[Tayseri] A good day for a Stroll

"For fuck sake", sighing wearily, Snow sidestepped the incapacitated Father Matembo, catching the human thug off-guard with a perfectly placed left hook to the temple, the impact sending a slight tremor up the charity worker's arm. Hearing the crack, the knife bearing turian whirled around, seeing his partner laid out by a skinny asshole who apparently was adopting a...haraba stance? There were some batarians in the Lower Tayseri Elite who knew haraba, but a human????

"Furhead thinks he's a fucking batarian, this should be fun", the turian thug snarling at Snow, his blade darting at Snow's face, only the ex-marine had closed the distance, a sadistic smile creeping onto Snow's face as he parried the slash, the charity worker's forearm slamming down onto the knife hand of the turian knocking the blade away. Without pause, Snow's right hand jabbing once, twice, three times into the thugs sternum, making the bareface wince in shock. The ex-salvager finished it with a combo Erkath taught him on the Andvari, a vicious left jab to the turian's eye socket, right uppercut to the stomach, finishing him off with a looping left hook to his earhole, the impact laying the thug out cold. The smile on Snow's face disappeared, the two didn't even give him a real fight. These fucking clowns were used to slapping duct rats around and threatening men of the cloth...

"Fuckin' weak, no wonder you were chased out of the baazar", snarling at the prone thugs, Snow gave them a quick once over before turning to his fluffy boss, who had misfired with her mace..again. The ex-salvager helped the priest to his feet, "let's get you inside Father, get you cleaned up". As Snow opened the door the human goon started to stir, looking at the lean man with unrestrained hate, hissing at Snow and Miss Rondor. "You stupid sonofabitch, you just fucked with the wrong crew. You and the fat bitch are dead!" The turian nearby groaning, a trickle of indigo blood oozing from the bastard's eyelid. The cold grin creeping up onto Snow's face again as he handed Miss Rondor the still swearing priest, "Go on ahead, I'll just be a minute", his voice deadpan as he put his coat back on and walked over to the sentient refuse, picking up the blade the turian had dropped before stomping down on the human thug's back, making him scream in pain.

"Nice blade your boyfriend has here, though I bet he isn't allowed to carry it", Snow observed as the human goon at his feet caught his breath, his mouth twisting into a sneer. The entire exchange taking Snow back to the bad old days, doing dirt with the Dekum Street crew. The ex-salvager took a step back as the still conscious human snarling back, "you think that's the only weapon we can get on Tayseri?" Snow pretended to think for a moment before sliding the knife up his sleeve, whispering, "Probably not", then smashing the loudmouth's right hand with his boot, crushing the bastard's index and middle fingers. "I think we're done here", smiling at the howling thug, Snow turned around and headed back into the church, the loudmouth shouting at the ex-salvager's back "I still can use my left hand asshole!"

Michelle was extremely impressed. It was one thing to know that Snow had sent four marines to the hospital, it was another to see him do his thing. Sure later it may prove to escalate violence and cause problems and such, but damn if it wasn't awesome!

Plus those assholes called her fat.

Now she had maced a man of the cloth though. She wasn't religious herself, but she still felt pretty bad about it, apologizing to him profusely. He had stopped yelling invective and was accepting her help. She carried him to the kitchen, and started to mix water and a dishwasher pill. She applied the resulting liquid on the burned areas, removed it quickly, and repeated.

"That will remove the product..."

After that was done she applied milk to soothe the skin. The priest was starting to feel better. She finished by helping him clean his eyes with salt water.

"There, blink a lot and it should be fine. Again I'm so, so, sorry!"

The priest smiled faintly.

"It's ok you... you meant good. It was an accident. And your friend protected us both! Thank you so much Mr Snow!"

He then looked with a hint of suspicion in his so very red and teary eyes.

"How do you know how to treat pepper spraying so well anyway, Michelle?"

Michelle gave a slightly forced smile.

"Ho you know, just thought it happens more often that we think, so I learned how to do this just in case, ha ha!"

The priest stayed silent for two minutes, and then looked at them both again.

"What now?"

Walking back into the church, Snow couldn't stop smiling, it was a good day, at least for now. He got himself a weapon, identified the crew harassing Father Matembo, and got to try out the techniques Erkath taught him. But those Lower Tayseri Jack-offs weren't going to let it go there. After what just happened, Snow and Miss Whiskers were targets now, and possibly the priest. "Maybe that's why I'm smiling, I'm well and truly fucked...again", Snow thought as he finally wiped the grin off his face, entering the kitchen as Miss Rondor tended to the good father, cleaning the last of the substance off of him.

"The shit's nasty, now only if you could aim Miss", replying to his fluffy benefactor as he leaned against the stove nodding cooly at Father Matembo's thanks. But the question that soon followed, that was the kicker. "No use trying to sugarcoat it", Snow thought before answering.

"Honestly, it's only just begun Father. I made matters worse by what I did. I just hope a rival crew was watching...if not, then I am most likely dead, along with Miss Rondor."

Michelle had sobered and realized that, yes, they were in trouble. They could of course ask C-Sec protection, but what if the gangs noticed it and started making children disappear? Davril Wilde, the commander of the security outfit Single Order Solutions and Flower's father, had offered her a "freebie" should she ever need help, but it wouldn't help much here. The gangs would just back off until he left, and come at them next. Or make children disappear. Again.

Damn it looked bad. She imagined herself stabbed on her way to work while exiting her car. Or someone waiting with a blade in her own car when she left work. Or a bomb. Or anything really.

"Can we at least ask C-Sec to send some plain clothed agents to keep an eye on the church and our offices? Nothing big to elicit violence from the gangs, just some protection. I don't think the gangs would kill kids just for that."

"They won't try anything out in the open Miss Rondor, not after the 'Lady' killing anyways. And in your case Father", Snow nodding at the priest, letting his eyes meet Father Matembo's, "The Lower Tayseri Elite, they're already in hot water with the other gangs catching them slinging Slant at the baazar, to do something blatant like take a shot at you, not likely." If there was one saving grace about the Tayseri Drug Queen's murder, it was that it had C-Sec on edge. Snow heard rumors and word beging passed in the baazar and the hostel, it could be summed up in one phrase, keep your head down. The LTE would have to bide their time in order to retaliate, "hopefully by then I'll have a solution in place", thinking as he mulled over the next move.

"We'll need to get those supplies I mentioned earlier, and hopefully we can hear some useful gossip at the baazar Miss Rondor, C-Sec in this neck of the woods, is a bit pre-occupied. But word spreads, and now that I've shaken the tree, we just wait to see what falls on our heads." Finishing, the ex-salvager walked back over to where Miss Whiskers and Father Matembo were seated, aside from a small bruise on his forearm, Snow was completely unscathed and relaxed, completely in his element.

Michelle and Snow said goodbyes to the priest. Some of Michelle's farewells, to the trained ear, sounded a lot like "no hard feelings right?"

They exited the church in silence.

"Let's go back to the office for now, said Michelle. Some paperwork actually sound like a dream right now, we'll deal with all that crap better tomorrow."

After another silence a small smile appeared on her lips.

"So how do you like volunteer work on the Citadel Mr Snow? Not too boring I hope?"

"I think I can learn to appreciate this line of work Miss W-, I mean Miss Rondor", the lean, yet athletic man replied, still feeling slightly euphoric about the brawl. Walking along with the fluffy do-gooder, Snow was surprised at how much fun he was having, "much more fun than what that scarred asshole promised", thinking as the duo made their way back to Leaving the Ducts. As they walked through the intersection, a man in his mid to late twenties watched them from his seat at a nearby transit station. As Snow and Miss Rondor disappeared into the crowd, the professional looking man keyed up his omnitool, sending a message to his boss about a possible opportunity,

"Hey boss, this is Randall, just giving you an update. The head of that charity, she's got some leg-breaker watching her back. Yeah, he tuned up those LTE boys up good. His name is Julian Snow, used to be one of my runners a few years ago. What's he like boss? Rock solid, provided he keeps his cool and doesn't piss off the wrong people. Shall we send them an invite, all right. Consider it done." Keying off the omnitool, Randall headed towards the bazaar, he had info to gather, and a housewarming gift to purchase, wouldn't want to show up at Leaving the Ducts empty handed.

Fin