SitRep

[Szar]

Rei listens to Alianna with a soft chuckle. "I think we've had our destination handed to us," he says with a grin in Malik's direction. "Not that I mind; knowing their names is the least of what we oughta do."

He looks in the direction of the parking lot, then begins to walk there with quick steps, almost running.

"Alianna," he calls out as he sees her, and he runs over to the elf. "Sorry about that. I guess that was partially my fault, for suggesting we get out of there. I'm Rei, by the way." He offers her a hand.

[CJ]

Sia mouthed a "Thank you" to Aliana, giving the other elf a smile. Apparently, only the women around seemed to have a dose of common sense! She turned from Rex as she saw everyone else converge into the parking lot as well and sighed with relief.

"All right... let's try this again, ok?"

She looked at the others and waved. "My name is Sia, nice meeting you all. Now, Alianna here suggested we headed to a diner and I happen to agree with that. Nothing like sharing a good, gooey cheeseburger to get to know each other. Now, at least for the next hour, can we PLEASE all stick together?"

... nevermind the fact that this would be dinner number three.

[Amon Zeth]

Malik leaves Rei, expecting him to follow, as he heads over to the congregation, and speaks, "My name is Malik Ra'i. It's nice to meet you all."
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Rock and roll, chummers!

[Girnobi]

When Aliana's message came over his short wave frequency Rex heaved a sigh and jogged the last couple of steps, hopping on his bike and reving it up. He backed it out and then started slowly towards the knot in the parking lot.

For some reason that Rex couldn't fathom every runner wanted to be buddies when on a job together. Like somehow working together made you friends. If somebody that was relying on you to keep them alive eats it it's one thing if they're a grunt, just another nameless jarhead. But it's a whole different story when a friend is lung shot and your options are drag him back so he can die in cover or leave him be so he can die with bullets flying over him while you listen to him trying to breathe as his lungs fill with blood.

Head full of dark thoughts he pulled up along side the group and jerked his thumb over his shoulder.

"I'm headed over to the diner!" He said loudly over the roar of his engine. "I'll see you there!"

[Kroduk]

The elf chuckles a little as the others begin to crowd around her and, by proxy, her car. She hops off the trunk, gripping Rei's hand and smiling to the others gathering about. "Ali. Anybody need a ride? I promise I don't drive too fast."

She throws a wave over her shoulder to Rex as he roars off, then returns her attention to the parking lot. "Figure anyone else's comin'?"

[CJ]

Sia's lips pursed when Rex completely ignored her and left. She then shrugged, mumbling something under her breath about dumb orks, and she gave Alianna a nod.

"I'll hitch a ride, yeah, if that's fine with you," she said with a bright smile.

[Amon Zeth]

"We should get going, Rei," Malik speaks once everyone' had their introductions, as he begins to go and drive off himself to the diner.
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Rock and roll, chummers!

[Szar]

"Sure," the Asian replies quickly. "Lead the way."
He waves to the others and follows Malik to his car.

[Amon Zeth]

And off the two of them go to the diner.
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Rock and roll, chummers!

[Kroduk]

"If it wasn't 'fine with me' I wouldn't have offered, huh?" The elf jerks her head to the passenger side door, "Get in, hun."

Less than five minutes and two near death experiences behind the wheel later, Ali's gotten a fairly large round table in the back of the diner and ordered... breakfast? Yup. Pancakes, sausage, bacon, and scrambled eggs.

All fake, of course.

"So, to get the awkward part out o' the way, I realise you guys ain't here to make friends and get all close and snuggly. I ain't either. Unless of course one of you happens to be really good in bed. Its been a while."

*ahem*

The elf picks up the little jar of 'syrup' that came with her breakfast and begins pouring it on everything."Anyways, I really just wanna get an idea who I'm workin' with. Plus, if I get a hot tip we'll all (or most) be close enough that we can react with some amount of rapidity. So. My name's Alianna, and I'm a gunaholic. Absolutely anything that shoots, fires, or otherwise makes a 'bang bang' noise is my specialty. Derringer, mounted cannon, an' everything in between..."

By way of demonstration, Alianna produces a massive revolver from her jacket sleeve, likely a hidden holster, which she spins on her index finger while grabbing a fork in her left hand and sectioning up the pancakes. "I'm passable with a blade, but I'd rather put a hole in the bastard's head from quite some distance. Next?"

Her speaking part more or less finished, Ali settles the pistol between her thighs and crunches into some bacon.

[Szar]

When Alianna orders food, Rei looks at the menu, then grimaces. "No sushi, no rice, no dim sum. You people don't know how to eat," he says in a low voice. He orders scrambled eggs as well, though does not seem very satisfied with it.

"I'll go," Rei says, sending an insolent grin in Alianna's direction. "I'm Rei. I'm a fighter. In the opposite direction of you, though." He nods at the purple-haired elf. "I do martial arts. Bare-handed. I don't have any fondness for weapons. My parents were martial artists as well. My father was Japanese, and my mother was Chinese." He shakes his head slightly at this, one corner of his mouth drawn up in a crooked grin. "Their families weren't happy with that, lemme tell ya. They came here to avoid them. I was born here."

He shakes his head after a few seconds. "I specialize in taekwondo and muay thai, if any of you are familiar with styles, though I know a little of several others as well -- my parents taught aikido and wushu in their dojo. Yeah, I know, it's odd: A Chinese-Japanese half-breed learns Korean and Thai martial arts? It's just how things worked out."

He hesitates for a long moment, then goes on. "I'm also pretty stealthy, and I know enough of athletics that I could easily be professional if I wanted to." Rei stops, grinning again. "Let me warn ya... I love fighting. I've never found anyone I couldn't beat to a pulp one-on-one. Don't antagonize me ... and we'll get along just fine."

[Amon Zeth]

Malik doesn't order anything, not feeling all that hungry, given that he ate just a short while ago. "My name is Malik," he begins, "I was in the army for a year, then I worked on security analysis as an independent contractor for about nine years. Eight of those were under the table, in-house work; the kind where they don't want anyone to know there's an inspection, or to check to see if an exec or manager is getting sloppy with protecting information without letting him on to it. I can't tell you how to disable an alarm, but I can tell you where it's liable to be, what the response is if it's triggered, and better yet where to go to get around it in the first place." The way he delivers this speech is perfect, as though it has been rehearsed many a time.

"I'm pretty good with guns, and I can do a little stealth if it's not too hard, but those aren't my specialties. I've found that what's better than shooting someone in the head or sneaking around them hoping they won't turn around is to know what they want, act like they expect you to, and then use that to blend in. It's a lot less risky, and it's easier to get what you came for; that's why I'm still alive, after all." His elevator speech finished, Malik looks on to the next person.
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Rock and roll, chummers!

[RelentlessImp]

(private:ResidualRose)

[ResidualRose]

(private:RelentlessImp, ResidualRose)
Having finished her prep buisness and retrieving her red Suzuki Mirage, Annika drove alongside the car, following it all the way to the diner.

When she sat down alongside her new companions, Annika placed her briefcase on her lap and ordered almond tofu...at least it's faux fascimily was close enough to the real thing. She listened to her companions introduce themselves and their skills, and found herself already forming rudimentry squad-based tactics centered around them in her head...old habits really died hard.

"I'm Anna Molly, though on the job I usually go by the name of 'Sinner'...my areas of expertise are similar to Mr. Malik's." She stated as she removed her respirator and adjusted her goggles. "...however combat, both close and ranged, and stealth tactics are areas that I do specialize in. I used to do tracking, and security contracting for the megacorps. Did bodyguard jobs too. Sometimes included a bit of wetwork...sometimes included a lot of wetwork. Combine that experience with the chrome running through my body and the proper gear, and I have more force multipliers then a squad of Ares knights...that's a mathematical fact, I've done the force strength numbers, and no you can not check the equations. Professional confidentiality means I'd probably have to terminate you in that event."

She paused for a moment and raised her goggles up to her forehead, pushing back her bangs and revealing cyberdized eyes that gleaned with a dim emerald green glow in the light of the diner.

"As I said previously, I also have some experience in tracking down persons of interest...which is why I managed to get my hands on a potentially useful piece of information on the way over here from the pub." She stated as she rolled her neck to one side, resulting a small cracking sound that had a metallic twinge to it. "There's an ork out there named Nabu...you may know of him from the Orxploitation genre of trids and music. A little bird tells me that a couple of days ago, this young man received a rather odd piece of mail about someone wanting to sell an old style disk...much like the one we're after. He's downtown right now, getting ready for a world tour in a warehouse of some sort. At the very least, getting his comm might be in order."

[Amon Zeth]

Malik paid close attention to Annika's words; he remembered her as the stern-looking one who asked more than a few good questions to Mr. Johnson. Her demeanor reminded him somewhat of himself; of course, he hoped he was a little more good-natured than she. And he dared not laugh at her little joke about killing them all; even if it was her own quirky sense of humor, there was no doubt in his mind that she they were all rather expendable to her, and not antagonizing her would maintain what little value he had for the professional killer.

"That sounds like a plan, and it might be good to pay him a visit. I don't think we should all head over to him, though; I doubt he'd like six well-armed strangers to just show up on his doorstep. People skills are my forte, and given a little luck I could make a friend of him and keep him from warning whoever it is that made him that offer. I'd need someone as backup, though, just in case, someone who could be discrete and be able to help if something goes bad. Everyone else could try and find other clues in the meantime."

Given that Annika was the only one who mentioned stealth so far, Malik thought that she might be the best to cover him in his meeting with Nabu, even given her rather icy disposition. Then again, they might need her tracking skills to find other clues, something she wouldn't be able to do if she was keeping guard. Better, then, to let someone volunteer themselves, given that he did not know the minuitiae of everyone's talents.
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Rock and roll, chummers!