[LTD-Tayseri-Peanut Gallery] Clusterfrak

"You're not really doing this are you? This is pretty cold" Whispered Alex to Michelle. He thought it through some more. He didn't like what he came up with, but...
"Unless you want to take them all on right now, we need a better plan. We can get Snow later. Worse case scenario, they kill Snow, we get them on murder. Or they kill us too. That's always possible." Said Alex to Cavallius, making sure any of the gangsters didn't hear him.
Alex thought for a few second.
Well, I'm pretty sure I've also lost the moral high ground saying that. In for a penny...
"We need a better plan. There are about six of them here, all armed. Hammy guy has a concealed firearm next to his left kidney. We need to get C-Sec, and we need to deal with them when we aren't being aimed at by several trigger happy gangbangers. Giving them Snow's the best delaying tactic we've got. Oh idea! Hang on."
Alex turned to their leader, and asked in a harmless voice.
"ee...Excuse me. Mr scary gangster man, how many of their are you in your gang? You see, I made a bet with Snow that you guys were all well armed and had at least fifteen well trained and armed soliders. But Snow said that you guys were it, and had less training then one of the kids you'd kidnapped? Or did I guess too low?" Alex asked.

Michelle didn't look Alex or Cavalius when they expressed shock at her decision. Her jaw was clenched. She was surprised at Alex's speech though, even if random speeches at inappropriate times were nothing new, but the time was critical. There was an awkward moment after he was done talking. The batarian leader looked grim, his weapon still trained at the group. Snow even turned his head, and locked gaze with Michelle for a second, before both turned their attention to the gangers who may or may not be about to blow them away.
The batarian burst into laughter.

"Shit man, what kind of fucked up cops do furheads have? I don't even know where you were going with this! Don't worry there is more than enough of us to fuck you all up if need be!"

Snow was now crossing the threshold of their cover, and the batarian smiled, showing his white fangs. The men around him were also grinning. The red hood was theirs at last.

"Ho this is too good", he said, "I will just eat. You. Alive."

"Wow, the kenyan wonderboy must be the cream of the earther crop", Snow musing sarcastically to himself as his eyes met Miss Whiskers, betraying no emotion, seeing her gaze linger on his jacket as he undid the straps to his wrist sheath, letting the knife drop. Moving slowly towards the batarian and his lackeys, the red hood sticking his hands back into his coat pockets, his right hand brushing against? Keeping his face neutral as he moved forward, Snow let his right hand slide back into his coat, resuming his casual walk. Snow realising that the fluffy snake had something else planned, "so this is your game Miss Whiskers," thinking as he neared the batarian, the red hood matching the smile of the blink, Snow's posture displaying an overt insolence as his right hand moved inside the coat pocket.

"Brave words for a glorified buttboy," Snow retorting cooly as he stopped right in front of his captor, trying to get him within range, "considering you couldn't bring two duct rats to heel, I wouldn't trust you to lead an asari whore to bed, let alone serve me up to Boss Zahir." Snow tilting his head to the right and adopting a relaxed posture, trying to get the blink to bite. The batarian snarling at Snow's disrespect, punching the red hood in the stomach. Gasping momentarily, Snow pretended injury, falling to one knee, using the distraction to make a fist, ensuring that he would be ready. The LTE enforcer pulling Snow up to his feet by his collar, readying another punch, the red hood giving the batarian a small grin, whispering as he moved his right hand out, taking aim at the blink and firing with Miss Rondor's pepper spray, "if I'm on the menu, hope you don't mind some extra seasoning."

The spray did it's nasty work, hitting the enforcer in all four eyes, the two clowns flanking him, and indirectly hitting Snow's cheek. "AAAARRR", the batarian's howling diverting the top cover's gaze from Miss Whiskers and Co. Grunting in discomfort, Snow spear tackled the LTE enforcer, the two them rolling into the building past the two lackeys, the ex-salvager no longer caring if things went from bad to worse, he had only one thing on his mind, "I'm gonna split this four eyed fuck in two," the young man letting his cold rage take hold as the fight began in earnest.

So all hell was breaking lose. My plan works for now... I guess. Still need to save those kids. While her companions would hopefully overpowered the highly surprised LTEs Michelle darted in a sprint toward the surrounded structure. Two thugs tried to grab them, but she managed to dodge them. She felt a burn on her arm and let out a scream of pain, blood was gushing from a wound. One had managed to knife her on her way. She kept running, grabbing her arm.
She found herself exposed in the middle of the courtyard, when a movement on the roof caught her attention from the corner of her eyes. The sentinel that had spotted them had seen her and was now aiming his rifle at her coldly, and she would not make it to cover in time. She could only hope that Kayana was on this, fast...

Shouting soon filled the area as the fight broke out, and they needed to get out of there fast. Still surprised with Michelle's response, he pushed aside the thoughts for now as he focused on getting away from the gangers and going after her. Many of them were armed, some with guns, but they were surprised by the sudden fight and now was his opportunity. Quickly, he looked around for any cover. One chased him as he ducked behind a large beam, and he turned to face him, throwing a punch. Dante's fist struck the ganger in the face, the ganger reeling backwards with a sickening thud as he held a hand to his bloody nose. 

"Alex!" he shouted at the other cop while he fought with the ganger. "We need to help Miss Rondor!" Even though he tried to counter, the ganger managed to get a couple hits in while he was distracted, Dante letting out a groan as pain ached through his chest. "And fast!"

A nearby Gang member, perhaps named Frank, noticed Alex as Cavallius shouted at him.
Well fucking great
"Sir... Please... Let us go." Alex said meekly.
The gangster still walked towards him, psyching himself up for a beat down.
"I was hoping that was going to work..." Said Alex.
The gangster attempted to kick Alex in the ribs, but Alex quickly grabbed his foot.
Alex then picked up his own leg and stood on the gangster's leg.
The sound of bone cracking was never particularly nice.
The Gangster looking around with a mixture of pain and confusion saw as Alex punched him square in the jaw.
Alex flexed his fist in pain.
Been a while since I've been in a fight.
"Couldn't agree more Cav." Said Alex. "Shit man. Need help first?"

Michelle was staring at the shooter's barrel when a pair of green arms. Kayana disarmed him and easily overpowered him. Her wiry arm closed on his throat. Michelle thought that the conspiracy theorist teenager looked pretty terrifying right now, her black eyes looking patiently at her prey as it stopped moving. If she had put him to sleep or broke his neck, Michelle couldn't tell.
Kayana then grabbed the rifle and started taking potshots at the armed thugs. The rifle's quality was poor, probably assembled from omnigel and plans found on the extranet, so she couldn't land hits, but the gangers kept their head down.

Michelle managed to enter the structure, holding her bloody arm. Tanri and Kamila were sitting there, shivering and terrified. The young turian first raised Cavalius' gun, but put it away when he recognized the charity worker. Michelle noticed he was holding his side, and blood was showing.
"Miss whiskers you... You came. We're so sorry about the gun... they forced us you know... but we refused to give to 'em. They wanted to use it to kill people."

He didn't say "including you", but Michelle got it anyway.

"You did good Tanri, here, take this", she said giving a capsule of medigel, "give me the gun now".

Kamila looked at Michelle's arm. "Huu, don't you need it?"

Michelle laughed weakly.

"You kidding? I did worse than that shaving my legs once and... Ok, you don't know what that is, and I have to go. Be right back!"
Michelle ran outside with the gun. She could see that her allies had taken advantage of Snow's brillantly brutal distraction, but they were about to lose ground. Two gangers with knives were blocking her way. She shot twice in the air, scattering them.
"OFFICER CAVALLIUS, WOULD YOU PLEASE ARREST THOSE FELLOWS?", she shouted while throwing the gun in Dante's direction. It landed on the faceplate of a turian ganger who was sneaking on him.

Right, I'll just pretend I meant to do that.

"Now", a cruel smile starting to form on Snow's face as he rose up, the batarian stumbling up, unable to see the savage right cross slamming into his ribs, courtesy of the red hood, the two combatants breaking away from the fracas that was enveloping everyone. The ex-convict snarling as he righted up the blink, hitting him again with a brutal one two combo to his lower eyes, making the thug scream as the two figures fought. The batarian attempted to fight back, swinging wildly at Snow, but the impassioned flurry was unfocused, easily parried and blunted by Snow as he slowly picked the batarian apart, making the thug a chew toy, unaware of a young, low ranking thug charging him, knife at the ready.

"Get up",hissing at the downed batarian, Snow's eyes were blazing with rage and bloodlust yet his face and body language casual, his cold demeanor making it clear to the batarian that there was no mercy to be had. Slowly righting himself, the LTE thug attempted to connect with a desperate haymaker, the punch contemptously parried by Snow. The ex-salvager retaliating by gut punching the batarian, locking the blinks right arm in his hand, and finishing with slamming his knee onto his right elbow, causing the bone to shatter and eliciting a scream from the now supine LTE lieutenant. Unaware of the charging enforcer, Snow whispering to the thug, "I said get up." Right as the batarian tried to stumble back up, the knife wielding thug swung at Snow, the knife grazing the red hood's side, giving him a small gash.

"You want some, fine with me", snarling at the young human as he slashed again, the ex-salvager ready, slamming his right into the thug's nose, a left jab to the LTE solider's groin, and a knee to the face, leaving the knife wielder gasping in pain. Smiling in satisfaction, Snow turned to the still kneeling batarian, "Didn't you hear me, I fuckin' said get up",whispering softly as he pulled the batarian back up, smashing the batarian's torso with a combo Dinthor showed him before Thessia, three jabs to the stomach, a left hook to the right armpit, finishing with a straight right to the collarbone, making the batarian slam against the wall, a wheeze emitting from Snow's opponent as the ex-salvager slugged him ruthlessly, breaking the thug's jaw with a brutal left hook. Adopting a full mount position, Snow begain to pummel the batarian in earnest, the cries for mercy left unheard by the ex-salvager as he rained blows down, no longer caring if anyone saw him....

"Yeah, a little help over here would be nice about now!" Dante shouted to Alex as he dodged a few more hits from the ganger. Recovered from his daze, the ganger was fighting back harder, and it took more of Dante's concentration to dodge and block blows while trying to keep aware of his surroundings. He couldn't afford to make a mistake and slip up now, a deadly opportunity for the gangers to take advantage of. The ganger snarled and threw his fists at Dante, the cop managing to dodge them, knocking the ganger in the side of the head with his fist before kicking his legs out from underneath him. The ganger fell back and Dante quickly took the opportunity to tackle him to the ground and pin him, whipping out his omnitool to form cuffs around his wrists. "Wait actually, never mind! I got this."

Two gunshots rang out followed by a clatter and stumbling footsteps. Dante spun around to see a turian behind him with scratches and blood on his faceplates holding a hand up to his head, a dizzy and confused look upon his face before collapsing on the ground. Dante bent over and picked up the gun, before quickly omni-cuffing the dazed turian as well. The fight looked like it had mostly stopped, with the two gangers taken out nearby him, the ones Alex had fought, the group Michelle had scattered, plus the backup from Kayana.

He ran over toward Michelle, alternating aiming the gun between several of the stragglers. "Stop where you are right now! Put your hands up in the air where I can see them!" he shouted, slowly walking toward them to begin more arrests. "Miss Rondor, could you keep a close eye on them please?" They were finally starting to be in control of the situation again; it was time to show exactly why it was a bad idea to mess with LTD.

The remaining gangers weren't stupid. They knew that a trained C-Sec officer with his service gun could full them with bullets promptly, not to mention he had backup, including the red hood, and the crazy drell sniping them from the roof. They surrendered soon. Michelle was holding her arm, hurting, exhausted, but smiling, amazed that they had won. Ten members of the Lower Tayseri Elite were on the ground with holocuffs, the two kids were safe... The crap that had piled on Leaving the Duct all day seemed to recede at last. She made a sign to Kayana, trying to express gratitude, but the drell only threw down the self printed gun, cocked her head and departed.
Cavallius and Alex were securing the prisoners and calling reinforcements. She looked for Snow... And her eyes widened.
He was still punching the batarian leader, in a blood rage. The whole battle had gone very fast even if it had seemed like an eternity, but she didn't even know if the criminal was alive anymore.
"JULIAN! STOP!"
She grabbed Snow's fist with her own bloody hand.
"He had enough! Stop! Please! We're done! The kids are safe, stop it!"

"And just how much mercy was I to recieve from him? You'd sacrifice me to this, then tell ME to be gentle???" Snow's breathing becoming heavier as he stopped the onslaught, for now. The badly beaten batarian gurgled as the red hood slowly stood up, letting his furious eyes bore into his boss, the disbelief creeping into Snow's expression, mingling with his rage. He couldn't believe this, Miss Whiskers asking him to show mercy, after everything that happened. The snake on legs, setting him up as a sacrifice like the SATAE fucks on Benning, then acting like they should be thanked???? Giving Miss Rondor a noncommittal snarl, Snow looked at the LTE lieutenant again, seeing the batarian struggle to breathe, his face a mess, his right arm useless. "He's broken, C-sec can sweep up what's left", the thought starting to bring the ex-salvager around, his fist unclenched and body posture starting to relax, but his eyes remaining the same, cold and angry.

"Fine Miss Whiskers, he's all yours, I'll see you tomorrow," giving Miss Rondor a look of distrust, the red hood headed back onto the main drag, reaching a climbing point as he began to run towards the bazaar, leaving the clean up to better, more invested individuals...

Michelle was dumbfounded by Snow's outburst, and could barely talk before he was already gone.
"But no! I... It's not like that! SNOW!"
He was already gone before she could articulate "I knew you'd be fine, I just didn't know what else to do..."
Everyone soon went their separate way.
Shivering, exhausted and bloody, Michelle went away to get patched up, alone after an entire day swarmed with people, a day that had seemed like an eternity...
10 members of the Lower Tayseri Gang were arrested that day by the agents Dante Cavallius and the visiting agent Alexander Adolrikson, throwing a minor wrench in their hold of tayseri, and damaging their reputation as the all powerful masters of their districts.
More and more duct rats would later show up at Leaving the Ducts, getting help to find training, jobs, education...
But that didn't come without price.
The trust that had been building between Julian Snow and Michelle Rondor was all but gone, no matter what their associate Laykalar tried to patch things up. Their relation was now only professional, and Snow made it clear that he would leave as soon as his six mandatory months were up.
The Lower Tayseri Elite were not going away either, and some of their members decided to retaliate by attacking the kids themselves. A young drell girl in particular took the worst of this conflict she barely knew about, cementing the disdain Kayana Pesh felt for the charity, and her sentiment that at the end of the day LTD was irresponsible in the change they seeked to bring in the ward...


Michelle knew she had to carry on however. Not even because of Bintar, not anymore. She had started something, people had suffered for it, and she was helping the kids, more than she thought possible. She had to carry on.
What would happen when Snow leave, she had no idea, and not that much time to figure out...

"Well boss, seems that the 'bleeding hearts' you told me to greet pulled it off, with a little help from a C-Sec street cop and an out of towner. Did you actually plan for that shit to go down like that?" Randall Erskine remarking to his boss, a light indigo skinned asari seated behind her desk in the back office.

The conservative looking asari gave the human enforcer a dismissive snort, "Did I know, of course not, but based on what we got from a friend in the Alliance, not to mention what you told me about your former errand boy, I figured that the LTE would be rather preoccupied. Just not so much that they would try something this brazen.". The asari smiled grimly at Randall, slowly standing up, her height above average for an asari at almost 2m, accentuating her conservative business attire of slacks, dress boots, and a dark pink dress shirt. "Still, ten LTE footsoldiers are off the playing board, and we barely had to lift a finger, it is quite the result," her voice tone, a dulcet tidewater accent to human ears betrayed her satisfaction. "If you say so Alystae. So how do you want to play it, a powwow with Miss Rondor and the Snowman?"

Alystae T'Naron thought for a moment, while the idea did have merits, it was too soon. She needed Leaving the Ducts on edge and off balance. The asari leveled her gaze at the door for a moment before turning her attention back to Randall Erskine, her yellow/hazel gaze betraying nothing, "in this case, the best thing to do for now is nothing. If the Lower Tayseri Elite wishes to brawl with this charity, who are we to stop them at this time. It will allow our organization time to consolidate and find out who Leaving the Ducts really are." A sly grin creeping onto Alystae's face, making her look like a mischevious maiden who was out on the town, rather than a up and coming gangster. "Tell Yara to send me all the info we have on Miss Rondor and Julian Snow's discharge. And send an anonymous donation to the charity, nothing too big, and make tides damned sure it comes from one of our legitmate businesses." "Got it,".

After Randall left, the leader of the New Dillinaga Co-Op, Alystae T'Naron poured herself a drink as she waited for her assistant, Yara to send her the requested information. Her thoughts however, were concerned with the precarious position her organization. With the likes of Titan Corporation, the Light that Dwells within the Depths and other, more established organizations all protective of their pieces of the Tayseri pie, the Co-Op was stuck in the small time, brawling with the likes of the piece of shit Boss Zahir and his Lower Tayseri Elite. But now that Leaving the Ducts had gotten the attention of the slant dealers and shakedown artists, it was as if the Goddess herself telling Alystae that these idealistic do-gooders were worth a punt, to use a human turn of phrase. Taking a sip of a drink indigenous to her home region of Nartin, the indigo shimmer, Alystae opened the discharge file on Julian Snow, a plan beginning to form in her head, a way to secure the Co-Op's position and eliminate the competition was right at her fingertips.

Fin