The Red Night [Open]

“Indeed.” the leader said, and each of the red robed men walked to their original positions, guarding the box and the burly, large men heaved up the coffin. One of the robes broke the formation and walked up to a fairly wounded mercenary on the floor, who seemed to have been stabbed in the leg. “We thank you for your help in this fight.” he said, producing a bag of beli and dropping it onto his chest before returning to the others. “Let us press on.” The coffin began to move once more, out of the alleyway and onto the street.
 
Fayde followed them, jumping from rooftop to rooftop, she looked upon the man who’d gone from a rage to being calm, she wondered just what kind of goods he was transporting, more than likely something he didn’t wish to be found. She would deal with him later.
 
The mercenary who helped Arrin grinned, accidently cracking his dry lips. “Don’t mention it.” He said, walking after the coffin. “Bit strange this, ain;t it? And who’re you?” He turned to Nori, before back to Arrin. “And why d’you need the money?”

Made sense to Nori that the bodyguards were men of few words, but he'd not done anything outside of help if only partially for his own benefit. He wasn't just fighting for his own sake but his workers and his fellow business people, so Nori replied with a nod to the guards as they went back to their business of guarding the coffin. Must of been something very interesting for there to be attacks on it and this amount of trained guards, he didn't really care though since it wasn't his business.

Then as he was about to go back to his dealings and check on weather his workers came out okay, another two guards came up and started talking. At one point in the strange mans words, he asked whom he was and then when back to his cohort and asked a different question. Nori smirked with the pipe in his mouth "Most call me Lord Taima in the business, my real name's for legit purposes" replied Nori knowing that his name sometimes carried wait or his title at least. He didn't like the name at first cause it sounded a bit much, but it was fairly accurate in many ways so he's taken it as his name in less legit circumstances.

Arrin looked Lord Taima over, his suspicions confirmed. "I'm Arrin, and I'm doing this to get my guns back," he said, loading his temporary firearm as he walked beside the mercenary. "And you?" The rifle was ready by the time he'd finished speaking. He held the stock in his left hand with the barrel reaching across his torso to rest on his raised right stump.

The coffin continued down the street before taking a turn into another alleyway, though this one being much smaller and therefore it could really only fit the coffin and Nori's stash one at a time, the coffin promptly took the lead.

"M'names Hoshi, just a merc slash bounty hunter, though I ain't hunting this time of day." he shrugged, looking around. "Wonder what's in that coffin." he said curiously, "Must be kinda heavy, with those big guys carrying it."

One of the mercenaries walked up to Nori, "Got anything uh.. I might be interested in?" he said, making gestures that obviously screamed 'drugs' and so forth.

Fayde meanwhile took out her small bounty hunting list and flipped through it, searching for anyone of that name while absent-mindedly jumping from roof to roof, however she mistimed a step and went further down than she'd thought, causing a small clatter. She didn't fall, just make a little noise that she could do without, she wasn't fool enough to hope the people down there didn't hear.

Nori watched as the coffin tried to get through a tight alley, which couldn't fit both of their hauls and the coffin group went first. Nori wasn't in a hurry, ever so it was no issue to him. The other man who'd asked whom he was stated he was a merc and a bounty hunter, but he clarified he wasn't hunting at this time of day which was good for Nori. As the group slowly went through the alleyway some of the guards had to hang back because of the tightness, one of them came up to him and asked if he had anything he'd be interested. He smiled and dived into one of the pockets in his robes, pulling out a nice sized bag of weed and shook it a little.

"I only deal in weed, hope you don't mind. I'm more of a fan of the Taima, hence the name people call me. For you guys I'll give a discount, how'bt thirty Beli for a Q bag. They'd usually be a bit more, but since you guys have been so helpful. I'll give you mates rates" expressed Nori as he tossed the man the bag with a smile. He waited for a return with money after which he pulled out a couple of packaged joints, pulling them out he offered one to Arrin, the buyer and his friend "On the house" added Nori as he waited for his haul's turn to be able to be moved.

He heard the noise up above and sent his fan up, aiming for the source of the noise. He usually wasn't one to strike harm first, but after all the crap he'd just went through then a bit of prudence was a good idea.

Arrin grabbed the joint and gave the drug lord a laugh of self-satisfaction, before suddenly stopping at the sound from the rooftop. He looked at the alley. The procession was stretched into one line, which made the middle of the procession vulnerable from attacks from above. He shoved the taima in his pocket and started whispering hurriedly, looking suspiciously at the rooftops around them.
"I'm pretty sure there's a Marine squad on the roof and probably one at the end of the alleyway. We're way to open for an ambush. I'm going up top." He slung the rifle loosely over his right shoulder and turned to the wall next to the group.

(( You sure about only thirty, Nori? A cabbage loaf is worth 150 :>))

"Er.. Sorry, my ears are bad, what was the price again?" the merc said, rubbing his ears and taking out his man-bag.

Fayde recoiled from the edge of the house as a.. Fan? Came from one of the men below, she placed a Pepper bolt into her crossbow before cranking it up, she had two choices; make herself known or attempt to withdraw and return from a much safer distance.  Well, they'd just be harder to follow than before, and she may as well see if they're criminals. She hoped none of them would decide to shoot anything on sight, walked over to the edge and looked down upon them.

"Right." the merc said to Arrin, before aiming his rifle upwards, wondering how Arrin may be able to climb up there with only one hand. Some of them cursed as they recognised her, "Oi oi, red-cloak fellows, anything ya' doing illegal?" They turned to him. "Not by the law of the government, no." they returned to their positions as the coffin continued to slowly and carefully move through the alleyway. "Eh.. She's the Black Bolt, some crimefighter around here, helped bust out the uh.. Twin.. Twin Snake gang?" he couldn't quite remember the name of those guys, "Rumour has it she can fly or something."

Meanwhile for Arrin, the wall was fairly traversable, there were many windows on the house so there were a load of easy handholds.

((I'm being nice, and he's a drug lord so I'm sure he can afford some niceties. It also helps with repeat business))

"Price was thirty beli, but only for today. Comrades in arms and such, if you want some at a later date the price is different" replied Nori to the man who'd asked about the price, probably shocked that he'd brought it down so low. It didn't bother Nori making it that low for the moment, he wasn't exactly poor before and after starting this enterprise. And he was being pleasant to the people he'd just fought beside, not only that it might lead to repeat business and that was always a bonus. Nori's fan hadn't hit anybody when he threw it up to the roof, but it had fallen back down to the ground and he'd picked it up again. It didn't matter to him if he'd hit the spy because he was merely proving he knew they were there, but from what he heard from the other people around him this was someone problematic. Some self styled crime fighter had rained on everyone's parade, and being they weren't government meant that hurting or killing them wasn't going to cause any further harassment.

It seemed his fellow entrepreneurs had the same idea as many of them got ready, and brought out their arms and or guns ready to take whomever this Black Bolt person was. He knew nothing of any Twin Snake gang and cared not for them or the interloper, they must have only cared about actual crime and not protecting people. Since they made no effort to help them during that heated exchange earlier, he sighed as things were about to go south again. "Hey Black Bolt or whatever you call yourself, if you saw us fending off that last assault. Then you know you're out gunned and outnumbered, even with high ground your chances of survival are slim. Leave now, and you may live to fight another day. Because if you're just some vigilante, we don't have to hold back since you're not government connected" expressed Nori loud enough for the Black Bolt to hear.

"Screw that!" Arrin shouted at Nori "If she's as badass as they say she is I want to have a go at her." His eyes were alight with determination and his face was plastered with a dark grin. He turned back to the dirty alley wall and hopped up to the first window frame, grabbing it solidly. From there he threw himself up to the next handhold and grabbed it quickly. Repeating the process, he started making his way up the wall, panting as his upper body was put to the test.

Fayde slowly raised both her hands to head-height, showing her hands are empty. “If your actions are legitimate, what fear have you from me?” she would ask, looking toward the ruined buildings, “Those men. They seemed quite keen on obliterating you all, I even had to light their bombs prematurely.” she said, keeping her hands where they were. Perhaps if she didn’t show herself as a threat, they would be less likely to fire at her.
 
“My brother was in that gang, you’re the reason why he’s in jail!” shouted one of the mercenaries, firing at her with his rifle, Fayde took a fairly shallow shot across her shoulder. Holding it, she staggered back and dug the pellet out, grunting with pain. “Goddamn rifle!” the mercenary said, attempting to reload. Fayde peered toward Arrin, before takign a couple of weeks back, she needed to get the wound healed before it stained her clothing.
 
She only had one, the man with bloodlust coming up should do the trick.
 
Meanwhile the drugee merc nodded violently, “Yes yes yes!” he said, digging into his pockets and spilling out probably more than a couple of beli but he looked quite despierate. “Weed is good, yes?” he didn’t quite seem to have tried it before, “What do you do with it?” looks like he’s more of a hardcore drug user.
 
Meanwhile, one of the robed men walked toward them. “Be silent please, I would rather not remove you.” he said to the merc, before pointign toward the coffin. “We have passed through the alley you are free to move on. Mercenaries, regroup with us.” he said, walking back to his charge.

Fayde just got shot, so she shot a rope bolt onto a higher house and went off n' away. By the time Arrin would be able to go off, she was probably somewhere, bleeding and such, due to being shot and such, because she got shot. Ouch.

The cloaked guys would get impatient and speed off into the yonder, leaving a fat bag of beli for getting them that far, but only one fat bag. So people started to fight over it.

[End of thread].