It was a regular day, but there again, that's how it always starts. Regular days. The most brutally dangerous of all kinds of days.

Have you never noticed that? That the days that seem the most normal, wind up the most abnormal? 

Maria woke up. Took a shower. Ate her breakfast - cornflakes, since you ask - and got dressed. Put on some makeup, styled her hair. Jumped in her car, drove the short drive in her shiny black car from her apartment to her headquarters. Walked through the door, wiped her feet on the mat by the door. Waved and said good morning to Spliff as they crossed over one another in the hallway, Spliff on the way out and herself on the way in. Gave Sweezy the usual 'twin magic' fist bump they used as a greeting, usually to the incredulity of Elder who just couldn't understand how these kids interacted. She sneaked up behind WhereWasI, giving him a quick hug, and ran away. Made her way to the little kitchen, boiled some water and made two cups of coffee, one of which she dropped off in Dexter's office on her way to her own. Maria wasn't actually sure Dexter ever slept, so she liked to keep him a steady supply of caffeine going. She walked into her own office, set her mug of coffee down on her desk, hung up her jacket, set down her purse, and sat on the insanely comfortable chair that sat behind her desk. Picking up the Chicago Tribune, she had just registered the headline (Union Strikes Rock City), when PaulHeyman came running into her office unannounced, almost causing her to topple over her coffee in shock as she made a grab for her gun. 

"Jesus Heyman, you gotta start knocking man, I swear I nearly put a round right through you."

Maria dropped her gun back on the desk before cradling her coffee in her hands.

"What can I do for you?"

The day had started well for PaulHeyman. He'd visited KarmenKayne's bakery for his usual coffee and bagel breakfast, and picked up a newspaper to read during the day as he usually did. That was until he received a telegram that sent him into a panic. He ran out of the Beasts Incarnate HQ, into the back of his car and instructed his driver to take him to the Wolf Pack HQ. He ran in and entered Maria's office in a panic. He'd startled her, but this situation warranted such a reaction.

"Maria, we've got a situation on our hands. It's the bodyguards... They've gone out on strike. I had a telegram through from the general secretary of their union about half an hour ago with a list of demands, they say until their demands are met they're not coming back to work."

Paul hands Maria the telegram.

"They want a pay rise, shorter working hours and more holidays. We can't afford to meet these demands, they're massive. What are we going to do?!"

Stealthily sneaking up to the doorway behind Paul, WhereWasI sees his target sitting at her desk. He eyes up his shot, pulls out a wrench and hits her coffee cup causing it to spill its hot contents all over Maria.

 "No hugs you evil wench! Not even if we were at peace would that be acceptable!"

WhereWasI then looks at the confused PaulHeyman,

"Just pick off a few and let them know how many we can afford at that rate. They'll get in line..."

Maria dropped her coffee, spilling out half the contents. As the dark liquid seeped into her newspaper and spread across her desk, she barely even blinked. Didn't even care. It's the kind of thing that ruins desks, but she barely even blinked. 

"Shorter working hours? More HOLIDAYS? Pay rises!?. Ohhhh shit. Oh shitfuckballsarsecuntcrapwank. Bollocks!"

Maria almost went face down on her desk, before realizing it was soaking wet. Instead, she took a few deep, steadying breaths and tried to think.

"Gather EVERYBODY, Paul. All of our made men, as many as we can find. Get them here. We're gonna have to work something out between ourselves. Get everybody together, get everybody watching each others back so closely we can count the goddamn freckles. And we need to find somebody to figure out who the fuck has started this shit. They're gonna fucking BLEED."

She went to take another sip of her coffee, when WhereWasI pounced, wrench aloft, and took a shot at her cup, spilling the rest of her coffee onto her lap. Bouncing up in the air as the hot coffee hit her leg, the cup was dropped to the ground and smashed to pieces. Today was NOT Maria's day. 

"Goddamnit, WhereWasI. I thought I'd gotten away with it!

Although, I like your style. Is that you volunteering to figure out who the fuck is causing this and try to lower the rate... and their blood pressure?"

WhereWasI begins laughing uncontrollably,

"If you're offering me the opportunity to kill some of your personal bodyguards to get people talking, it'd be my pleasure, hon. That being said I'm not sure they'll come back in a very compliant manner if you send me to do it because I might be a little too brutal to be punishing people you ever wanna work with again."

WhereWasI staggers his way into the corner and props himself against the wall waiting for Maria to make a decision.

Maria smiles.

Not my personal bodyguards, WhereWasI. They aren't smart enough to even think of this. Loyal, yes. Willing to put their lives at risk yes. But smart? God no. I want to figure out the voice in the ear of all of our guys. Somebody has talked them into this. And somebody needs to die for it. And when we figure out who?

Maria's face turns deadly, her eyes gleaming wickedly.

Then you can be as brutal as you goddamn like. We'll hurt them so badly their great grandchildren will feel it."

"Cruel and Sadistic..."

WhereWasI begins smiling,

"I hope for your sake it's not someone you'll miss but don't worry I can definitely make them pay. I'll have my wrench-based expense reports for this mission on your desk when I'm done and I want full reimbursement. I'd also suggest you have at least one other person looking for this man in case I spook the bastard."

WhereWasI then starts walking towards the door, stops to nod at PaulHeyman and Maria, and then continues to the only place he could possibly imagine this starting in the Suburbs. The old hideout room in The Suburbs of a former turncoat from a nearby district.

At the phrase, "wrench-based expenses", Maria made a mental note to go raid Jono's back yard. Sure she'd find some junk metal there - some hubcaps at the VERY least. She could have those melted down into a beautiful new wrench, no danger. And Jono would surely be none the wiser. Although she may have to wait until this whole bodyguard crisis was over. Or else find a very, very good disguise. As WhereWasI headed out of the door to hunt down the gobshite encouraging the unionization, Maria turned to PaulHeyman. 

"Disguises, Paul. Lets talk disguises. I'd like to have him a lovely new wrench prepared for when he returns, but to do that... gotta get some metal. I'm wondering about a fake beard? Maybe a sombrero? Any ideas?

Oh, and, he is probably right. We could do with a few folk out there putting out feelers on this. Can you give Rothstein a call and see if he has any ideas? I'll get a hold of Nighthawk, ask him to head over here when he wakes up. But we could do with finding a few of our folk to make the trip with him, just incase he runs into any trouble on the way. I'm not having some run of the mill thug punk trying to steal money from his pocket. I wonder if, perhaps, KarmenKayne and Sweezy might be free to head on over? If they bring Alynne and Barney_Ross back with Nighthawk, those two can be the first shift of his security detail."

When Karmen's alarm buzzer started going off in the morning to wake her up, she grabbed it and threw it to the floor like she always did to shut it off. Good thing it wasn't glass or it would have been broken years ago. When she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, she took a look towards the mirror on her vanity, examining her disheveled hair and her running eyeliner. She always forgot to wash her face before bed, but oh well. A shower will fix everything.

She apparently wasn't awake enough yet because it took her a whole minute of staring at her mirror to notice a little note taped to it in the upper right corner. Quickly getting out of bed probably wasn't a good idea because she got her foot tangled in her sheet and almost face planted on the ground, managing to catch herself. Her wrist would probably hurt later but oh well. She wanted to know what the note said. Untangling her foot from the sheet, she pushed herself up off the floor and walked over to her mirror, yanking the note off and reading it. It read:

Sorry, Ma'am, but I and 
your other bodyguards
decided we were going to
go on strike. There's a
movement going and
that's all I can tell you.

Sincerely,
Richie.

Karmen thought to herself, What the F*** is going on here?! They're supposed to tell me everything.. I can't believe this..

With thoughts reeling through her mind, she walked into her bathroom to wash the makeup off her face so she didn't look like such an alcoholic, then put her hair up in a ponytail, put a pair of slacks on and a blouse, and threw on a pair of sandals. A shower was currently the least of her worries, so she went downstairs and out the front door then got in her car to drive to the headquarters of The Wolf Pack to talk to Godmother Maria. Maybe she knew what the hell was happening, and maybe even who was behind this sudden movement.

Speeding across town, she didn't even bother slowing down through the dips in the road. She really didn't care about messing her car up, because she had plenty of money to fix it right up again. She paid those damn bodyguards to protect her, and knowing them, they were off drinking, gambling and watching women strip.. Or whatever guys do on their off-time.. 

When she drove into the parking space, she came very closing to going over the curb and into the light pole, but she slammed the breaks just in time. She got out of her car and went running in through the front door, almost slipping and falling on the smooth floor directly inside the door. Clumsiness was definitely her strong suit, which is why she had Bodyguards, dammit.

Her anger was renewed at the thought, and she came rushing into Maria's office, quickly spotting her Boss, PaulHeyman, and another person she didn't know very well but had seen around the Suburbs, WhereWasI, chatting with Maria.

"Well, I nearly broke my wrist this morning just to find out that all of my bodyguards joined a union or something," she said to the three of them, but mostly to Maria. "What the hell is going on? Is that why you guys are here? We need to figure this out, because I can't care for myself. I can barely stand straight during the day without tripping on something!"

Barney was sound asleep when he heard a window break downstairs, he called one of his bodyguards to check it out....No answer. He grabbed the gun from his nightstand and got out of bed half-dressed and slowly walked downstairs gun at the ready. As he got to the bottom of teh stairs, he saw a man creep out of sight, he went in the man's direction. Upon seeing the man, holding a gun of his own, he shot the man at almost point blank range.

"What do I pay these guys for?" He said as he searched his entire residence for either hide or hair of at least one of his bodyguards, but to no avail.

He walked back up to his room and picked up his phone. He called Maria.

"Any idea where my bodyguards ares?"

-"They're all on strike."

"What?"

-"Just get over here."

"Give me five minutes."

He got dressed, got in his car and headed towards Maria's HQ. When he got there he opened the front door and walked to Maria's office, when he opened the door he saw WhereWasI, KarmenKayne, and Maria inside....

"What's going on Maria?!"

Karmen was almost plowed over when Barney_Ross came running into Maria's office shortly after she had gotten there. She realized that this Bodyguard strike must be happening to more people than just herself, so her anger subsided a little bit. She wasn't the only one that was having to go through their days with no protection, she wasn't the only one that had to drive herself somewhere instead of being driven.

"Well, well, Barney," she said. "It looks like we're all in the same boat. My most trusted bodyguard Richie left me a note on my mirror today saying he and all the rest of my Bodyguards were going on strike. He wrote that he couldn't say anymore, and that was the end of the note. He wasn't in the house anywhere and his car wasn't in the driveway. I'm like you. I'm wanting to know what is going on, and maybe even who is behind all of this! I came here hoping that Maria knew."

No matter what happened, Maria could always count on the lovely KarmenKayne to make her smile. She stood up and greeted her friend with a hug.

"Karmen my love! Ah, I know the situation is a shite one, but I always love to see your lovely face here in the Wolf Pack HQ once more! Is your wrist alright though? I know what you're like hun.. you might be one of the only people I know who's more steady with five vodkas in them than they are usually! 

Now, to the matter of those fucking bodyguards..."

Before she could continue any further, the door to her office about swung off the hinges as Barney_Ross arrived. 

"Ah, Barney! Yes, yes. Good morning. Well. Not great, but, you know what I'm saying. Have you two had breakfast yet? I usually just toast myself a bagel downstairs, but I think a morning like this one most definitely calls for coffee and bacon sandwiches from Delucci's. I can usually convince them to deliver too, with them only being around the corner. Give me a moment..."

Maria walks across the room to the telephone to order breakfast and coffee for the little group in her office, leaving Karmen and Barney to talk for a few moments. As she returned, they both fell silent, looking at her expectantly. 

"Alright, breakfast is on it's way. I'm sure we all will think a little more clearly with food in us. Now then. The situation as far as we know it, is that all the bodyguards in the district have organized some kind of fucking strike. They want more pay, more time off, that kind of shit. They're bringing their shit to the wrong people though. This is the fucking mafia. Socialism doesn't exist in our world, it's survival of the goddamn fittest and somebody is putting their ideas into these schmucks heads, they aren't smart enough to think this through on their own. We need to figure out who the fuck it is and we need to make them bleed. But it wouldn't hurt to figure out where our bodyguards even are, and perhaps try to incentivise them to break this strike before we break it for them. And when I say incentivise, please be sure that I mean intimidate, abuse and generally terrify. 

Now, since you two are already here, how do you feel about travelling over to The Tribe and finding Nighthawk? I'd like everyone travelling at least in pairs until we figure this out, so you'll have to watch one each others backs. Feel free to stay for breakfast first. Delucci's have the most amazing bacon. And if you two have any thoughts as to where the hell this might've come from, or have heard any whispers from your guys lately, or even know where to find them... please let me know.

And, PaulHeyman, you wouldn't happen to know where Sweezy is, would you? Need to find the bugger. He'll be sad if he misses breakfast!"

"Me miss breakfast? I may be crazy, but I'm not dumb." Sweezy bellowed as he enters, "fashionably" late - as usual, tipping his hat to all present.

"Sorry I'm late. I had ... uh, things, but from what I understand the bodyguards are on strike, no? I haven't gotten around to hiring any yet, perhaps I could go rub shoulders, chat to a couple, shoot out some knee caps or something. Unfamiliar face, survey the scene and all that." he suggest, before stuffing his mouth with bacon.

Karmen calmed down a little when Maria got up to give her a hug. She hadn't seen her in awhile so it was great to see one of her best friends in this world.

Maria said to her, "Karmen my love! Ah, I know the situation is a shite one, but I always love to see your lovely face here in the Wolf Pack HQ once more! Is your wrist alright though? I know what you're like hun.. you might be one of the only people I know who's more steady with five vodkas in them than they are usually!"

Karmen laughed at the last part, because she couldn't agree more. "I'm definitely way less clumsy when I'm drunk. Which is strange.. But, it gives me a reason to drink at night! It's great to see you as well, Maria. Feels likes years but it's only been a week or so! I hope we figure this bodyguard thing out soon because I feel like I'm being watched or something without them! Barney and I can head over to The Tribe, after we eat of course. I'm definitely hungry. I left my house in such a rush today that I of course forgot to eat. And, I don't think I ate last night either, but that's a bit off topic.. Anyways, yes, we can go over there and see if we can snag him for awhile. Maybe ask him some questions, see if he knows of any rumors or if he knows any of the people that could possibly be behind this. Oh, and I think my wrist will be alright. Nothing a few shots of Vodka later won't fix."

When the food arrived about ten minutes later, she sat down in one of Maria's many cushy chairs and ate two sandwiches. She didn't realize she was THAT hungry, and she kinda felt like a fatty afterwards. 

"Thank you for ordering the food, Maria," she said. "You're right. Their bacon is definitely amazing! Now, I think it's time for Barney and I to excuse ourselves, so we can try to find Nighthawk."

Karmen got up out of her chair and threw her trash in the trash can, waved goodbye to everyone, then grabbed ahold of Barney's arm, the one that wasn't holding a sandwich, and pulled him out of the room with her. They both walked out of The Wolf Pack and down the sidewalk, then got in her car. She locked her door before starting the car, then told Barney to lock his as they took off towards the headquarters of Nighthawk.

Barney was eating a sandwich when Karmen pulled him outside....on his way out he could only say..."Bye."

"So where to Karmen?"

Sweezy and his amazing ability to cram his mouth with meat never failed to mesmerize Maria. The boy could really pack it in. Maria was genuinely impressed at the amount he was fitting in in one go.

"Ah, Sweezy, better late than never, eh?"

Maria barely suppressed a smirk as she shot PaulHeyman a warning, "say nothing" type of look. Lateness was a trait that she and her twin most definitely shared in common. 

"You know, twinny. That isn't actually half bad an idea. They are on strike, yes. And yours is most definitely a face they might not recognize quite so well. Hrm. Perhaps you, and maybe someone else if you can find someone in a similar position to you with an unknown face, might like to spend the day hitting up some of the bars, a few restaurants, maybe even a couple of the strip clubs, see what you can find out?"

Maria rummages about in her drawer until she finds a brown envelope with around $500 stuffed inside. She slides it across the table to Sweezy.

"There's a little cash there, use it to help, erm, "further your inquiries". But, twinny, try to spend at least some of the day without your face between a strippers tits, eh?"

Maria smirked.

"Let me know how it goes when you've asked around a little."

Maria then turns back to KarmenKayne, having seen her finish up eating.

Did you enjoy that hun? Perhaps we should do these breakfast meetings a little more often. For one, it means we actually remember to eat breakfast. It being the most important meal of the day and all, that can only be a good thing. Perhaps we should put a few shots of vodka in you, see if we can steady you down while you head over there! Good luck though, you two. But please, please be careful. Give me a call if you need anything, and drop back later on and let me know how you went on?"

While they were driving, Karmen finally remembered what Maria was saying to her when she abruptly got up from her seat to leave. She said, "Did you enjoy that hun? Perhaps we should do these breakfast meetings a little more often. For one, it means we actually remember to eat breakfast. It being the most important meal of the day and all, that can only be a good thing. Perhaps we should put a few shots of vodka in you, see if we can steady you down while you head over there! Good luck though, you two. But please, please be careful. Give me a call if you need anything, and drop back later on and let me know how you went on?"

Karmen stopped her car abruptly in front of a bar with neon signs in the window, telling Barney to get out, and then saying, "We're on our way to Nighthawk's headquarters to see if we can find him and see if he knows anything about this Bodyguard situation. However, we're stopping at a bar first, so I can call Maria and acknowledge that I heard what she said, that I wasn't just ignoring her, and that I'm taking her advice and having a couple shots of Vodka first. It always helps with my nerves and my falling on the floor skills."

When they got out of the car, they walked into the bar she had randomly chosen, and she didn't even bother looking at the name of it. She walked up to the bar and asked for two shots of Vodka, and one for Barney, then asked if she could use their phone. When the bartender pointed her towards where the phone was, she walked over to it, leaving Barney sitting in one of the bar stools.

She called Maria, and when she answered, she said, "I'm sorry for walking out in such a rush. I heard you talking, but I got this like.. adrenaline rush, and had to go immediately. The food was amazing. The breakfast meetings definitely sound like a great plan, because I'm always forgetting to eat. Breakfast, lunch, supper, doesn't matter, I usually forget. And, the shots of Vodka was such a good idea that I pulled into a parking space in front of this bar here, and we're gonna have a couple shots then make our way to Nighthawk's place. I just wanted to update you and let you know I wasn't tuning you out. It just took awhile for what you said to actually register in my head. That will be all for now. I will get back in contact with you when we leave Nighthawk's HQ. Goodbye!"

When Karmen got back to the bar, Barney was looking at her like he was lost in translation or something.

"Maria asked us to go to Nighthawk's headquarters and find him. I'm assuming she wants us to ask if he has any info, and then probably bring him into Maria's office so she can chat with him as well. She told me to take some shots of Vodka so that I don't act all clumsy and stupid, so that's what we're doing. Hurry and take your shot so we can get out of here," she said, then tipped back both of her shots one after the other. 

She watched as Barney swallowed down his one shot, laid a fifty on the bar, and then grabbed Barney's arm again, so they could leave and continue on with their drive over to Nighthawk.

Sweezy snatches up the envelope and checks it's contents. "Yup, $500. You know, I'm sure I could start off at the casino. That's definitely a good place to start. I'll get to the tits later." he thinks to himself, smirking, before neatly arranging his cutlery and napkin on his plate to indicate that he was satisfied with the mountain of bacon he had just consumed.

"Alright, I'll be off. I'll tell you how I went later on, Maria. Thanks for breakfast. And don't worry, I've probably got this. I work better alone, though." he exclaims before rushing out the door to flag down a cab.

"Lucky Luciano's Casino." he imperatively states to the taxi driver.