World's Underbelly

[Shinzuu Katame: Her Tolfy]

Shinzuu was just getting irritated with Zahil's little ramblings, almost as much as Kitty, "You're a victim of circumstance: Wrong place, wrong time. You're just a lowly gangster who has no scope of what the real mafioso world is like. And no pun intended, but don't expect those guys back there to let you weasel out of this." He then picked up his walking pace a bit to catch up to the other two. His leg height allowed him to catch up pretty quickly without having to job, "My name's Shinzuu, retired Marine. My old unit used to call me the 'Black Kat' or 'Kat' because they could never pronounce my last name. Pleased to make your acquaintance. You don't have to waste your energy running. It's a 30 minute walk with a 2-hour time limit."

A few minutes later, Zahil's phone went off, showing a text message directly from Lopez:
I received a message on what happened. There's nothing I can do for you now that you're a part of this. Don't bother calling anyone else until you're let go from this. No one is going to help you. You're in shit that can shut us down for good, you stupid cabron.

[Aldrea945]

Whisker's flattened ears and permanent scowl twitched into a snarl whenever she heard these... Brats talk.  She dealt with a lot of shit on her jobs, but getting roped into a mob run was pretty high on her list of reasons to shoot other people.  And just look at how open they were about it!  She'd take Cabibi and Shori anyday, and they had sent her assassinated two OTHER assassins.  At least they paid...


The Tabaxi didn't impress her much.  She raised an eyebrow.  "Oh he's free to.  It'd be more useful than his complaining," She said, readjusting her pack and opening her journal to take another peak at her map of safe houses near the destination.  It'd give her a better idea of where could be off to.


She glanced at Shizuu when he spoke up.  Marine, huh?  Guess Lili was right.  There really was no right group to run with.


Her ears twitched a hint when she combed the open jobs she'd written down.  On second thought, maybe they could do something decent and point her toward the flee market.  She needed to get a convincing set of fake rings for her upcoming jobs...

[Inb4Cloaker]

The feline felt his maw twitch as he heard the remakes from a large majority of the party. Worse, he got a text on his phone from the boss. It didn’t discourage him too much, but it still hurt a bit. Then again, what was he supposed to expect would happen? He had been in situations like this before, but it still sucked regardless. When he got out of this, he’d be able to go back to doing whatever he was doing before this mess dragged him in. Easy.

All he had to do was play by the rules and do what he was told. The Tabaxi cringed a bit.

Alright, maybe not so easy.

Pressing his knuckles against his palms, he popped the joints quietly and sighed. This was going to be quite an adventure. At least this would give him some ideas and experience for his future career. Glancing over at the one with a book, he eyed the pages for a second but spotted nothing of importance to himself. Granted, he also couldn’t see them clearly from the distance he was at. Facing the one woman who just mocked him, he nodded and gave a small laugh.

“Oh, sorry señora, should I be more polite? What are you gonna do, now that you seem to be lacking your tools of trade? Glare me to death?” He pointed a finger back over in the direction they came, with the smoldering vehicles.

“I can afford to replace my losses. Can you?” He said with a knowing grin and mocking finger gun wave before shoving his hands in his pockets. Slowly, he glanced over at the one who referred to himself as Kat. A veteran would know how to fight, hopefully. Zahil had accomplices that we’re veterans, not American veterans of course, and they were pretty thorough in combat.  Maybe this one would be the same.

Scowling, the Tabaxi still took the hint and decided to walk alongside the group rather than far behind. The only way out was through, and the quickest way through may very well be together.

“Camillo or Zahil is what they call me back home, Energúmeno is what some call me here. Don’t ask what it means, I guarantee I’ll have the opportunity to show you soon enough.” He said with a grim smirk, trailing a finger over his handgun. At this point, he was just waiting for an opportunity to exert his anger.

[Mikala]

Kitty did her best to hide how the comment about affording losses stings her. “Oh, go to hell. Let’s go. I’d rather be early than late.” She bounced on her paws, obviously antsy to get going, though she does slow back down. “I just want this over with.” She said flatly. “I have work tomorrow. And I have stuff to do...”

[Rayleonarde]

Valentine had kept quiet after Kitty's outburst, but she kept pace with minimal issue. Every once in a while, she would stop and catch her breath. This much physical exertion without food was very draining.

[Shinzuu Katame: Her Tolfy]

When the group arrived at Castle Point, it had already been about 15 minutes, with only a 15 minute walk across the collapsed skyscraper left. However, there was a slight problem. As they approached, there was a large group of thugs waiting there. It was the East Side Wankers, the Scottish gang that controlled the coastal areas of Boston. "Hold on there, lads and lasses! If ye be wanting to cross our land. You're going ta need ta pay the toll! And the toll be $100,000 per head!" Shinzuu sighed, "We don't have that kind of money on hand. We need to cross so we can finish delivering a couple packages for some mafiosos. Can you just let us pass like you normally do during the day?" He hoped they were going to fight. The wolf could count at least 20 guys in front of them, and he only has one magazine for his gun since he wasn't expecting to be out on a stroll past getting smokes. Even if he was in his prime and got a headshot on every single one of them, that'd only kill 10 of them, and from what he heard, the ESW boasted almost 1,000 members, city-wide, which usually meant a good portion was in the area.

[Mikala]

“Are you crazy?!” Kitty hissed under her breath. “Don’t tell them that! We’ll go around!” She looked around at the rest of her companions with panicked eyes. “We aren’t going to fight them, right???”

[Shinzuu Katame: Her Tolfy]

Shinzuu snorted, "We don't really have a choice. Even if we ran from our start point, it's 4 hours going the other route. This is the only way to make it in time to begin with."

[Aldrea945]

Whiskers walked with the group in silence, reading through her journal with an ear on her companions and an eye on the road.  This was, hopefully, just a detour.  She had business to do that actually had a reward at the end of it, thank you.

Her nose twitched as they came up on the group, book getting tucked in the pocket of her pants.  How lovely.  Gang members with a price.  And I'd been hoping to end this chore, she thought with a frustrated sniff.  Listening, though, made her narrow her eyes.  For one, everytime someone mentioned the mob out loud, she wrinkled her nose and swallowed the urge to smack them.  They apparently WANTED to get targeted by the other groups!  The only thing that stopped her was that it'd mean less baggage.

When they argued about going around though?  That struck her as odd.  Those mafia members weren't dumb... Okay, maybe they were, but not like that.  Whatever this cargo was was valuable to them.  Unless they were in cahoots with the ESW. they'd want it delivered properly.  No one wanted to lose money.  That they sent the group this way meant there WAS another way, even if it wasn't obvious.  Or they were looking for a show.  Either way, Whiskers was not playing chicken with this group.

She elbowed Shinzuu hard enough to bruise and get his attention.  She put on a sugary tone.  "Oh, don't mind us.  We'll be on our way, sweethearts.  Please tell Casian hello for me, though.  It's so much nicer around here anymore than when the Winter Warnings claimed the terf," she said, motioning they take an alleyway.  Never discuss options in front of enemy.

[Inb4Cloaker]

The feline stood his ground when the group encountered a new group of fellows. Panting lightly from the jog, he grimly appreciated his morning runs that he was partial to. However, having been given enough time to grow more angry and contemplate his current situation, livid would be an understatement when explaining Zahil at this moment.

“Oh, oh really now. That’s fine, yes, I’ll pay. Because, I keep ten grand in my back pocket at all times. Here, let me grab it.” Showing just enough restraint to not grab his handgun, he gingerly reached back around him for a moment before showing his paw again, proudly exposing his middle finger towards the thugs with a dull smile. Being behind Kitty, he felt pretty confident in the sense that the thugs wouldn’t risk shooting at him while she eyed the group and proposed an alternate solution.

Now, the Tabaxi would have loved to have a Mexican stand-off, unfortunately, his inner subconscious compelled him to actually agree with someone for once. Grumbling and sighing, the feline rolled his eyes and nodded towards Kitty.

“Fffff... Yeah, fine, whatever. I’ll avoid testing my luck this time I guess- wait, wait a minute.” The Tabaxi abruptly stopped his original sentence and crouched a bit, squinting his eyes at the thugs. Something wasn’t right about them, or, more likely, he recognized something about them. Then it dawned on him; one of his guards told him a story about an unlucky guy he throttled in a bar a while back, kept talking about his “lads” too much apparently. Broke his nose and scarred up his face. He later harassed the guy by calling him some kind of insulting name. Oh man, what did they call him again? Zahil bit his lip and thought before he nearly beamed with recognition, smiling broadly as another opportunity to release his anger presented itself.

So, he stood up and opened his maw as he began the statement that may or may not cause a serious problem within the next few seconds with a loud and deliberate voice.

“Oh hey! How was your drink the other day, Carech-“

[Shinzuu Katame: Her Tolfy]

Shinzuu grumbled when he was elbowed, resisting the urge to slap the girl.

As Zahil spoke, one of the gang members briskly walked over and slugged him in the face. "Aye. That was quite refreshing. Lads! This be the ******** that sucker punched me the other day!" A couple of the others came forward with their arms crossed, "Then I guess this one doesn't get to pass at all. As fer the rest of ya, if ye don' have money, we can settle with the girls instead..."