Intrigue was summoned to her boss "You're needed to drive Doc and Bugs this evening, do as instructed" she was told by him as she made her way to check in with the duo to find they were stood beside a truck. Doc and Bugs were heavy in conversation which made Intrigue unsure if she should step closer or wait till she was ushered over. Doc soon spotted her and smiled "Intrigue?", he said towards her, for her to nod as she got within the huddle of the three, "I am Doc and this is Bugs" Doc said, as she introduced who was who to her. She wasn't that surprised, she had seen them around before but it was the first time she was sent to do a mission with them. She had heard a lot of Doc's work ethic around the headquarters and a little bit of Bugs. Doc was a short stocky guy who always had a cigar in his mouth and a flat cap on his head, Whereas Bugs was very tall, skinny with a massive pair of feet. Yet with the reputation of Doc, he was the one she would not want to piss off. With how different the two men looked side by side, it was almost something from the comic books. 

As the trio huddled in more to talk, Intrigue was explained to what her role was. "You're just to drive, you do not need to know much more. Rest we will handle" Doc explained as they went to get into the truck. "By the way, there is no plan B" Bugs jested as he sat between Intrigue and Doc as Intrigue responded, "Got it". She fired up the truck and listened to the instructions Doc was giving her as and when she needed to turn. Before long she realised she no longer knew where they were, nor where they were going. She just kept on driving until she was told to stop "By the watering hole of the cops?" Intrigue said surprised, "Don't worry" came the reply from Doc. "Try not to look suspicious, stay near the truck at all times, twenty minutes we will be tops", Bugs said as the two men got out of the truck and made their way down an alleyway beside a building. 

Twenty minutes have gone by, Intrigue sat behind the wheel as she watched the cops go in and out of their bar. She decided to get out of the truck and to pretend to check the tires. The sun is starting to set, what is taking them so damn long?  A few more minutes and we are onto plan B.  Well, there really wasn't a plan B, more of a 'Fuck it, just make it happen'.  She starts doing a mental checklist of things that could have gone wrong.  She starts nervously shifting from left to right, feeling very vulnerable standing in the middle of the sidewalk within spitting distance from the coppers local watering hole.  RINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRING, the alarm bell starts to scream.  She looks up just in time to see a red faced Doc hurling large burlap sacks of... something? out of the window above.  Three, Four, Five, she stops counting and start towards what appears to be the motherload of .... whatever this is.  As she tossed the last sack into the back of the truck, Doc and Bugs leap from the window landing safely into the back of the truck as Intrigue ran to get behind the wheel. They laugh and says PUNCH IT!  The truck roars to life and takes off with purpose.  After a few minutes of turns and general misdirection, you realize you are not being followed.  Doc leans towards Intrigues window from the back and yells "Diamonds? Ha! Not even close!  We are now the proud owners of 800 pounds of flour". 

Intrigue checked the mirrors as she slammed on the breaks "Flour" she turned to yell at Doc and Bugs as confusion swept over her face, "You had me stand, within sniffing distance of the cops to rob flour?" she continued to shout as Doc lit up his cigar and Bugs decided it was time to snack onto a carrot. "Yep, we did" Doc replied with a bit of a bellowing laugh. He went on to explain that she was new to their syndicate and that they needed to test her coping skills whilst on a big job. "How did I do?" she asked as she calmed down, "A satisfactory note will go to the boss" Doc replied as he offered her a bit of his cigar. She smiled she knew in this life you had to earn your way up the ranks and that this meant she was starting to be seen as more than some petty thief.

Intrigue - The Bartenders Collective

Because there was no one following them, she moved to the back where Doc and the bag are sitting. She peered into the bag that Doc is holding open and gaping at. "Oh for god sake Doc, close your mouth. You act like you have never seen..." She stopped and covered her mouth because she realized, she too was gaping at the open bag.. She stuck her finger and and touched it. It looked real... her heart started to pound as she began to understand just what exactly was in this bag. Her head started spinning as she thought about the ways it would change her life.. She could get out of the business with this one final deal. 

She laughed out loud, because she knew, she would never leave the business, it was ingrained into her, part of her very being.

She had the driver stopped at a warehouse on Eighth and Delano. She pulled out her keys, and instructed Doc to bring that bag, and the rest in. 

As Doc was bringing in the bags, she went to the office, sat down at the massive desk, and pulled the phone over to make a call to Hope_

As she told Hope_ What they had found, they devised a plan. By the time Doc had strolled back to the office, after unloading the bags from the car, she told him that they needed to lock this stuff in, and go, before someone released they were there and wanted to part of this deal. So, they quickly left, and she locked the door securely. 

She pulled her driver aside, and spoke quietly in his ear. He nodded at her, and they started to situated themselves in the car when she realized she had "forgotten her purse". She looked at the driver and nodded. He knew what to do.

"Doc, sorry, I need to run back inside to get my purse, could you two run down to the corner market and get me some aspirin? All of this excitement has given me a massive headache" 

"OF course Jaded! They don't call me Doc for nothing", he grinned that goofy grin, he was missing his right front tooth due to a pistol whipping he had received some years earlier.

She smiled at him, and turned to go back into the warehouse. She knew Hope_ would be here soon with the guys to pick up their haul. She also knew that Doc would not be back. The Cocaine in the bag was not going to be shared with him. It was for her crew. 

Jaded

Phoenixes of Mayhem

Sineya looked around the cab again, her hands gripped the steering wheel of the Ford truck as she nervously looked around. It had been two months since she last drove, two months of apologising for messing up her last job, two months since she had sworn never to get behind the wheel again but here she was. Why did I let Doc talk me into this? Glancing around the quiet street Sineya got out of the truck and walked to the corner, casually leaning against the wall she peered towards what was making her nervous. Cops. Their laughter echoed as they greeted each other and disappeared into a bland looking building. Pulling her collar up she leant back into the shadow remembering how they laughed that day too.

The metal of the car had gleamed in the Chicago sun as she had excitedly ran around the new truck, giving it one last polish. The job had been a simple one, she was to drive her passengers to a rendezvous and wait for them before returning to headquarters. Easy. Except the sun had blinded her and the new, shiny car met a tree trunk; she could still hear the crunch of the metal and the lads laughing at her misfortune. Thankfully no one had been hurt, though no one asked her to drive them anymore. No one asked much of her anymore. Until Doc.

No one really knew Doc, as far as Sineya could find out he spent his days wandering the streets, his nimble fingers freeing people of their wallets, slipping them into his ill-fitting jacket. He was a jovial young man who many didn’t take too seriously. Sometimes he could be seen trailing someone in headquarters trying to convince them of some harebrained scheme. That’s how Sineya had ended up here; he’d convinced her this was the job to prove herself again, despite the details being threadbare she had agreed to help him. If she could just show she wasn’t a screw-up…

RINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRING

Sineya startled out of her reminiscing; after quickly looking around her she ran and tossed the sacks into the back of the truck and jumped in the cab. THUD! The truck shook as Doc landed, checking her mirror she hit the accelerator. She could hear the sacks sliding around as she turned a corner when suddenly Doc’s head appeared through the, now open, passenger door, he had climbed around from the truck bed and was standing on the running board.

“Whoa! Slow down lass, don’t want to meet a tree!”

She could feel her cheeks burn as he laughed; stomping hard on the brakes she gave a satisfied smile as the door swung open, Doc lost his grip and rolled violently on the road. Tenderly he climbed into the cab and she started off again, slowly. Reaching into her pocket she found a handkerchief and passed it to him.

“You’re getting blood on the leather.”

Snatching it he wiped the blood from his face as he cursed her.

“Looks good Doc, looks like you’ve been in a fight.”

They drove on towards the docks and soon Doc was back to laughing and describing his fall in even more exaggerated ways. Their evening jaunt was becoming a newsworthy heist in his eyes. Remembering the cargo in the back Sineya looked at Doc seriously.

“You never did tell me what we’re moving. Drugs? Diamonds?”

"Diamonds? Ha! Not even close!  We are now the proud owners of 800 pounds of cement!”

Sineya slammed the brakes again and stared incredulously at Doc.

“You...you...YOU WHAT?! Why the bloody hell would we need 800 lbs of cement!”

“We’re gonna …”

“Nothing Doc! We’re gonna do nothing! Now tell me Doc, who did we just rob for cement?

“Doc, who owned that cement?!”

Sineya was getting desperate now, she pulled the car over to the side of the road and grabbed Doc by the collar.

“You twit, don’t you understand?”

Jumping out of the cab Sineya ran to the back of the truck and pulled at one of the sacks, searching. Sure enough, she found what she was looking for. The mark of a company her boss owned. Silently she got in the car and started driving.

“Where are we going Sineya?”

“Out of here Doc, as far as we can.”

Sineya - Luciano Crime Family

You almost couldn't believe Doc when he told you how big this score would be. If it had been anyone else you'd have told him to his face that he was crazy and moved on, but Doc had been in the business since you were just a kid and the boss trusted him as much as anyone he'd ever known. That had to count for something didn't it?

Even then, you still couldn't help wanting to punch him in his smug face for holding out on what he was after. From the way he had talked it would have to be diamonds to be worth that much, but every time you asked he just gave that dumb grin of his and said "You'll see." In spite of yourself you were curious what the old man had in mind, so you went along with the plan.

Now the sun was starting to set and there was still no sign of him. What was taking so damn long?  A few more minutes and we would be onto plan B.  Well, there really wasn't a plan B, more of a 'Fuck it, just make it happen' since the old man was too confident to even consider that his plan might fail.  You started doing a mental checklist of things that could have gone wrong: it was a setup and the cops already had him, one of the employees was working overtime and caught him, the vault was too tough to crack, the old bastard's heart finally gave out at the worst possible time like you'd always figured it would...

You started nervously shifting from left to right, feeling very vulnerable standing in the middle of the sidewalk within spitting distance from the coppers local watering hole. Bosses's buddy or not, he was only going to get five more minutes before you scram. If you hung around much longer those coppers across the street were going to start asking uncomfortable questions you didn't have answers for. Doc would just have to deal with a long walk home.

RINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRING

The alarm bell started to scream.  You quickly turned to look just in time to see a red faced Doc hurling large burlap sacks of... something out of the window.  Three, Four, Five, you stopped counting and started towards what appears to be the motherload of .... whatever this is.  As you tossed the last sack into the back of the truck, Doc leaped from the window landing safely into the back of the truck.  He laughed and shouted "PUNCH IT!"  The truck roared to life and took off with purpose. 

After a few minutes of turns and general misdirection, you realized you were not being followed. Somehow, the cops had missed your truck zooming out of there like a bat out of hell. If there was one thing you could say about the old man besides the fact that he was crazy, it was that he was equally lucky to match. Doc leaned towards your window from the back and yelled "You thought it was gonna be diamonds? Ha! Not even close!  We are now the proud owners of 800 pounds of Chicago PD criminal records!"

Your first thought was to slam the breaks and send the old fool flying. Why the hell would the coppers keep their records at the bank offices across the street from their favorite watering hole? Your gritting teeth must have given you away because Doc got real talkative all the sudden. "The coppers was fixing up their station and needed somewhere this stuff would be safe. They thought with their boys drinking across the street they'd be able to keep an eye out but they weren't countin' on old Doc now were they? How much you think it's worth to the guys around town to know they ain't wanted no more?"

You weren't completely sure you trusted his word, but if he was right you were going to be heroes to every criminal in town. He may have been right after all. These papers would be worth more than any diamonds could ever be! You found yourself thinking for the first time of many that you could finally see why the boss kept Doc around.

Ravel - The Lucania Crime Family

Doc leans towards your window from the back and yells "Diamonds? Ha! Not even close!  We are now the proud owners of 800 pounds of self-sealing stem bolts!"

"Excuse me?  What the hell is a self-sealing stem bolt?"  Bellator asked.

"I'm not exactly sure, I guess it's like a regular stem bolt, but this one seals itself.  We'll corner the market."

"OK, I get that" Bellator said in a frustrated tone. "But what exactly is a stem bolt?"

"It's, um, well I guess..."

"You guess what?  What do we do with them?  Who do we sell this things to?  Just what in the name of God are we going to do with a truck loaded with 800 pounds of stolen stem bolts?!"

"Self-sealing stem bolts!" Doc was quick to answer back with.

*WHACK*  Doc got the back of the hand across his face for that smart arsed answer.

Back at the HQ Bellator, Doc, Frankie, Little Johnny who was quite possibly the fattest man ever to grace God's green Earth, and the boss looked at their 'haul'.  What a sorry sight it was.  All 800 pounds of God knows what was laid out in front of them.

"I knew it was a bad idea to trust Jimmy the Scammer.  I told you that his tip was too good to be true, but oh no, you just had to push the issue and fork over half our monthly earnings." The boss said, with a red face, the veins pumping angrily heated blood around his whiskey-nose. "You better get these things sold, and pronto, get somebody who can tell us what these do and get them out of here!"

Days went by.  The closest this motley crew had ever come to engineering was giving the wireless a bang on the side when the signal wasn't coming during The Happiness Boys.  They brought in everyone they could, but nobody knew either what they were for, or who they could sell them too.  Each day it appeared that the stem bolts, correction self-sealing stem bolts, were mocking them.  Toying with them as a reminder of their stupidity.  Worse than that - it was taking up space, so until they could shift them they couldn't bring in any other bootleg goods!

Eventually the boss had enough. He wanted them gone.  Now.  

"Get those damn things out of here.  I don't care what you do with them, bury them, dump them in the river, burn them, just get them out of this warehouse before I get back or so help me I'll bury you with them."

Doc and Bellator loaded up the truck.  They discussed what to do, they could bury them, but then that would be a hell of a bit of work - 800 pounds was a big hole.  The river it was.  In the dead of night they drove out of town towards a far end of the Hudson river.  It was as good a place as any.  Splash.  Splash.  Splash.  And with that it was done.

The next morning the boss woke for his morning coffee.  He was pleased to finally get rid of the burden he'd been carrying for so long.  Grabbing the paper he went for his morning constitutional and then... he noticed it.  Front page headline - "Nationwide Self-Sealing Stem Bolt Shortage - Top Dollar Paid From Any Source".  It appeared that these worthless items that caused them so much stress were suddenly in demand....  no mention of what they were for though.

Bellator - The Council of Guardians

The job was simple. A police evidence lockup located in a crappy part of town, by the docks and a handful of industrial complexes. The place was usually abandoned, so it was fairly low risk. You had hired a pair of scrappy looking guys as muscle, one named Jeph (he had to explain it was spelled with a ph) and the other nicknamed Doc. The latter was obviously not a medical doctor nor was he in the field of academia, so the nickname was pretty misplaced. The only thing he was an expert at was picking bar fights. Driving over in Doc's pickup, the trio of you eyed the wire fence outside the place. Easy enough. 

After a couple of minutes of barbed wire grappling with Jeph's lack of skill with wire cutters, you were through. Luckily enough, one of your crewmates had recently beaten up some off duty cops and taken a spare key to the lockup, so the door was no problem at all. One inside, a musty scent drifted into all of your noses. The combination of years of water damage and being where the sun don't shine was not a nice smell. Better than Doc's after a night on the town, though. 

The evidence lockup was abandoned, as expected, and your trio started breaking into the individual lockers. Some had seized firearms. Others had various blades and illegal blunt weapons. A large corner of the warehouse was reserved for controlled substances and booze. The usual stuff you'd expect to see in a lockup. However, you kept your eye on the prize. There was a crate full of forged bonds, masterfully crafted that had somehow ended up in police custody. The federal reserve people hadn't showed up to confiscate them yet, so they were ripe for the taking. 

You went over to the car to prep things, as the coast was still clear. You instructed Jeph to keep an eye on Doc, as he was a troublemaker, and started planning the escape. The crate and others like it were rigged with an alarm. Everything was going smoothly. You start doing a mental checklist of things that could have gone wrong. 

 RINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRING, the alarm bell starts to scream.  You quickly turn to look just in time to see a red faced Doc hurling large burlap sacks of... something? out of the window.  Three, Four, Five, you stop counting and start towards what appears to be the motherload of .... whatever this is.  As you toss the last sack into the back of the truck, Doc leaps from the window landing safely into the back of the truck.  He laughs and says PUNCH IT!  The truck roars to life and takes off with purpose.  After a few minutes of turns and general misdirection, you realize you are not being followed.  Doc leans towards your window from the back and yells "Diamonds? Ha! Not even close!  We are now the proud owners of 800 pounds of: bear fur?

Despite wondering where Jeph went, it was too late to head back now. After asking Doc where the bear fur came from he said: "Coppers just confiscated the contents of a hunting cabin, the guy didn't have a dang permit!" His loud laugh resonated through the night. 

TheGingerbreadMan- Knights of Anheuser