A Troubled Little Town Called New Hope, Part 2 - RPLOG
Participants
Date
Sunday September 8, 2019=Log=
The tilled land north of of New Hope remains somewhat intact; as the group approaches, they can identify what was once a sprawling field of crops, now reduced to dust and sand by the arid Arizona air. Well, all but the first field on their left, but it too showed signs it wasn't liking the dryness. It's clear that this field was the one being used to feed the modest population of the settlement, with how it was the only one maintained in any sense and how the dirt path was far more beaten-down leading towards it than it was going beyond.
With the time turning to dusk, the land has begun to turn dark. The one exception rests at the north end of the farm on the right-hand side, a faint flicker of flame refracted through the windows of one of the buildings, one presumably once used to process goods obtained from the surrounding fields. The cat woman -- who had introduced herself as Rosa to the rest of the group -- had properly directed the other four towards the building.
"Riley should be in there, yes." The prostitute dismounted off of Zophah's horse once the vixen reached the hitching post. "He always made a point to follow... well, I suppose 'being obsessed with a routine' would be the best case to put it. Always asking to do it the same way every time, getting a touch upset if I didn't come within a certain timeframe, and still insisting on paying me even though I stopped asking for coin three months ago." She smiles to herself, some memories jostled free in her mind as she approaches the metal door. "Mind reviewing our... plan, please?"
"Catch the goon, squeeze him for information, maybe drag him at gunpoint to his fellows and use him as a human shield." Magnus tosses out with a chuckle. "Alright, maybe not that last part. If he stops being a problem and gives up the information, then you can do with him as you please. Not like we have much say in that anyway." His shoulders shrug deeply. "I have a few clues myself as to where those dirty rags might be dragging their festering flea-bitten asses from, but let's hear the fucker out first. Can't really confirm that's where their homestead is, but if we have a match, then... that'd be good to know."
He then casts a glance towards the feline. "Here's a question for you though. If'n your fellow refuses to cooperate, how much are we allowed to rough him up?" Magnus asks as he cracks his knuckles. "The best solutions are often the simplest, but... that might involve the breaking of kneecaps and well... it takes a lot to recover from that. If'n you want us to be delicate with the sod, then that's where I'll leave it. But... keep in mind it might be the deciding factor between you folks having the bandit problem dealt with forever, and... well, only temporarily."
The fennec sighs softly and casts a glance at his team. "We rode for six days to get here miss, I ain't thinking anyone will be too happy to do that again. Not unless the pay check is fatter'n a sow six years of cake frosting and sugarwater. If they open fire, we're firing back. Ain't no way otherwise. Not unless someone pulls a miracle of verbal coersion out of their back pocket..."
Zophah dismounts from the horse as well, taking a look around before speaking. She speaks with flowing words, like she is imagining a scene better than will actually happen. "We surround Riley, get him to confess to the location of the server, then if his love is true we can let Rosa take care of him while we move on to recover the server. I'm sure we can convince him with Rosa's help to repent his evil ways." She then turns to Rosa and adds "Your boyfriend in there is an insectoid, right? I can barely see him inside."
Nena tucks her hands in the pockets of her jacket, following along. Her tail flicks as she regards the building. "Hopefully I can talk some sense into him. I was a bit of a... Person of ill repute back in the day, maybe I can talk him into 'reforming' too. You never know. I'd rather not rough him up too much though if we can avoid it. Or at all, even, perhaps..."
Deciding to try a different avenue of investigation, Zen relaxes and rests until it was time to head out for a clandestine rendezvous with the cat woman's contact. How fortunate it would be if they were able to get all the information they needed out of a single source. Even should it prove to be a waste of time, they would still be able to do some scouting around of their own around the farm. When dusk rolled around and it was time to move, the kitsune mounted up and followed the rest towards the farm to the north.
When asked about what the plan was, Zen takes a moment to listen to Magnus speak. Nodding at a few points, he adds, "Right, I understand you don't want nothing bad to happen to him... But that is up to 'him'." He gives a sly grin to Magnus and adds, "Not only that, but even should he want to turn over a new leaf, I'm certain the settlement will demand some level of retribution. Seeing as to how cooperative he is, I might be inclined to put in a few good words to lessen his punishment."
With Nena and Zophah trying to talk about a more peaceful resolution, Zen nods again, "Right, well, far be it from me to say what'll happen, but I hope you aren't planning on talking your way through the entire gang. We only have Rosa's word on this guy after all, who knows what he is truly like... as well as the rest of the gang for that matter." His eyes dart around to survey the area, looking for anything out of place.
After a short pause, Rosa turns to Magnus. "If he turns violent..... you may hurt him." That's all she says on the matter before addressing Zophah. "Yes, he's of an ant mutation. And..." She steps away from the door, letting the agents prepare to set up an ambush against Riley, still inside the building and -- as far as anyone could tell -- unaware that a trap was being prepared right in his proximity. "...I'm thankful that you four are willing to help me instead of just... roughing him up and all." Her warm smile is visible in the light of the setting sun.
Magnus raises his leg and prepares to kick the door in, though... his head clicks that his team wanted to try a peaceful approach. Lowering his foot down, he gives a nod to Zophah and sighs softly. "Go and try to talk some sense into the bastard. If that doesn't work, then I'll get involved and make him wish it had. There's a new poison I've been brewing that I've been itching to test anyway." Magnus chymes softly and stands aside for the others to enter before he does. His ears flit upward and he focuses on his hearing, scanning for what may happen around him, the footfall of someone running away perhaps... anything suspicious, really. "Might be best if I stay out of his line of sight right now. I'll keep an ear on the situation."
Zophah makes one final note before doing her work. "If he runs, I wan't you to jump him. I won't have the strength to hold him down." She then moves up to the window and pries it open, having wedged apart a useless lock on it first. Without a single sound she sneeks in quiet as the vixen she is, and takes a seat next to Riley. "I've heard you've fallen in with a bad crowd, Riley." She mentions aloud and nonchalantly. "Rosa is worried about you. I'm quite sure she even loves you, but if you keep following the wrong people you will get in trouble." She tries to keep the conversation normal.
After positioning himself around the side of the structure, Zen starts to look around for any signs of recent tracks. Figuring that the ant man must have arrived from somewhere, he was willing to bet that following him back would lead them to another discovery. He just wanted to be in earshot of the conversation inside, keeping himself quiet so that he could better hear. There wasn't any need to show up in force after all. Doing that might just make him feel betrayed and less inclined to help. Maybe it would give him a sense of confidence too... make him think his situation wasn't so dire... perhaps evoking a more dastardly nature from him. In any case, if they were going to try and speak to his good nature and all that, the kitsune would keep himself out of the picture. While he can be cordial, he hasn't had much luck appealing to others. He sided with Magnus in fact that he didn't necessarily care how they got the information they needed. Rosa's crush knew what he was getting into when he signed up to roll with the gang, and he wouldn't feel one shred of guilt in showing him that the hard way. Well, if Magnus was going to sit by the main entrance, perhaps he would find another point of retreat to camp out at. Heading around to the north side of the structure, finding some tracks eluding to the direction of the ant man's arrival.
Nena starts to reach for the door, before lowering her hand and frowning as Zophah opts for the window. "... I'm not entirely sure what the point of sneaking in is when we're going to talk to him, but... Anyway, no, not the whole gang. Just this guy. Maybe we can get some information from him on how to approach the rest of them, that's my hope anyway." She gives Zophah all of a couple of seconds before seeking to simply open the door and walk in, though she'll not immediately interrupt.
Riley fails to notice Zophah as she enters and seats herself on the haybale next to himself. He does notice her guilting, however; his gaze lifts back on the same level as the horizon, and his left hand lifts to hover above the shirt pocket tied by the sleeves around his waist, where his revolver was kept. The mention that Rosa is worried about him and getting into trouble, however, causes his left hand to shoot across his body like a whip, the barrel of the gun aimed an inch off of Zophah's fur.
In response, the vixen asks only one question: "Do you love her?" This prompts him to shove the barrel right between her eyes, pressing into her hide now.
"Where the hell are you keeping Rosa, and what do you want of me, you daughter of a whore!? Did Old Red send you!?" He holds tight against the vixen, right up in her face. "Answer me!"
"It's called entering with style, and I can dig it." Magnus nods with a soft smile. "I don't wanna miss it if he refuses to cooperate. I haven't had the pleasure of flaying something that's still alive in weeks." The fox tries to enter the building but decides against it, as that'd cause a whole bunch of noise... His stomach grumbles, signaling that he was hungry. Glancing around for the presence of a fridge, or mini-fridge or fucking anything that was tasty and edible, the fox sighs as he is left disappointed. He'd have to eat later, but the rumblies were already making him irritable.
As his hopes are crushed, the fennec casts a glance towards Rosa. "Of all the people..." he'd huff "But then again I don't blame you. I have a terrible thing for dangerous girls myse-" his ears flit upwards. The fennec draws his M4 and immediately steps into the windowframe. "DROP THE GUN ASSHOLE! NOW!!!" He'd yell loudly at him, barrel aimed right at the fucker's head. "Hands behind your fucking head and low down in the fucking ground or so help me I will turn your brains into fucking paste!" He'd hop the window sill and practically shove the gun barrel in the ant's face.
Zophah is an island of chill in the face of danger, about to try and talk down Riley. She should have known Magnus was going to step in the moment she got threatened, so she tries to reasure Riley as quickly as possible. "Rosa's fine! She's right outside! We're trying to take down Old Red!" Zophah is quite sure she can come back with her power of the Phoenix if Riely takes it too far, but she's not looking forward to getting shot.
As Zen was waiting at the rear of the building, he kept his ears dialed towards the window, allowing him to hear Zophah's exchange with the ant man. Though, from the escalation in tone soon followed by the threats from Magnus make it clear things weren't going to plan. Not wanting to act rashly, the kitsune positions himself outside of another window. He already seemed to be feeling cornered, so rather than introduce himself as another unfamiliar face, he would wait for the moment.
Nena raises her brow and returns her hands to her pockets as she stops to watch this particular scene unfold. "Everyone is so quick for their guns," she says with a disapproving click of her tongue. "Anyway, she had the right of it. Rosa is fine. We came here to talk about you. Easier to talk without the guns though." With a shrug of her shoulders she looks between Riley and Magnus. "But I'd say he's got the bigger gun," she remarks with a grin.
As she corrects herself, Zophah can feel the pressure of the barrel slowly lift off her forehead, a process expedited slightly by Magnus' rifle being shoved against his right cheek. Irises flitting between both foxes, he flips the gun to point towards himself and drops it on the ground. Seeing himself surrounded, there was no point in attempting to hold Zophah hostage, and her words speak truth when Rosa scrambles into the building as well, hearing the ruckus unfold.
The ant mutant looks visibly relieved. "I'm sorry, I acted up, I was starting to get worried for you, and..." He trails off. "...well, that's not the point. You three said you were looking to take down Old Red?" His contracted, black pupils flit between the three agents, occasionally resting on their guns. "And here I was planning to be done entirely with his business. My entire schedule for the week has been ruined..."
The fennec lowers his gun but only when he was within stabbing distance of the ant. He grabs the male by the shoulder and pushes him against one of the walls, draws the poison-dripping blade from his hip and presses it against his neck. "Cry me a river." he'd state with a menacing hiss. "I'm not here to fuck around lover boy. Here's what's gonna happen. My colleague with the big ears is gonna propose the easy way out for you. Either you play her game, or..." the fennec chuckles manically and peers deeply into the other's eyes as the blade grazes his neck, not quite cutting in quite yet. "...or we do things the FUN way... well, fun for me. For you'd be more... excruciatingly painful. I don't want you trying anything slick again, hands where I can see em. And please..." the fox flashes a toothy grin. "Lie to us, lie through your teeth, send us on a wild goose chase, I beg you, because then we'll be back... I'll track you down, and you don't even wanna know what happens then..."
Zophah was about to let out a sigh for Magnus's heavy-handed methods, but then chuckled slightly when he mentioned Zophah's big ears. She quickly recomposed herself and says "All we need is Big Red's location and any info on what's there. If you're lying, I'm sure Rosa will take it out on you and we won't have to rely on drastic measures." She then turns to Rosa and adds "You can take care of his metaphorical butt, right?"
Zen remains where he was, letting out a sigh of relief when the ant disarms himself. He frets slightly upon the discovery that Riley wasn't on good terms with Old Red's gang. After all, he was so quick to pull a gun out that there would be no reason to believe he wasn't scared for his life. Keeping an ear dialed to the conversation, the kitsune keeps his eyes out to the north. If he did have a falling out with the gang, it wouldn't be too hard to imagine they'd send someone to silence him. Allowing the others to play at 'good cop, bad cop', Zen keeps focused on the surroundings. After all, Magnus was already playing the bad, potentially psychotic cop pretty well.
"Talk about coming on strong, huh?" Withdrawing a hand from her pocket, Nena takes a moment to polish her glasses on her shirt. "It sounds like he's already willing to give us what we want. Not a whole lot else to say that these two haven't, though. We all make mistakes in life, but you can always decide where you want to end up tomorrow. Personally, I'd rather end up with the person that cares about me."
Riley grunts with pain when he's pressed against a wall, his body seizing up as Magnus pins him down with a knife. This prompts Rosa to spring into action, grabbing the fennec by the shoulders and failing to pull him off of the ant. "He's not hurting you! Let go of him, you can't do this!"
"Calm down, Rosa. I've suffered worse." The ant's eyes rest back on Magnus' as the cat woman reluctantly stops yanking on the fennec's back. "So you want me to lead you guys back to Red's hideout. How about I lead you there in person, huh?" Within the limited space he was able to move his neck, he glances between the three present. "Tie me up tonight with chain or something, if you think Rosa's going to let me free. I'll show you the way in the morning, and you three can take it down. I refuse to have any more dealings with the gang, though, so I don't plan on helping." He's now glancing between Zophah and Nena in specific. "Do we have a deal?"
As he is tugged by the shoulder, Magnus sighs and casts an annoyed glance towards Rosa. Once Riley speaks though, Magnus glances back at him and listens. The fennec casts a wandering look between his team, and lowers the blade. "That'll do." He'd huff and move over to lean against the wall, almost disappointed... "Your call, Zops. If it were me we'd go right now so we can catch those fuckers while they sleep rather than when they're awake and alert. What's more Riley here might be spotted as missing, further compromising our element of surprise. He'd then snap his gaze back onto the ant. "What's more, if they know how valuable that damn server is, odds are they will see us coming during the day and leg it. If they get away, we'll be back to square one, with no one left to bleed for info. But if you folks would rather we wait for daylight, I'm not gonna protest. Your call."
Zophah didn't get the romantic ending that she wanted out of this encounter. "If we can do it tonight that's best. That way we won't have to tie up anyone and get to Big Red's camp before they can do anything about it." She puts a hand on Magnus's shoulder and adds "I'd also appreciate if you save the violence for those who have it coming to them. Rosa is a good woman and should be perfectly fine for deciding Riley's fate. She says to let him stand on his own, then let him do so."
"Agreed," Nena says with a bob of her head. "I'd work better under the cover of night anyway. The more of a heads up they have that we might be onto them, the worse off I, especially, will be, so the sooner the better."
Riley takes a moment to rub his sore joints while Rosa steps up and hugs him, at which point he returns it. "...I was hoping to get a good night's sleep, but a night attack might not be an entirely bad idea. You might catch Red by surprise, but he does keep two guards on watch at all times. They take shifts, and they're damn eagle-eyed in the dark." He pauses for a moment. "...although, I honestly doubt that he has a clue nor a care about what the server does, besides that people are always hunting out their own. He's been trying to hawk it off to some other settlement folk so the gang can live easy the rest of their lives."
The fennec looks at the hand on his shoulder, then casts Zophah a soft smile. "I used to see the good in people Zops. The only thing that got me were knife wounds in my back and trips to the triage." Dismissing the topic immediately after, Magnus nods and cracks his knuckles. "Let's get this done then. We should leave in time to arrive around two in the morning." He then peers out the window and whistles towards Zen. "We're plan-making. You coming or what?!" With that, he'd then turn to the others and speak his mind. "Now how about this..." Magnus rubs his chin and sighs softly. "If these are anything like the thugs in the city, then they are tenacious, and they're stubborn, like wild cats. Once they find some easy pray, they'll keep coming back for more. Are we going to kill them all, or just chase them off. Because you know... if we do the former, we're likely going to hear from the big three when we get back. But if we do the latter, then these folks might be left with a whole gang of very pissed off and vengeful raiders coming back for blood. Unless Riley here knows them better and can confirm that a swift kick to the shins is all it'd take to get them to fuck off for good?"
Zophah relaxes. "Our best bet is probably taking out the top, then scattering the remnants. If we can take out Old Red with a big, decisive show and then make a clear statement of driving them off, I don't think they'll want to come back." Zophah then turn to Riley and adds "Then we should get going. And I can be pretty eagle-eyed in the dark as well." She reaches into her bag and pulls out a pair of night-vision goggles, setting them over her forehead for later use.
Zen's ears flick about at the discussion inside. Right, seems like things have de-escalated to the point where there wasn't much point in waiting around outside. Stepping in from the doorway, the kitsune's eyes trail over the ant's body. "Right then, so a night attack sounds favorable to me as well. Even if the guards do manage to spot us coming, their reaction time is sure to be slower." He says with a smile, and nod. "Oh, and as far as what to do with them? Well, I am of the mind to respond with any and all with lethal force if they take up weapons against us. They knew what kind of life this was... and what the risks were." He huffs softly, "Even if they promise to never do it again, they still should be held accountable for their actions."
"That's gambling for you. You win some, you lose some, but if you fold you never get to win," Nena says, a smirk spreading across her face. "At least I think that's the analogy I wanted." A stiff shrug and her hands ease back into coat pockets. "Anyway, I'll not be having blood on my hands at the very least. Bloody knuckles are one things, and I'll defend myself appropriately. But if we get them to the point of surrender, don't expect me to do any executions or anything."
"Agreed. I ain't being paid enough to deal with Zephyr and company once we get back. If'n you folks want them dead, you'll have to do it yourselves." he'd cast a glance between Riley and Rosa. "I trust you have the guns for that. Without their head honcho tugging the strings they'll be less a band of marauders and more a pack of disoranized fools trying to exact revenge, in the worst case scenario anyway. I am sure you can handle that."
"Damn. And here I was hoping for a good night's rest." Riley lets out a weary chuckle, for now hugging Rosa close and enjoying her warmth. "Don't know about this 'Zephyr' lad you're talking about, but his wise words of 'do it yourself' ring true." He pauses once more. "...and, I don't plan on meeting up with my old 'partners'. I might be the greenhorn in the group, but I'm not incapable."
As the ant lets go of the cat, she kisses him on the cheek. "Stop by when you're finished, and I'll handle you, hm?"
He cracks a grin at her in return. "I'll be looking forward to it. I've been needing a break this entire past two weeks..."
