Melissa nods and does a cutting motion with her hand and the sub groups move off and melt away into the crowd.  She and a boy of Asian descent move closer as though 'hanging out' with Jai, Nikola and Shin-ji.  With a casual expression that belies her seriousness and in a low voice, she asks, "what do you need then?  What sort of cover?  And what's in it for us?  I'll take credit on future returns, but what's the investment?"

***

In another part of the mall, the girls talking with Val and Tailgate get serious, and the first one replies.  "A boost of that magnitude is serious business, need executive action from Uptown Girl, she's the boss," she says thumbing towards the fountain in the center of the mall.  "If you are not trying to attract attention, best come with us; you can lay low and Jeanie here can finish your shopping list," she says pointing to her partner.

"Sure, take me to your leader," Val agrees, and turns around to nudge Tailgate. "Recess over, backstreet boy. We're seeing the Uptown Girl in her white-bread world."

She follows the Mallbrat, regaling her with little backstage anecdotes.

Jai bit his lip as he considered Mel's offer.

"Cover's taken care of, such as it is. Everyone shopped pretty bare-bones, so if you want to help us quickly boost a few things, we can work out some long-term compensation. But we were about to get out of here, so..."

What was the glitter girl doing coming over here? Well, maybe she had the eurobucks to cover the check Jai was about to cash.

Tailgate watched the interplay, staying quiet as he was...well, he wasn't really involved, he was apparently just Val's...'entourage'? backup? slumming friend? He wasn't sure. And the Mallrat juves weren't interested in him at all, only having eyes and attention for Val.

When Val nudged him, he spoke under his breath to her, "And here I thought YOU were the Uptown Girl!" He snickered slightly but then quieted back down.

He followed behind her, admiring the view occasionally, but mostly pretending to be cas while keeping an eye out.

Nikola kept walking with Jai and the mallbrats while waiting what would the leader answer to Jai's proposal.. she meditated on what could they give them in return later.. it could have to be after the carbon plague had its effect, that way they could help the mallbrats with their powers maybe... maybe there could be an alliance they can resort to if the organization that is helping them is not that trustworthy.. and how much should we disclose to them? she decides to hint the kind of favor they hopefully can provide in the future.. so with her eyes on an unexisting horizon and her hands in her pockets she decides to give something a try "So Whaddyasay?, i mean, we were able to get stuff with some tricks pulled of by some people helping us, but if you help us with this, the people providing us cover could pull other kind of tricks for you in the near future.. you never know"
This message was last edited by the player at 00:31, Thu 19 Aug 2021.

Melinda shakes her head.  "Sorry, shouldn't boost anything else for a bit, too risky in the current situation," she says smiling as the others bring Valeriya and Tailgate to meet up at the central fountain on the first level.  Melinda smiles at Valeriya and waves, with a "big fan" as hello.  Then she turns her attention back to Jai.  "We'll cover up the shopping spree with some noise, smoke and mirrors so the dead boys don't catch on.  Next investment opportunity you get deal me in, got it?"  She puts her hand out to shake on it.

As the conversation is concluding two more mall brats escort Hunter and Kat tot he fountain from another direction.  Hunter is now decked out in a skin tight, form-fitting full-enviro wet suit.  He flexes his arms as though breaking in the suit and even Melinda can't resist looking.  Kat has a bag from Sports Net among her purchases.

Val just gave Tailgate a sultry smile in reply and walked ahead, strutting in her new leggings and corset and high-heeled boots. It felt nice, being dolled up again, finally out of last night's dress.

And when they reached Melinda, she just aknowledged her with a little nod and a smile, queen bee to queen bee. There went her hopes of getting free stuff, not that it mattered greatly. She was... almost alarmed, at how familiar it felt to be reunited with the rest of the gang. As if they had been lifelong friends, when they had barely known each other by the time they met, last night, at the Obelisk.

"Thanks, Melinda," she said, giving Hunter, and Hunter's muscles, a long look before she spoke again. "So, what do we do now? Are we going, like, back home or..." She let that float in the air.

Tailgate made a small noise unconsciously at Val's sultry look. Then he quietly looked down and cleared his throat. He drew in a deep calming breath, let it out slowly...and then followed after her.

He stayed a bit quiet during the...meeting?...with Melinda. This wasn't really his area. He didn't usually deal with Mallbrats. Not...outside of what he would have previously called 'rompin' fun', but now regretted a bit.

A deal was made - but Tailgate was confused. Who had been boosting? They had all been given money to purchase things, hadn't they? He frowned and shook his head. And the way all the girls, Val included, were eyeing Hunter, only made the frown deepen slightly.

"Sure thing. I'll see what I can do. Thanks."

Turning around to see those coming back to the group, he couldn't help but roll his eyes at Hunter's new getup. He probably spent his whole stack of euros on it. Great for the club, maybe.

Well, obviously, given the glazed-over looks the femjuves were giving him.

"I got a new address from our friend. That's our next target."

He didn't quite spit out the next part. Shin-Ji's nerves had been fraying, well, ever since they'd arrived, and he'd been tightly controlling himself since they'd been made in the store by the boosters.

Even though he'd trained to meditate and be mindful, it still went against his nature to have gone along so passively with the mallbrats, but they couldn't afford a scene. He was still half convinced one of them was going to be a good little capitalist and turn them in, but he had to admit they could have done that way easier without getting into violence range simply by alerting security.

Still though, it had left him edgy. He knew from very recent experience just how quickly the enemy would strike, and how little it cared that their targets weren't adults.

"We all gotta realize: there is no 'home' any more, for any of us.

We should get moving before one of us starts charfing in public.

"Well, not me. I'm feeling just fine."

But she also very much didn't want to go home and answer a shitton of questions from mum, dad, and more importantly, her branding and commercial manager. And chances were they had heard about the Obelisk sting by then anyway.

"But sure, yeah, let's check out that address. This is more fun than choreo practice anyway," Val said lightly, as if she wasn't casually kissing away her whole previous life.

Yeah i agree, let's go and hopefully we will be better prepared to face whatever comes our way, so Melinda  and her juves can help us by entertaining guards so we can go out of the mall undetected and undetained, hope we can return the favor in the near future"

"And on that note..."

Jai zipped up his jumpsuit and hefted the nylon travel bag with his recent purchases onto the top of the appliance cube, which was resting on a cheap-looking plastic hand truck.

"We got maybe five or six blocks ahead of us. Pleasure doing business with the New Harbor set, I'll keep you in mind at the other end of all this."

"Yeah," Val agreed, regaling Melinda and the other Mallbrats with a charming smile.

"Super rim meeting y'all, and especially you, Melinda. Thank you, and see you around I guess?"

Melinda looks, for the first time since you've met her, a little nervous.  "Definitely," she says in response to Valeriya.  Kt rolls her eyes dramatically, but she is smiling.  The rest of her crew waves good bye, and some casually follow to the exit, fr all the world wandering aimlessly around the mall.

Outside, the day is already starting to warm up, threatening a brutal summer this year.  But it is not too hot yet for a walk.  The walk south is through the Charter Hill neighborhood, dominated by the Hydrosubsidium company, including the aquarium open to the public and Richard Night theater; and The Hacienda, a hotel and casino.  There are low rise residential buildings and other local businesses scattered around and between those two.

The most unfortunate part of he Charter Hill neighborhood is that it is on the coast and the smelly, sludge-slicked waters of Del Coronado Bay.  Just south of the Hacienda, across 22nd stree is The Forlorn Hope, closed right now, an infamous Western-themed bar for veterans and solos.  The directions take you left there, towards the water, and then along the battered coast covered in concrete rubble and trash, to what looks like a manhole cover behind a shipping container in an otherwise empty and weedy parking lot, enclosed by a chain-linked fence.  "Are you sure about those directions?"  Kat asks.

Yes, you are sure.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:58, Thu 04 May 2023.

Shin-Ji nodded. This would be his life now. Hiding among the sewers and forgotten places, waiting at any moment for corpsec to come in.

He had been next to useless in the mall: time to show he wasn't afraid of dirty work at least.

He forced his disgust of the place deep down. This was just like any other kata in which you pushed yourself, or facing a foe: dump that drek out of your mind, just concentrate on the next step infront of you. Taking one more deep breath, inhaling the strench.. was that the manhole, or the fetid stench of the Del Corondo? Hopefully they'd taken to account anything nasty.

Shin made his way over to the manhole cover and began to look for a proper grip. These things might be heavy or really light depending on how old they were.

Shin-Ji moved the cover without great difficulty: which seemed odd. He'd have thought it would have been at least a little difficult. After a moment, some LED lights revealed a ladder. All in all, the hole didn't look nearly as disgusting as Shin-Ji thought it should have.

Just in case, he grabbed his new set of booster goggles out of his pocket. As he did so, he noted a little piece of paper which he glanced at, looked surprised, and then carefully put it back in his inside pocket. Well.. that had been surprising. Maybe Jai could tell him about her.. if he ever had time for that sort of thing now that they were on the run.

He put on the goggles. They made him look a little silly. The preem ones that made you look like a badass operator might have been more fashion-conscious, but the ones in the mall were rated for durability and reliability, not making you look like fricking Morgan Blackhand.


"This has gotta be the place. I'll check it out first."

Jai followed after the street fighter as he lifted the manhole cover.

"How the hell am I gonna get this stupid cube down there..."

Leaving the hand truck upright, he rummaged around for the gas mask.

"I'd offer this up, but I think your face is a bit crowded. Settle for some company heading down with ya?"

Another quick rummage in the bag produced his cheap plastic autopistol, which he tucked into an inside pocket while praying he didn't need it.
This message was last edited by the player at 10:06, Sun 29 Aug 2021.

Tailgate didn't necessarily trail behind as they left the mall, but he certainly wasn't rushing. The others began walking and Tailgate hesitated, but after a moment he shook his head and headed towards where he'd parked his ride. He wasn't going to easily leave it behind willingly. He sat on it for a a few moments as he thought about the turn his life seemed to be taken.

Then he took a deep breath in and headed to where they were supposed to go next. He arrived only a little bit before the others and parked his bike in the parking lot. He left his helmet on as he looked around before activating the security system.

He pulled his helmet off and looked at the manhole cover with a raised eyebrow. "The...shipping container?" He asked somewhat hopefully. "Or...the sewers...?"

Val almost dropped her moped in disbelief, looking at the manhole.

"What is... oh, come the frack on. That dive of last night is one thing, but this... I mean, really, yoboys? What are we now, the Ninja Turtles?"

Shin-ji cautiously climbs down the ladder.  The space is cylindrical and aside from dust is clean.  The lower he goes the better the lighting, with LEDs at space intervals.  At the bottom, some 6 m down, there is a short hall leading away from the water to a door.  The door is metal, painted white with a keypad lock that has a small monitor camera built in.  The door locks release with an audible 'clack' when he approaches and a familiar voice comes out of the keypad speaker.  "Glad you guys made it!  Come on in," Minerva says.

Shin-Ji exhaled. This place may have been the correct address, but he was definately feeling a little paranoia on being directed to come into a sewer tunnel.

There was always the chance that a hideout had been co-opted, but it seemed really unlikely if Minerva was still communicating here and had cameras up.

"No problem, choom." He called up the tunnel for anyone (understandably) still hesitant to come inside.

Then he made his way in, opening the door.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:07, Thu 17 Feb 2022.

Jai followed shortly after, feeling a little goofy in his gas mask. After Shin-Ji gave the all clear, he dropped down the last few rungs and examines the keypad and the camera.

"Some of us have bikes and... stuff. That storage container up there - is that safe? Maybe we can lock it or something..."

Nikola laughed at Val's comment about the ninja turtles, after all they had a karate kid with them with a Katana like Leonardo did.. she had walked with the group in silence to avoid raising attention ,  she was ready to get down the manhole but before that she looked for a place where she could change her clothers,  she was able to find a spot between trash containers which allowed her to remove her grey dress and wear the same pants and shirt she had last night.. after all if  she is gonna get into the sewers she better avoid using the new fresh clothes... coming back to the group she announced "Ok, so if no one is going down right now i guess im the next going inside" said Nikola while checking everything was in her bagpack

Vamp snickered at Val's comment but her laugh had an edge sharp enough to drawn blood. "Funny. Beggars can't be choosers so climb down or get the fuck out of the way. Stay up here and snap pics of you in different poses; I'm sure your adoring public will love it."

She pushed past them, settled her new toys on her back, and started climbing down. "Look up my dress and I kick your arse, Karate Kid."