"Jack Rigaru"  Nicollo shrieks as he spreads a little piece of paper. "Fucking big time asshole,huh?" There are couples of heavies, trotting in front of the house Nic intends to visit. He sets the hand brake of his car. He scratches his wrists looking for options. He needs to teach Jack Rigaru a lesson. Jack has been speaking ill about WillHayes in his paper, prompting somebody to take care of his blahherng mouth. Nicollo is the somebody. He is restless as he can't see Jack anywhere from the outside. He starts scratching the nape of his neck. 

"Fuck this shit" He pulled of the hand brake of his car and starts shifting gears. The tires of the car screech. Nicollo starts driving the car towards the direction of the heavies.....

 Keats is ambling along the streets, as usual, with his hands in his pockets trying to stay aware of the business of the day. As he turns a corner, he notices a car accelerating towards a group of men in front of a house. Keats freezes for a moment, raising an eyebrow in confusion. He quickly taps the knife hilt at his back and the grip of his pistol to ensure he has them before briskly walking in the direction of the roaring engine. This certainly had the potential to get interesting...

Theta liked to use the back alleys of Detroit to practice her knife throwing. Usually she'd pick up scam some chalk from neighborhood kids and scrawl a bullseye onto a wooden fence. Sometimes she'd get lucky and find rats or even stray cats...moving targets were the best sort of challenge. Especially children, but that was often frowned upon. Which is one reason Theta tucked herself into the alley away from any temptations. She gracefully picked up a steak knife from the pile she had put on the wooden barrel. It was littered with all different types of knives.

Just as Theta was lining up her shot she heard a loud commotion on the other side of the wooden fence. It butted up against the road, blocking off the alley from the street. Was that a back fire? She asked herself. Theta thought about it for a quick second. Was it worth the energy if she had just heard a murder....of course it was! Theta ran with the knife in hand, hopped up on a trashcan and peered over the fence. It was definitely a car, but no murder had happened yet. She looked down the road and noticed that the car was aiming straight for some folks. Theta hopped the fence to check this out. 

Keats listened to the car's engine continue to roar as it sped down the unnaturally long road. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed a young woman hop over the fence to his right and land near him. Her flowing, colorful clothing caught his eye almost as much as the knife she held in his hand.

Keats, with one hand calmly on his knife in case she was a potential mugger, tilted his head in the direction of the car, which had almost reached the group of men.

"Good evening. Any idea what's going on there?"

She was standing on the doorstep of a house a few doors down from the ruckus. A delivery and a message to the occupants had been accomplished, she was at least nice enough to return the occupants fingers she had removed. She never understood why people had to be so flamboyant with their tactics. Oh well she thought to each their own.

She watched with avid interest as the gentleman from the  car flew through the windshield, his adrenaline pumping so that he did not appear to be affected by the wounds he had. She noticed two  others, possibly  spectators as well the sun in her eyes she could not quite make out who they were.

She noticed a goon coming up behind the crazy car driver, reacting quickly with a practice movement she materialized  her pistol from the garter she kept it in. She hastily took the several yards to the scene with long purposeful strides.  Taking aim she planted a bullet into the thug, nodding to  the bloodied gentleman as she fired another shot at an approaching heavy.

*Ewiv sat in the shadows of an alley watching the whole event unfold. Earlier that day he had run into Nicollo as he was on his way out of HQ and the new recruit had requested work from him. Ewiv gave him a piece of paper and told him the guy had been running his mouth about Will Hayes. Jack is the leader of some local street gang, stupid punk thought he was big enough to talk smack on a mafia crew. Today was to be his last day, the only question remains is would Ewiv have to take it, or would Nicollo do his job.

Ewiv chucked to himself.*

"The kids got balls, I'll give him that." He said to himself as he watched Nicollo mow down the 2nd set of bodyguards.

As gunshots rang out, Keats grabbed Theta around the waste and dragged her to cover behind a parked car, although he got her elbow in his face for his trouble. Intentional? Whatever. Peering over the car, Keats noticed the car run over two sets of thugs- although it was taking heavy fire. 

His eyes went wide as he noticed Brigid off to the side, shooting a couple bodyguards. Keats took a deep breath, raising an eyebrow at the young woman next to him. 

"Uh, I'm pretty sure that guy got shot? Oh, and she's a good guy. That guy isn't, though."

Keats pulled his gun from the holster under his shoulder and squinted his eyes at the second story of the building. There was a shadow moving with a dim light behind it... carrying either a rifle or a vacuum cleaner. Probably... probably rifle. Vacuum cleaner wouldn't even make sense. Keats lined up the shot with his pistol, and it seemed close to impossible. At that range? Shooting up? With a pistol that he'd only had a little bit of practice with? 

Keats squeezed the trigger, and he was absolutely correct. He'd missed big time. A few more well aimed shots... still misses. At least he was within a few feet, close enough to scare the sniper into ducking back behind the window. Bought Nicollo some time at least.

Turning to the young woman as he reloaded, Keats yelled over the gunfire "Don't worry, miss! Stay down and I'll keep you safe!"

A quick hop over the fence brought more into Theta’s life than she ever expected. She almost landed on someone and when she moved to evade a crash, well, it wasn’t graceful. Though, she was able to land without falling over. Theta dusted herself off and looked over to see who had crashed her party. Her eyes instinctively narrowed and she moved her neck slightly so she could watch what he was doing with his hands. Then she noticed his eyes on her hands and she realized she was still holding onto the steak knife. She dropped it, letting it clatter to the ground and gave him a slight grin. Whoops.

She pulled her eyes away from the stranger who looked familiar but she couldn’t place it and on down the street to what had initially caught her attention. Whoever was driving that car was out for blood as it rambled down the street with vicious intention. As Theta looked on she heard the man speak.

“Good evening. Any idea what’s going on there?”

Just as she was going to turn her head to reply to him the car shot straight into some thugs up ahead of them. Theta wished she could say it was the wildest thing she had ever seen, but it was definitely up there. Then everything that happened next was also, just about as wild. The car barreled into people, splatter them about. Literally. Guns were pulled, shooting started, bullets flew, the stranger next to her grabbed her, her elbow met his face. It was all pretty much a blur. The man had successfully hid them mostly safely behind a car. Theta had her back to all the action, but the man who had possibly saved her must have been checking out what was going on as he kept giving her play by play updates. 

Keats ducked behind the car in disbelief. Thugs were pouring out of businesses up and down the street. The man in the car had certainly stirred up a hornet's nest- and it looked like he'd been stung a few times. Keats didn't think anyone could survive that- time for a hasty retreat. A group of three men approached the car in front of Keats, spraying bullets. Listening for a break in their assault, Keats popped up and emptied his clip in their direction. A couple shots went wide, but at least one or two struck each assailant in the chest. Keats was reloading, feeling a little proud of himself, when another figured emerged, unseen, right behind him.

It might have been fairly obvious that the location the man had brought Theta to wasn’t exactly the greatest place to take shelter. Theta was realizing this very quickly as her possible savior was shooting off his gun like a mad man. What she thought was a random murder was turning into a full out gang on gang shoot out and by gang on gang she did mean a whole bunch of guys and only a few of them. Her “savior” had mentioned something about another woman being a good guy and whoever drove his car straight into some folks was on their “side” too. Though, they were all very out numbered and the bullets were closing in. 

Theta shot a glance over to where she dropped the steak knife. She cursed herself once for dropping it and twice for not grabbing a few more from the wooden barrel on the other side of the fence. As she pulled her attention away from an unrealistic fantasy she noticed some fella coming up on them from behind. In half a second Theta decided she would officially get involved. As she kneeled up, she picked up a handful of dirt from the street tossing it into the eyes of the man with the gun attempting to sneak up on them. She knew she would only have seconds before the gunman regained himself so she quickly snuck lowly across to road to where she dropped the knife. 

Just as quickly as she picked it up she swiveled her body and straightened up with the gunman. Theta moved her hand back and flung it at the man she had temporarily blinded with dirt. The steak knife struck through the air and hit her target square in the chest. Theta scuffled back to her savior, pulled on his hand just as he was done reloading his gun and forced him to follow her into the alley. Unfortunately it wasn’t the same one she had ducked out of earlier, there would be no stash of knives for her to find. As much as this new hiding spot was safer than the car they previously hid behind, it wouldn’t last long. They’d have to decide if they would be getting out of there or if they’d go see if the guy driving was dead. Which might be a waste of time. For someone to survive after getting shot like that…well, she hoped the driver was praying to someone. 

*Ewiv sighed to himself*

"The kids reckless, it might cost him his life here tonight" he said to himself.

*Ewiv wouldn't have made it in this game as long as he had if he didn't plan for the worst. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best, that was his motto. He gave the signal and his men on the roof top opened up with their tommy guns mowing the heavies down with relative easy. When they gave the all clear he stepped out of the shadows and moved purposely towards the front door of the palace. Jack had a date with the morgue, and he didn't intend to make him wait much longer.*

"Keats, Brigid, on me. Theta, see to our new associate, if hes going to die it wont be on this punk's grass."

*Ewiv drew his gun and kicked open what remained of the front door*

Brigid had managed to get the car , she  scrunched up against it for some  small semblance of safety. Bullets were whizzing in every direction. She had recognized  the crazy driver as a crew member , although she could  pull his name from her mind.  Suddenly the rat a tat a tat of heavier gunfire filled the air.  Brigid used the car as best she could as cover from the gun spray from above.

When the spray of bullets from above had finished she looked up recognizing  Ewiv approach from the shadows. He took control of the scene as any good LHM would. Without hesitation her jaw set squarely Brigid followed Ewiv and Keats into the house, as she reloaded her Savage pistol with ten more shots.

*As they enter the palace Ewiv sees a boringly typical entrance layout. A grand room with wings to the left and right and stairs leading up to the second floor. Ewiv points and Brigid and then points left, he points and Keats and then to the right, and proceeds for the stairs himself. He figures this worthless waste of space is probably hiding upstairs somewhere, but better safe then sorry and sweep the whole place. He didn't envy anyone who made the mistake of being on Jack's little street gang tonight. They'd all be 6 feet under fairly soon for their bosses stupidity. Only a fool thinks his little street gang can match up to a well run mafia family.*

Brigid nodded to Ewiv indicating she understood, she no compunction in taking a life. Her back against the wall she took small heel toe steps creeping quietly around the corner  into the kitchen, her pistol at the ready. She peeked around the corner, an island sat in the middle of the kitchen , pans of various sizes hung above it on an  iron rack. The reflection of a thug mirrored in  the sheen of the pans, she looked down the sight of her pistol and fired a shot at the pans above his head. Several fell clattering down on top of him. In reaction he stood, to meet his demise as  she fired a second shot, planting a hole squarely between his eyes. She continued through the room,mentally counting that she had eight shots left.  Stepping over the body , she smiled down at its vacant eyes,  a bullet whizzed by her face. In reaction she tucked and rolled finding herself squat her back against the wall and the cook stove to her right.

Keats heard the tommy guns from the alley that he and Theta had ducked into. Hearing Ewiv's orders, Keats motioned for Theta to go check on Nicollo as he got into a support position behind Ewiv. Branching off the right as he entered the house, Keats entered some sort of living room. He almost shot a wardrobe, but the room was otherwise clear. There didn't seem to be anyone around, but he suddenly heard gunfire erupt from the other side of the house.

Brigid. Keats moved as quickly and as quietly as he could in the direction he'd begun, hoping to loop around and get the drop on whoever was shooting at her. As he peered down the hallway he saw a blurred firing holding a gun, presumably at Brigid. The noise of his shooting masked the approach of Keats, who got within several feet before opening fire. Three shots put him down. Unsure if there were any other enemies, Keats moved slowly into the kitchen, calling out to alert Brigid of his approach and hoping he wasn't advertising his position to someone who wanted to take him out.

*Ewiv climbs the stairs stealthily and examines the 2nd floor. Straight ahead is a double-doored room that more then likely leads to the sitting area where this city gang does business with its leader. He sees hallways to the left and right, and rooms down both directions. Not wanting to get snuck up on from behind he decides to tackle the hallways first and heads off down the left hallway making as little noise as possible so as to not alert anyone to his presence on this floor. As he moves along the hallway he hears shots below and figures Brigid or Keats just cleaned up a few more of the gangs members. Down the hallway is 2 doors one to the right and a little further down one to the left. He gently checks the first door and finds it locked. Continuing on he checks the 2nd which turns freely to open. He flattens himself against the wall as he pushes the door open waiting to see if someone fires from within the room.

No one fires, either the person inside is smart, or the room is empty. He carefully peaks around the door frame and sees the room is a little boys room. Another data point, Ewiv was not here to kill children, nor did he want to. He enters the room clearing his corners and finds the room completely empty.*

It was like they had all drawn straws and Theta got the shortest one. Except they didn't. Who knew what was out there? A loan gunman hiding in a bush just waiting for someone to come check on the crazy guy that just drove his car into people. Also, Theta's only weapon was lodged into some man's chest. She thought about going to find him and pulling it out, but...no. Silently she cursed herself for that being the only weapon she had carried with her and even thought about hopping the fence to grab another. Theta reminded herself that she didn't have time for that, that the guy that ran people over like it wasn't a large task, was a crew mate of hers. It was kind of sort of in the job description for her to care if he lived. Plus, Ewiv had asked her to. 

Theta gave a wave to Keats after he gave her a nod towards the young associate. She watched him dart away, into the building. Theta made her way towards the probably beading out guy.