kind of binding from around her wrists; it had previously gone clear down to her hands, helping to pin her sweatshirt to her arms, but she'd only had time to half-undo it so it could be hidden beneath her custodial uniform. "We did get the thing, right? Nobody dropped it? I'm not goin' back in there for a long time, their security's gonna be pretty pissed."

[alderwitch]

"Ugh this thing is sooo scratchy," Sofia complained as she went to shed her housekeeping gear and retrieve her own. "Like rubbing wool on bare skin. Blech!"

 

She was just zipping up her jeans when she finally registered Alice's question, "Please, I'm a professional! We got a copy and we pulled the data. Not only did we get 'the thing' but we're the only ones who got 'the thing'." She grinned briefly, showing even white teeth against her tanned skin before she reached out and pulled her tanktop back on. She nodded her head, still covered in the kerchief that kept most of her hair under control, towards the pulled banks in question. "It's all right there. We're golden."

[angrydurf]

Taking a circuitous route Xaviers driving left plenty of time for banter though he mostly just listened in as he smoothly navigated the late night streets of bedlam.  "I give seventy eight percent odds the guards take credit for disrupting the robery and silence the other thieves."  he acknowledged, "Odds well in our favor of getting out clean despite setbacks."

 

Before long he pulled the stolen cleaning van into the warehouse for the appointed meet with their, employers for lack of a better word.  "We've arrived."  he announced unnecessarily, "I assume you're to make hte exchange?" he inquired of Lou carefully.

[Gizmo]

The bearded man grunted an affirmative, removing Alice's disguise from where it draped over part of his head and shoulder and tossed it into the trolly without comment. "Better not to give the boys any new faces to get twitchy over." A pair of pocket-sized twenty-somethings and a middle-aged librarian shouldn't have presented as much of a thread to a group of made men who were already expecting them but Lou tried not to rely too much on the competency of career muscle. Speaking as career muscle.

 

He picked up the drives Sofia had pulled, trying to hold them the way he'd seen her doing and looking to the hacker for confirmation. He wasn't an electrician or anything but he'd broken enough phones to know they probably wouldn't take well to being tossed around carelessly. "Just keep your heads down while I get your money then none of us have to bother the others again, yeah?"

[Fox]

Alice shrugged, pulling off her little backpack and seemingly taking inventory. "I mean, I guess," she said, pulling out a small matte cylinder and peering down its length for damage before sliding it back into place. "I do this for a living?"

 

She made a grumbling noise at one end of a piece of rope, it having taken some kind of imperceptible damage over the course of the job. That'd need trimming, if she wanted to make sure it could always carry good weight; at least it was toward the end. She blinked as she put it back, glancing up again. "Not this this, I usually do my own thing. But the city's not that big, and you're all good at crime, so you never know. And hey, if you ever need sticky fingers, maybe. I don't usually do the whole crew thing, but it was..." Fun wasn't the word. "...interesting?"

[alderwitch]

"The word is awesome!" Sofia enthused with a grin for Alice and Lou. She gave the big man a small nod and a thumbs up at his holding of the tapes, ensuring that he knew how to carry them without destroying the devices. She winked once, "I think even Lou might admit that he enjoyed himself. Maaaaybe. Just a little smile?"

 

Her laughter was light as she turned back to Alice to inspect her rope as the door shut.

[angrydurf]

"You're a good man."  Xavier intoned with respect at Lous response, "The less your associates know of the rest of us the better I think."  he agreed with a small sigh. He turned off the van and waited as lou began to get out, "I fear the rest of your associates may not be as honorable as you sir."  he admitted a bit sadly it seemed.

 

Glancing  in the rearview at the younger part of the crew with a small smile creeping to his lips, "I will admit there is a certain thrill to such endeavors."  he acknowledged wryly, "Though I believe I shall retreat once more to the side of order after all of this."  

 

As Lou approached the waiting sedan three men got out.  Lenny Ha Ha and a pair of muscle straight out of prison.  Lou knew Ha Ha more by reputation than first hand experience.  He knew the guy liked to talk about his work running leg breakers like these two, and that signature sharp little laugh when he talked about the victims begging for the hurting to stop hadn't endeared him to even the hard guys Lou ran with.  Rumor was he laughed the same way when he was working.

 

Lenny handed over a heavy bag, almost too heavy for the payout they'd been promised and nodded to the van as he held out a hand for the goods,  "Crew in there yea?"  he twitched a little as he asked a small smile creeping to his lips, "heh, heh"  he barked almost like a cough more than a laugh.  He held a freshly scrubbed piece out to Lou.  "Clean up the loose ends and we'll go get you laid."

[Gizmo]

Lou looked like he wanted to object, though whether to Sofia's assertion or the one made by Xavier was difficult to say. Instead he made a noncommittal grunt and stepped out of the van, sliding the door shut behind him.

 

He maintained that flat expression upon seeing 'Ha Ha'. He didn't know the other two from Adam but Lenny was a twisted little creep on a perpetual power trip and the less he had to deal with him the better. Lou hefted the proffered bag for a moment, gauging its weight before setting it aside but when Lenny held out the gun he visibly tensed. There was a palpably awkward silence as he made no move to take the weapon and instead turned his ice blue gaze upon man holding it. "You want to run that by me again?" he demanded, one side of his mouth curling up in a snarl despite his attempt to remain professional. "They made a deal and they did the job, Ha Ha. What are we, a bunch of @#$% bangers now, can't hold up out end?" He hefted the drives in his hand. "They don't even know what's on these things. I don't know what's on these things. Get your damn head on straight."

[angrydurf]

Lou had a good four inches on Ha Ha, but that didn't seem to intimidate the made man in the slightest.  He was a man not accustomed to having to ask twice however.  Peering up from under heavy brows Lenny sneered slightly, "You here that boys?"  He asked the muscl rhetorically, "The one time thinks he's too good to get his hands dirty."  

 

He flipped the gun in his hand, "Fine, I'll do em myself."  he growled cracking his neck and gesturing for the muscle to take point.  "Take a seat."  he nodded to Lou, "Just make sure to fix my mirrors when yer done checking yer makeup princess."

 

In the van Xavier grew quiet as he huddled in the driver seat peeking through the mirrors at the exchange with a heavy heart.  "Sometimes I hate being right."  the old PI rumbled, "Eyes up young ladies things might get exciting in a moment."

[Fox]

Alice looked up from her bag, coiling her rope together as she scooted forward just far enough to glance in a mirror. "What? Why, they're not gonna...." She trailed off, scooting back immediately. "....aw, c'mon."

 

She pushed back to her seat in the back of the van, one hand shoving the rope into her little pack and coming back with an odd matte black rod barely the length of her forearm. "Why do nice people never want you to steal things?" she asked Sofia, sounding more disappointed than worried, though she was tensing up in a way that didn't really match the words, turning her oddity over her hand. "If you've got that stun gun, you should get it out."

[alderwitch]

"Nice people don't know people like us to ask to steal things. How would they know if we were good bad guys or bad, bad guys?" Sofia replied pragmatically as she went to pull her phone out of her pocket and flip a few switches on it. It might have looked like nervous fiddling except for how purposeful she was with the buttons she pressed. She waved the phone at Alice, "You know whats better than a single purpose tool? Multi-tools! No one ever thinks of a phone as a weapon, you know?"

 

She shifted closer to the back door, her shoulder against the side so she could peek out the window. The downside was that tasers were not exactly a long distance weapon. She was halfway distracted as she watched for the inevitable approach, "They didn't cap Lou did they?" Sofia wanted to know; the thought that Lou might turn on them apparently not in her personal math. 

[Gizmo]

Lou worked his jaw back and forth, nodding at the string of insults. He hefted the drives in his hand, considering their aluminum housings and the ramifications of what he was considering. "See, this really highlights how we approach the job real different, Ha Ha," he used aloud, not getting out of the way but stooping to set the drives down on the parking lot pavement. "You're all about the hurting people part. S'funny, I was just having this same conversation, too." He laid his palm flat against the uneven surface, feeling a crack that had slowly spread over the past two decades, fingertips brushing the tiny peaks where the yellow paint dividing the spots hadn't dried quite flat. 

 

"Me, I'll be honest, I focus more on the other side of it, y'know? And I gotta warn you." The slightly shiny black colour of the pavement crept up his fingers as he stood back up, skin taking on that same rough texture. Faster than the other three men had time to understand what they were seeing it spread across his entire body with the exception of a bright yellow stripe that started at his hairline and crossed one eye before disappearing down the collar of his shirt. He clenched his fists with the rough sound of unyielding materials grinding against each other and met Ha Ha's sneer with pitch black eyes. "I've been told it's kinda @#$%."

 

He hauled back and cracked Lenny across the jaw like a sledgehammer made of asphalt.

[angrydurf]

The mobster rocked on his heels nearly going down from the hammer blow but was apparently made of sterner stuff as he staggered a step back gun light in his grip, "Yer a dead man ya freak!"  he spat, flecks of bloody spittle flying from his lips.   "What are you morons waiting for!"  Ha Ha chided angrily motioning for the muscle to do what muscle does.

 

Xavier frowned slightly as Ha Ha took the punch and crawled into the back to take stock of what they were armed with.  Hurriedly examining the contents of the van he nodded to Sophia and Alice where they prepared, "Hmm  perhaps a bit of a distraction then."  he suggested as he grabbed several of hte products and hurriedly began filling a mop bucket.  "It's been some time since my chemistry courses but if memory serves."  he noted as he sent the bucket rolling across the gap between lou and the van  as a hazy fog began to spill forth from his makeshift smoke bomb.  "It should be harmless if a bit noxious."  he suggested with a shrug.

 

The Goons nod at Ha Ha's prompting and glance at one another before splitting up.  The first charges at Lou swinging one meaty fist in a wide arc to take the man of asphalt right on the chin.  Unfortunately for him punching rock as hard as one can is rarely a recipe for a good end.  With a sickening crack his hand crumpled against Lous stoney exterior and he fell to the ground cradling his shattered arm as he scooted back from the battle.  The other had drawn his weapon at the sight of movement from the van and crpt up slowly on the back door carefully skirting the growing misty cloud.

 

 

[Gizmo]

Ignoring the man who's just broken his own hand against his concrete form Lou took another step to close the distance between himself and Ha Ha. "You're putting me in a real lousy position, Lenny. This is gonna be a genuine pain in my ass." His voice had taken on an even more gravelly echo and the eye in the yellow stripe squinted slightly as he scowled. "So it's important to me that you understand," he continued before slamming his right fist into the squirrelly enforcer's stomach, "this right here is absolutely personal." His left fist followed suit, working the body and driving the air out of Ha Ha's lungs and knocking him back against the door of his car.

[alderwitch]

Sofia was watching the scuffle with wide eyes from the back of the van although she was paying enough attention to her surroundings to notice the attempt to sneak up on the van's occupants. "Oh, hell no," she said before swinging the door open just before the thug could yank on his side. Swinging the phone she still held up in her other hand, she jammed it against the man's throat just as she depressed the hidden trigger against the side. The distinctive crackle of electricity and brief flash was the only sign that her smart phone clearly did much more than make the typical phone calls. 

 

"Suck it!" She shouted as the man toppled to the ground like a felled log. "Asshole!" She added as if 'suck it' hadn't been enough to contain her absolute ire at the situation. Apparently Sofi decided to conceal her taser inside her phone. While clever, it was absolutely hell on the battery life.

[Fox]

There was an eddy in the chemical fog where Alice had exited the van, but rather concerningly no sound; for all intents and purposes, she may as well have been swimming through it as she stalked her way over to the main fight.

 

The little rod in her hand extended outward as she brought it down on Ha Ha's head, but it made less of a satisfying 'whack' and more of a dull and vibrating 'klunk' when it landed, which she chose to believe indicated something about what he kept in there.  "You don't backstab the people you hire," she insisted through a mouth-covering crimson scarf, the other end of her staff telescoping out as she swung it between his legs and shot the tip into the joints of his knees, one after the other. Maybe it'd bring him down closer to the broken pavement he rightly deserved to crawl along.  "Word gets around and nobody will even work for you anymore, how dumb are you."

[angrydurf]

Ha Ha crumpled as his already shakey legs were taken from beneath him hitting the pavement hard with a satisfying thwak.  Straining he managed to come to his knees to blearily glare at Lou as he spat a bloody gobbet on the floor, "YOU'RE ALL DEAD MEN!  You Hear me!  DEEEAAAD!"  he bellowed his voice cracking with a crazed hint of unmanaged psychosis, "There ain't gonna be a safe place in the city for you after this."  he laughed maniacally before devolving into a coughing fit as a busted rib shifted under his exertions.

 

Xavier carefully and not so silently crept around the edge of the van hoping to catch the now unconscious henchman by surprise before he could hurt Sophia, probably best for all involved Sophia had taken care of him already or the old PI probably would have been shot really ruining the whole victorious mood mounting as Ha Ha took his lumps on the edge of the noxious cloud.  He stared down at the collapsed brute with a quirk of his brow as he looked to Sophia, "That is why I don't trust those things, no telling when they'll short out."

[Gizmo]

"Pretty dumb," Lou replied to Alice in an irritated grunt before stooping just enough to get a fistful of Ha Ha's hair. Lifting until the other man was in an awkward position where he could get neither his feet nor his knees under himself Lou shouted in his face, "You were already going to kill them, you stupid weaselly @#$%!" He spiked the head back down to the parking lot concrete like a basketball before delivering a resounding stomp with the full brunt of his increased weight, ending Ha Ha's unhinged laughter for the time being.

 

Taking a step back as the cloud began to dissipate, Lou eyed the unconscious bodies on the ground and idly scratched under one eye where his roughly textured face was coloured with the yellow stripe. He made a vaguely approving grunt when he was the man lying in front of Sofia but his expression turned dour again as he came back to enforcers' leader. He sighed, "Well, $#*&."

[alderwitch]

Sofia, for one, was simply staring at Lou's face. Specifically, the yellow stripe running down it. It didn't take the clever hacker long to realize that she was, in fact, staring; at which point, Sofia began to try and find something else to look at in the sort of manner that made it even more obvious what she was trying to avoid. Finally, she decided if she was going to be the large man's friend, she was going to do it properly.

 

"Uh, you got a little... a thing, you know? Right here?" She said, pointing at her features where the strip bisected Lou's face, like she was pointing out a piece of spinach stuck between his teeth. "You know. I mean, the rest looks good. You look - ah - good, yeah.... Maybe now we should go?" Nailed it.

[Fox]

Alice opened her mouth to say something to - at - Lou, but the expression froze for a half-second in uncharacteristic hesitation and silence before falling away before her jaw clicked shut and she opted to not comment on anything of obvious material value.

 

Instead she flicked her staff back down into an impossibly small baton with a tiny, efficient motion and that disappeared...well, who knew where a thief made things disappear to, but disappear it did. "I dunno why you're worried," she said, as casually as one could with a bunch of unconscious bodies sitting around them, "he said they were dead men. We've got nothin' to worry about! You two are screwed, though."

 

She poked Ha Ha with a foot, not quite as jovial as she looked. "If we wanna tie them up, I've got zip ties. I use 'em sometimes to get wires out of my way when I'm in ceiling crawlspaces. Otherwise, yeah, maybe not be here when they wake up, or make sure they don't, 'cos this is better than getting shot but it's pretty bad news."

[Gizmo]

Lou waited with a flat expression for any comments about his unusual state, seemingly a bit nonplussed by the relatively tame reaction. Some stammering and awkward silences he could deal with. He took a deep breath and exhaled, the pavement-like texture fading from his hair down like a receding tide until he looked fully human once again. "No point killing them," he bluntly answered Alice's pragmatic suggestion. "Order's already out to whack you three, killing a few of their boys isn't going to change the bosses' minds about that." He considered for a moment then added, "Zip ties'd be pretty good, though. Let them crawl around a bit when they wake up." With a faint smirk he hunched down and fished about in jackets and pants pockets to phones, wallets and weapons. "Hope one of you knows a place to lie low. I just burned alla my goodwill."

[Fox]

"I used to have a place, but it was private and someone told the police where to find it, so now I don't." Alice still owed someone for that. She wasn't sure who, yet, but someone was going to pay for it. "C'mon, Sparky," she said, gesturing at Sofia and leading the way back to the van...and her bag of tricks. "If we get the zip ties we can make the guys do all the man-handling."

 

It didn't take her long to find what she was looking for, pulling a bundle of zip-tied zip ties out of a pouch and tossing them the hacker's way. "The taser thing was nice," she said - professional respect? - as she slung her little pack across one shoulder. "You build that, or did you get it made somewhere?"

[alderwitch]

"Built it," Sofia replied with unabashed pride as she caught the ties tossed her way handily. Pulling a small multitool from her pocket, she snipped open the tie bundling them together to portion out zip ties for the downed thugs. Her fingers were nimble and agile as she bent down to ziptie hands and feet together and then loop a third to hog-tie the hands to the feet in what was going to be seriously uncomfortable confines once the thug in question woke up. "Thank you. It was a fun project as I had to shield all the electronics from the charge without making the phone look like an 90s brick, ya know?"

 

Holding the extra tie in her mouth as she finished lacing the man into the temporary restraints, her voice was a little muffled as she added, "If you don't learn the hardware, you got some real limitations for what you can do with software. When I started out, didn't exactly have the best money could buy for rigs. Mostly built those myself. Always been good with my hands."

[angrydurf]

Xavier crept out from behind the van uncertainly, "Well that certainly didn't go as planned."  he acknowledged as he looked down at the men and joined Lou in riffling their pockets discarding half spent books of matches and crumpled receipts.  "Nothing."  he said with a shake of his head."  he looked down at the bloodied remains of the mobster and frowned, "I understand honor among thieves is a romantic construct."  he admitted and looked to his cohorts, "But this seems just poor business."  He turns hsi attention to lou, "Thank you for being the better man."

 

With the thugs bound and unconscious Xavier mulls over their predicament for a long moment, "I may know of a place they won't risk looking for us."  he looked to the ladies, "From reputation alone I assure you."