World Tree MUSH

 
      Way up in the northern area of Night City is Watson, and the farthest northern area? North Side. Simple enough, right? It's the city's industrial area, and the streets are about as dead as a graveyard. Tucked away on a street corner is a former fish market, which has been gutted and repurposed into a den for the cyberpsycho pushers themselves: The Maelstrom. It's a little easy to tell it's their building, with their emblem and gang name tagged all over the its walls as a mark of territory. 
 
     That spacious and large Thorton Mackinaw 'Beast' is parked some distance away, a muscular looking man in camo and tactical gear at the wheel with a red armband on his left arm that simply reads '6', with Twintail in the passanger seat. Maybe she has people that needed a ride and are with her, or she's doing another job? 
     The fact remains she's here, and she's waving down the people she's called to see her far out of sight from the shop, tucked away in a spot with some shipping crates. 
 
     "Got some familiar faces here, but this'll be different from the 'saka job a while back. This is a test, gotta gauge you all and see just what you Bennies can do when it isn't calling air strikes or makin' the scene look like a fuckin' cyberpsycho massacre." 
     Pulling her cigarette from her mouth, she hands out, of all privative things in New Carthage, the ripped off top of a Buck a Slice box with a map drawn out on the cheap cardboard. 
     "This place is a Maelstrom ripperdoc clinic. They record all their work on whoever they operate; Gang members, actual clients, or some pretty choomba they pull off the street." 
     A finger points down at the street corner marked on it. "One block down towards the docks is this clinic. Go in, sneak your way, talk your way, or do some 'You're going to let me in' BS you did with the Animals, I don't give a damn. Get me a recording of one of their initiations, or better, get me server access. I don't hear a gunshot, you get a big bonus, and you get up my ladder on getting better gigs. I -do- hear gun shots, pay's normal, and I'll just keep in mind that most of ya are probably better off as a distraction and muscle team." 
 
     She sits up some, putting that cigarette to her lips as her ears flick back. "Any questions?"

    "Ok, ideally no gunshots." Claire notes, not even remotely bothered as she rests her hand on the hilt of her sword, and tosses one of her bombs in the air and catches with the other. "I can do that." She smiles, looking at the others, "I'll play backup, I don't think I've got what it takes to convince one of those chromeheads that I want to join their ranks."

    "I'm just here to babysit~."
    That would be Rebecca. The shorty solo is here, and is armed to the teeth as usual, but judging from the way her arms are folds her arms across her chest, she's not here to go shooting up the place as usual.
    ... It's a sad thing that this is the case, buuuut.
    "I'll be sticking to the back of you lot and unless someone messes up then I guess I'll pull you out of the fire.
    It could get really hot considering the party is going up against Maelstrom, assuming someone slips up.

    So yeah, tests and initiations? Marceline is here, trying not to look smug or anything while she hears out the details of the job. Seems simple enough, right? She can probably handle- "Wait, so no gunshots? So if one of those dingdongs is out back shooting at tin cans you're gonna dock us? That's bunk!"

    She's not really /mad/ about it or anything. Kind of more... blase? She's here, she's willing to take part but she doesn't have a whole lot to prove. Really, she feels like more of a babysitter than even Rebecca's supposed to be. She even leans on the much shorter Solo, "So like, you gonna follow us in? Or you gonna sit out here with lawnchairs and brews waiting for the serious biz to pop- Ah." She nibbles her lip, looking from Claire to Rebecca and then Twintail and her numbered goon.

    "Guess that makes me the face of this? Cool. I'll try not to eat anyone this time. Oh, anything else I should know? Coz I mean, I can just go in alone if it really comes down to that." She lands, though, perfectly willing to stand out as little as possble and be a team player. Also a meat shield.

 
     "If one of them is out shooting tin cans?" 
     "Sounds like a you problem, not mine." 
 
     Twintail crosses her arms over her chest as she kicks the door of the truck open, stepping out and tossing that 'map' aside into a fire barrel nearby. Must have been some hobos around that TT scared off earlier. 
     "I'll be sitting here, doing something that isn't you don't need to worry about. About what you should know? I can tell you they won't be expecting anyone to roll up on their clinic. 
 
     "Jus' remember, I said I don't wanna hear any gunshots. If you can silently take them out, be my guest. As for goin' in, you got three choices. Front door, the garage right next to it, or," 
 
     TT moves a finger over, as if saying 'it's off to the side'. "There's a window in the alley, covered in metal shutters. Lock's probably broken, pop that open if you feel like bein' sneaky." 
 
     For Claire, she looks at the sword. Nice. The bomb? ... Not so nice. "Word about the bennies is getting around. Fast. Farmer or no, I'm sure they'd jump at the chance to see how much chrome they can shove into you."

    "The answer to that is none whatsoever." Claire answers Twintail, "And look, lady. I don't know how you usually do things, but generally when I hear people are going to be nearby doing things I don't need to worry about? That's going to make me think they're about to stab in the back. No offense, but I know how far you can typically trust fixers." She glanmces to Rebecca, "If she does anything sketchy, flatline her." Then that said, she walks towards the place, going for the window. "You said you're the face?" She asks Marcy, "You take the front, I'll open the window and go in that way, sound good?"

    Folding her big metal mitts behind the back of her head, Rebecca flashes a big ol' grin.
    "I'll be going in with you of course." She replies to Marcy. "That's what I'm getting paid for." But then what Claire says makes the solo glance from the farmer to the fixer and back.
    Rebecca whistles.
    "Phew, down chica. If every fixer worked like that no one would wanna work with any of them. TT's solid and prrrrrooobably won't fuck us over."
    Probably.
    "Aite I'll head in the window with Claire if Marcy's going through the front."

    Marceline laughs. Claire's setting things out and she can't help but enjoy a full on belly laugh at the frankness on display. "Oh man, I knew I liked you but dang, you're a menace. Nice!" She claps Claire once on the back, then falls in with a nod and a fangy smile back at Twintail. "Hey, shame about the pizza box. I woulda put that on my fridge with little heart magnets. Haha!"

    She tilts her head as Claire offers to go in through the window to conduct stealthy moves. "Sounds good, ninja-styles. Do it up!" She adjusts her sweater, rolls her hair around into a rough bun, then she sets off toward the front. "Yo, let's roll in slow and easy to start. I'll make noise if it's time to be noisy! Figure you'll both do the same!" Rebecca and Claire get a nod, TT gets a no-look upraised handwave, then she's- Gone?

 
     Flatline -Twintail-? When Claire looks at Rebecca and gives the order, she just kind of stares as the farmer goes for a walk. Then she looks over at Rebecca, giving her the same sort of stare. 
     "She's got a point. But you can trust this Fixer. Long as I can trust you, and I -know- I can, 'Becca." She waves the three of as they go, quirking a bit of a brow as Marcelin just straight up rolsl her hair into a bun and just -bwip-, gone. She looks over at the man in the truck, ears perking up. "Bennies." 
 
     =====
 
     At the corner itself, it seems a bit dull. There's a Chevillon Thrax parked in the garage, absolutely covered in Maelstrom tags. The hood is up, with someone working under the hood. The entrance just has a chromed out Maelstrom ganger tapping his hand on the wall, the other holding onto some janky looking assault rifle. 
 
     A conversation occurs between the two... 
      "Can't wait for this shit to settle in." "The hell's got you so worked up?" "C'mon, man! All this new shit happenin', you know they're gonna get better tech." "So?" So better fuckin' implants, fuck head! Y'know, maybe you lift your head up from that car engine and quit strokin' your ego over how fast it is, you might see the world changin' around ya." "Fuck off, go blast more of that weeb music into your ears." "It's not weeb music, it's 'Us Cracks'. Dickhead..."

    Claire shrugs as others insist Twintail is trustworthy, but doesn't say anything else on the matter. She quietly heads down the alleyway and draws her sword, hoping the mystical blade will allow her to quietly force open the shutters with ease, so she can quietly work her way inside. Before she does, she takes a quick look, and if the coast seems clear, enter. She's taking extra care to avoid drawing attention, as much as possible.

    "I'm not worried about it." Rebecca says, shooting Twintail a thumbs up as she heads to follow Claire once Marceline is just... Gone?
    "Man. I'll never get used to that weird vampire voodoo crap, I think." Muttered as she follows after the farmer, as casual as can be.

    Marcy doesn't really know who she can trust trust, only that she will go out of her way at every opportunity to not actually sleep any morning away in Night City. Place is almost as whack as the nuked out burg she grew up in. Even comes with people that conveniently remind her of the vampires she once preyed upon so long ago.

    he two goons outside? She'll just blow by them like a stiff breeze and try the front door. If it's locked? Well. There might need to be further vampire voodoo crap. The idea is to bypass the cronies and mop up later if needed; the big boss is who she's after, though all she really has to go on is what she can see, smell and hear.

    Maybe she should have payed better attention to the map. Oh well!

 
     Claire jimmies that window open with some relative ease, the shutters sliding right up. It's apparently right behind a receptionist's desk. Which is empty. Looks like the coast is clear, too, except for the sound of something focusing around the room. A camera! At least it's looking away from the farmer, moving to stop as it covers the far end of the room before swinging to Claire's direction. 
 
     For Marceline, using her freeky voodoo vampire powers, she just sneaks right by. Easily. The two gang members are too caught up with other things to bother. As for the front door? The guy standing at the entrance is keeping it open with his own body, practically inviting the vampire in. 
 
     The two would-be infiltrators are now in the lobby, with full glass sliding doors that lead further in. 
     One is right behind the receptionist's desk, looks like a small storage space that's littered with empty Buck a Slice' boxes, cans of non descript soda and the like. Hey, there's even a few cans of Joja in there! 
     The other leads to a hallway that leads further in, the walls covered with more Maelstrom graffiti, just a big solid blood red 'M' smeared on the far wall. Is it really just paint though?

    Claire waits for an opportune moment, then pulls out her slingshot and shockingly, does not insert a bomb. She inserts a bit of purple metal, and aims at the camera's mounting point, trying to get that metal lodged so the Camera gets stuck in position away from her. Then, after that she quietly jumps inside. She goes to investigate the storage space, just in case there's anything interesting there.

    For the most part, Rebecca lets Claire and Marceline take the lead. This is their show. But she does crawl through the window once that's handled. She can't do much about the camera so hopefully Claire handled that as she helps herself to an unopened can of cola, for later.
    "So like, what's the actual plan if you both run into more guys?"

    Goodness. Too easy; though of course the front doors would lead into a lobby with a camera. If she doesn't show in a mirror would she show on a camera? Best to just stay invisible for the moment.

    Claire handles the camera, maybe, so she purses her lips and silently flits over to the sliding door leeding deeper into the building. "I dunno, guess I'd sell you two out and get in good with these whacky screwbs. I just wanna find the bossman, make nice, see what's up. These weirdos huff some kinda wonky biz when they're chilling; maybe hit it up with em, hang for a minute. Let you two snoop while I keep everyone entertained."

    Is she staying a disembodied voice on purpose just to weird out her companions? Or maybe she just forgot.

 
     *Tink* 
 
     The Camera starts to turn... and nudges it. Then turns back... nudges it... Turns back... 
     It starts repeating it, going slow. It's impossible to tell if it'll actually knock that metal loose without looking closer at it. 
     Claire pops open the door into that little storage space. Cleaning utilities. Brooms. A mop. Kind of ironic that this space meant for cleaning looks like it bleeds tetanus. 
 
     Rebecca opening a can and talking... goes unnoticed. For one lucky reason. 
     "Pon pon -shit-, pon pon -shit-." "Shut UP already, before I 'pon pon' this 12 socket so hard up your--" 
     You get the picture. 
 
     Claire sliliently flits over to the sliding door, which of course is closed at the moment! But the group's staying together, and there doesn't seem to be anyone moving further down the hall. Coast is clear?

    Claire quietly proceeds, whispering her responses. "We take him out, then steal his data, and bail before anyone is the wiser." Claire's plan is straightforward enough. "Unless either of you can hack?"

    Rebecca pauses at this question. She looks down at herself, at her big, chunky, mechanical hands, and then at the slew of weapons lashed to her back.
    "Do I look like I do the netrunner thing?"

    Marceline stares back at the other two. "Server access, remember? Wanna bet some dingus wrote the info down on a piece of paper and stuck it to the thing?" She moves to open the sliding door and proceed beyond into the wallway, quietly levitating. Oh, she's also looking out for mines, bombs and traps.

    "Yo, remember Julio!" She calls back in a sweet voice, adding a bit of a singsong quality as she proceeds. Anyone important? Anyone paying attention? Anyone coming? Anyone at all?

     Claire formulates a plan. 
     Rebecca doesn't know what a JPEG is. 
 
     Marceline slips into the door and starts proceeding down the path, levitating along. Mines? Bombs? Traps? None that can be seen, at least. Maybe Twintail wasn't kidding about this being an 'initiation' job. 
     And that's when Marceline hears it. Above her. Oh there's a lot of walking. There's a lot of laughing, there's loud music like something out of the Totentanz. 'Electro-Techno' about fits the bill, with heavy bass. 
     Up ahead, the path goes left and right. To the left? First, a big window into what looks like... the clinic itself! And a door right by it. To the right, the same thing, but without the window. And stairs leading up. A Joja vending machine sits against a wall next to the stairs, looking absolutely beat up. Must have been stolen recently!

    "No, which is why my plan doesn't rely on it, but I also know appearances can be deceiving." When they make it to the fork, she glances backwards, "Spookster, you look at the clinic? Notrunner, you with me?" She suggests as she heads for the stairs.

    Rebecca just wants a picture of a SCOPdog.
    Though the reminder of Julio's grim fate does put the diminutive solo in more of a professional mindset, keeping her eyes peeled for traps.
    "Hohhhh? And where're you headed?" She asks, hands folded behind her head as she follows after Claire.

    Eventually, Marceline becomes visible. Revealing herself to be transformed fully into a small batlike creature. She's got one sensitive ear turned up as she tries to pick out separate bodies moving about. She also sniffs a few times and holds up a claw to offer a tentative guess as to how many individuals he can pick out. The music, the dingy reek of the place and the present albeit more-familiar scents might be able to skew her estimate somewhat.

    She moves on, flying without using her little wings to sneak a peek and then a full-on look into the gallery window of the chop-chop clinic. She's just watching and trying her best to avoid notice while remaining visible to her peeps. More sniffing, more ear-scanning, though she twitches her wings along with the bass-thump of the music. 

    Nice.

 
     Marceline becomes visible, and listens with those batlike powers and scent to get a feel of what's going on upstairs. 
     Marceline would be holding up 6 claws - that's a number. 
 
     The chop-shop of a clinic is ... clean. Somewhat. Various tools are left out and haphazardly put into containers with cleaning solution, but the patient's chair is stained with blood all about. The arm and leg restraints don't look very inviting either, especially how they look obviously welded on. 
     There's a computer here in the chop-shop as well. Maybe there's data there? 
 
     Claire starts to climb up the stairs with Rebecca behind her. This must be some kind of 'employees' area, but the purpose of the rooms before are lost. The Stairs round as Claire goes up, now directly in front of a locker room of some kind, and to her right is another clear sliding door. Where there's some kind of party going on...? Hard to tell.

    Claire holds as she notices the party, and gestures to be quiet as she sneaks into the locker room, trying to see if there's anything interesting like keys, credentials or the like she can grab without drawing attention from the partygoers.

    Doing things 'the quiet way' is so not Rebecca's usual jam. In fact she's itching for a fight here, but is exercising some pretty extreme force of will to not be the one ro atart it, herself.
    Buuuut she stuffs her hands in her pockets when Claire motions for her to keep quiet, remaining by the stairwell while Claire goes locker raiding.

    Marceline takes stock of the clinic. There's a computer, though there isn't a whole lot she can do with it even if she were in the clinic. Any computer she's ever seen would be, maybe, early 2000's vintage. She's never so much as sniffed around any of this city's tech. So, that's out.

    She glances after Claire, tries to catch her eye before she dips into the locker room to point out the terminal. Since it's in the clinic, right, maybe it's been in use for the very thing we're after? Though, really, she's very drawn to the party. Or whatever's going on.

    She even starts to try and scope for alternate access to that section of the building; vents, drop ceilings. Seeing Rebecca just idle and probably bored out of her mind, she wings over and drops into the crook of one of those big techy arms. "Think we can use your shiny-eyeballs skriz to check out that computer in their, uh, work room? Ain't got much better idea what to do with it. Tech in Ooo is, uh. It's way outta date and not really my jam besides. Orrrrr do I got the wrong read on how all that works?"

 
     Claire looks around in the lockerroom, quickly, before she gets noticed. 
     She notices a simple sticky note up on a billboard here right next to the door, simply reads: 'COMPUTER: BURNCORPOSHIT' in all caps. 
 
     "Go get a Joja, gonna take a bit for 'em to get here!" "Yeah yeah, s' gonna be preem with new meat on the table!" Sounds like someone's heading Rebecca's way. 
 
     It's just in time for Marceline to come in and settle up on Rebecca's, spotting a few battered vents to use along the way here. But with a Maelstrom ganger on the way to the door, it's only a matter of time!

    With the password memorized, Claire rushes back down, gesturing for Rebecca to follow. Marceline has pointed out the computer, so Claire looks towards it and decides the best thing to do is unplug it and run, handing the parts to Rebecca to carry while they get out. "Got the password, we can look when we're gone."

    Rebecca IS bored out of her mind, yes. So when Marcy comes floating up on her and drops into her arms, the solo blinks.
    "I'm still not a 'runner, you know." She points out. "Unless you or Claire get the password I can't do much and-
    There's a guy coming.
    And Claire starts dumping computer parts in Rebecca's arms too, saddling her with Marcy and the PC.
    "Oh huh well that's one way of handling it. But what about the guy?" She does ask, because this dude is coming with a full and mighty thirst for Joja's finest stomach-rotting colas. She will, however, follow Claire and Marcy's lead in that regard, still. Dealing with the guy is a bridge the team can burn when they get to it.
    Rebecca knows full well that is not how that saying goes.

    "Ah yeah, well-" Then Claire comes out and makes a beeline for the computer- Then it's a loot and scoot all of a sudden, with a guy coming. She hops free of Rebecca's arm and eyes the vents again, scrambling to open up one of the covers to squeeze inside. Hopefully over the ganger's head, she tries to find a way to gain direct access so she can call out, "Hey dude. Check it out. Yo, behind you. Down here." Course, she's above and hopefully audible over the music. "Show me that pretty face, cutie pie." Weird that she can sound like her normal self as a weird small batlike thing? Maybe, but hopefully our boy isn't super clever about picking out the direction of sounds.

    Hopefully her girls will take that as a clear sign to GTFO at the first opportunity. Which is like. Now.

 
     Claire makes an absolute beeline (why do they call it that?) down stairs to the clinic, and just yanks the computer -- which is apparently built into the monitor. It's one of 'those' computers. Rebecca gets shoved the parts in her giant hands, meaning the very thing getting them a payday is in those big hands that could easily crush the computer like a car in a compressor. 
 
     MArceline forms into that bat form and takes to the vents, and starts to call out. 
 
     "Huh? W-... Where?" The guy seems to be falling for it. He looks down, then behind him. Then up and around. "Heeey, c'mon, baby, where you at? You lookin' for a night, I got another friend that needs some company, show you a pretty nova time!" 
     "Check it out, Dennis is hearin' shit again. You that close to goin' psycho?" 
     'Dennis' turns from the noises in the vent back to the party. "I'm not hearin' shit, there's this hot soundin' chick out here!" "You fuckin' gonk, shedda been stopped outside, and we got the camera runn-" 
 
     Marceline has a bit of a window to make her own break while Claire and Rebecca get their own chance to escape. Before a man's gruff and angered voice calls out. 
 
     "The camera's fuckin' STUCK?! Dennis, get on that shit!"

    Claire gets out the window and back towards Twintail, not even waiting for anything before claiming a spot in the car. She quickly scribbles down the 'BURNCORPOSHIT' password. "For all their faults, I like the sentiment of their password."

    Marcy is immensely enjoying herself. For once, it's not a total bloodbath. This is more like an elaborate prank or something like a game. It's a nice change of pace! So, she clams up once Dennis' buds start calling him out for hearing things and waits just a tick before making a break for the vent she'd tampered her way into. Maybe they'll notice the loose cover, maybe not.

    She drops into the air, beats her wings and darts for the main entryway! Before she goes, she spends just a moment to return to her human shape before she swipes across that blood red M that the gangers decorated the lobby with before she makes a break for the window. From there, it's a simple matter to speed towards TT's ride, though she tries to make sure to cover Becca and Claire's retreat into the night.

    Y'know, just in case she has to dive on someone and stop them from unloading on some innocent tin cans. Or her team, I guess.

 
     Claire, Marceline, and Rebecca make their grand getaway. Sure, the Maelstrom is going to learn someone just jacked their computer, but they never saw who did it. 
 
     Claire approaches at the spot, and right off the bat, the group can see the truck now has some cargo it didn't have in the back. It's all been covered in a tarp and tied down. 
 
     TT takes the scribbled password as she settles in the passenger seat, giving it a look as she rows up her window. "Huh. Dumbasses. They put this stuff on the back of their jackets, too." 
 
     TT looks at the muscular military man that's the driver. "I didn't hear any gunshots. Did you?" "Negative." Oh. Austrian accent. 
 
     TT Just nods along. "Well, we'll take a ride. Plug it in, get my data if it's there, and you'll all get a payday. Bonus, too." 
 
     She points over at Marceline, ears pinning back. "Oy, you gonna vanish like last time or you want a lift back to the city?"

    "Depends. You wanna share a ride with a monster?" Yep, Marcy's a little wound up. "Also on if you got anything red in there. I burned through a bit in there and I didn't even nosh any of those dinks."

 
     "Rather ride with a monster than ride with a corpo." Twintail starts, looking around. "Red, red, red... You got anything red, gunny?" "Affirmative." 
     The big guy moves into his center console, and rummages out a Sakura NiCola. Holding it back for Marceline for when she gets in. 
 
     "Huh. You drink Nicola." "Affirmative." "Why?" "Because I'm thirsty." 
     Twintail shrugs as the Truck starts driving. "Fair 'nuff..." 
 
     *GIG CLOSED*

    "Honestly, corpos ARE monsters. They just pretend they're not." Claire responds to Twintail, grabbing a pair of fresh red apple out of her bag and taking a good bite out of one and tossing the other to Marceline.