Flat Packed Business (IC)

[Aoiroo]

She looked down and put the phone a bit closer as she held it to her mouth,

"Not too much so, talking and such isn't that important and there going to be a good bit away so it won't matter. It's them making visual, it doesn't even have to be more then a few seconds. Anyway, I can wait a few hours for you to prepare, these guys have to watch me until morning. Anywhere in the Fens or even Greenbank would be fine, they just need to be able to see it happening. After that, this whole thing is over and I owe a reference for a free meal at a very nice restuarant in North End for you and your girlfriend along with of course another favor."

[Fox]

"Mmh." Mara was going to have to think of an excuse not to take that offer of a free meal, later; for now, she leaned up against an inert drone, tapping a finger against its heavily-plated leg as she pondered what she could do and how fast she could do it.

"....will need at least a few hours," she said, finally, frowning. "Couple to build, another to set up. Will send you address when I'm ready. Am probably going to have to be there somewhere to direct; no time to make a good recording. Mmh - and don't touch any of them when they show up. Not going to have much time to protect them from that. Will make it obvious they're not 'real'."

[Aoiroo]

"Can do, I'll be waiting on your contact until then, later."

She hung up the phone and hit the button, the extra change didn't fall out but that was fine. She walked over to the guys,

"Okay, I got a set up, it'll be in a few hours or so, my friend will send me an address and we can go there wait for the mugging there. You guys should probably stay clear of that area, but it should be open enough that I can walk the distance while you guys set up. You think you guys will be good otherwise?"

She didn't think 'Fly would be obvious but didn't want them surveying the scene ahead of time.

[Supercape]

GM

"Okay, I got a set up, it'll be in a few hours or so, my friend will send me an address and we can go there wait for the mugging there. You guys should probably stay clear of that area, but it should be open enough that I can walk the distance while you guys set up. You think you guys will be good otherwise?"

"Sounds good to me" nodded the first suit.

"Sounds good to me too" agreed the second "but lets put our cards on the table here. We got to keep you in sight, you know. Look...I believe you. But in our profession, belief is not enough. You got to know. And when you think you know, you get suspicious and question if you knew in the first place. Don't get offended, but its our job. "

He finished off his beer.

"So, this crackpot employer, we all want rid of him, but till we get the proof, you got to stay in sight, yes? otherwise all this could just be baloney to fast talk us and give us the slip. "

[Aoiroo]

She put the remaining change she had into her pocket as she turned to them, but pulled something out they didn't see,

"I promise, I promise, I will not leave your sight. Really, what's the worse I could do? I'm not really this Silhouette chick, it's not like I can just disappear in thin air. Though, huh,"

With the palmed memory card she walked over to the door past them and bent over, making motion like she picked it up from the ground, it was small and dark colored,

"Is this yours?"

It seemed like they might of needed it back, hopefully they took it without much fuss.

[Supercape]

GM

"Is this yours?"

"Goddamit...a memory chip!"

With a cursory check of the video camera, the suit cursed again, more dramatically and with greater vulgarity. "How the hell...no good piece of Japanese trash...shoulda stuck with the 'ol U.S. of A..." he said, giving the poor device a knock on the table.

"Well, no matter, my friends in the car, they got spares. Got spares coming out of their eyeballs. We are nothing if not well equipped..."

He sat back, satisfied it was all going to plan. Perhaps the alcohol had taken the edge off his senses. At the end of the day, he wanted to believe Carrie. So he didn't take much convincing.

"So, right, when we setting up the shoot? and where?"

[Aoiroo]

"Not sure yet, I mean it's not like we can call Thug Hut and have three delivered in thirty minutes or less, it takes time. My friend will call me when they have it set up, then we'll drive on over."

The lot of them pretty much killed time between the time when Dragonfly called again. Carrie was sure to be the person to answer and wrote down the info before thanking her and telling her she's not getting out of the free meal, it was a really nice place afterall and she just happened to know a chef who owed her big time. After that she hopped into a van she was almost rather certian that they may of tried to drag her into if she hadn't taken the diplomatic defensive. However now they were on friendly terms, even the driver seemed in good spirit that they were going to get this over with. Driving down towards the edge of Green bank they stopped about a block away from the scene which according to Dragonfly was over one of the streetlights that had gone out.

"So, you guys ready to try this? No garuentee it'll work, but who knows, we might get lucky."

[Fox]

Mara sat - in her civvies - on a rooftop overlooking the streetlamp and frowned. She had a laundry list of things she'd like to have done better about this whole thing, but there hadn't really been time to address any of them. She'd liked to have been able to set up a camera so she could work more remotely, she'd liked to have found a power source so that she didn't have to re-wire the streetlamp and make it go out, she'd liked to have had a better cover - on the unlikely off-chance somebody found their way up onto this roof - than a pair of cheap binoculars and a bird-watching guide from a local 24-hour store.

no time now - phrase - 'showtime'? - should be soon She backed away from the edge of the roof, out of view, and waited.

[Supercape]

GM

"So, you guys ready to try this? No garuentee it'll work, but who knows, we might get lucky."

"We sure are, lady" said the first suit. All four of them were ready, in fact, two of them armed with cameras of the highest calibre...IR modes, and lenses longer thanm Carrie's form arms. She had no doubt that the sound recording capabilities of the equipment would be equally impressive, considering the boom microphones clipped onto them.

"This should quieten down that crazy white collared lunatic" muttered one of them.

"And net us a pay check too"

"Yeah, I can't wait to close down this stinker and finish it..."

The first suit whispered to Carrie "So, what do we do now? just wait? we need you in the picture too..."

[Aoiroo]

"Not exactly,"

She pointed a thumb in that direction.

"You guys get your cameras ready and I'll walk that way like I'm heading somewhere by myself. That way it looks like they're mugging a chance victum. If you guys come with, it doesn't really look realistic. Anyway, as long as we make this good looking, I'm sure someone will come running, though it may not be Silhouette. Hopefully it is though."

This time of night she really hoped that didn't happen. Most patrollers she knew didn't hang out in the Fens but she hardly knew that many heroes in the city. Which was probably why she kept calling Dragonfly. Maybe she needed to be on friendly terms with other gadgeteers to take the load off. But that was a thing to ponder later.

"Well, I'm off then."

She walked down the street with her purse at her side, it was set to a shoulder strap. She had found a dark orange scarf that she used as an idenitifier of herself as the target. Really it helped that most people didn't bother with scarves. As she approached the light she just hoped this would work well enough to get the suits and Oshima off her back.

[Fox]

Mara waited rather impatiently as the minutes passed, peeking back up over the lip of her roof just in time to see Carrie, scarf and all, making her way down the street. about time - hmm - timing? - hard to judge distance at this range - hope this works - should be interesting

Almost as soon as Carrie walked under the unlit street lamp a group of thugs seemed to peel their way out of nowhere - a couple from a nearby alley, one or two from the shadows, and one - a rather big fellow with a nose so crooked it practically told the 'yeah, but you shoulda seen th'other guy' story all on its own - who stepped out of a shadowed doorway and right into Carrie's path.

Mara was pulling most of this from memory - her memory - so she was rather pleased with the pitch-perfect gravelly voice that managed to even reach her on her rooftop where she was directing the action. "'ello there," the biggest of the thugs said, in an almost-friendly tone. Almost. "Now what're you doin' on our street? Ain't safe to be alone sometimes, you know."

[Aoiroo]

Carrie was startled by the sudden appearance of the thugs, well okay she looked startled. She did go to theatre college she could at least manage that much at a distance. She stepped back a few paces, careful not to run into any of the thugs in her peripheril vision. They had a nice pressure about them, then again it was Dragonfly, her work was always quality. Carrie complimented it by slouching, gripping the sling of her bag nerviously, trying to make herself seem small and unimportant. She had a lot of practice in those types of movements even if she was a bit rusty, she did go to high school after all.

"I, umm,"

She took another step before turning on her heel,

"Was just leaving."

Her path was blocked by someone she knew was there but pretended to be shocked about, letting out an eep! as the figure blocked her path but being sure she didn't actually run into him.

[Fox]

"Now, see, 'ere's the thing," the thug leader added, as if he was explaining something that was perfectly reasonable. Mara shifted a little up on her rooftop; this wasn't awfully comfortable, physically or mentally, but if it had to be done.... bring a blanket next time - will remember - and maybe try bribing them? "Me and the boys, we're really stand-up, citizen types, y'know?"

One of the other thugs snickered.

"We'd just hate t'see anythin' bad happen to you. An' we'd love t'safely see you through our little piece of th'city, but we got families, sick grandmothers, and things. Our time is valuable, y'see? So I think we'd be willin' to show you th'safe way through t'th'other side for maybe...everythin' you've got on you but th'clothes on your back. That seems fair, right boys?"

[Supercape]

GM

The agent, hidden away, zooming in with his camera looked uncomfortable.

"What if this Silhouette doesn't show?" he muttered "I mean, she is sneaky and cunning...if she knows we are onto this, and is avoiding us...then this Carrie..."

His partner frowned, and took out his gun.

"Goddamit! he swore in the same hushed town. This turning to $%^£!. I mean, I know we were meant to snatch and grab her, but...to let her get attacked by thugs...Damn fine situation this has turned out to be. I knew it smelled rotten, that blasted businessman..."

He gulped.

"Dammit, I shouldn't have had that beer..." he moaned as he switched the safety of his Glock.

[Aoiroo]

Carrie tried to look intimidated, and from a distance that probably worked. Really, she wasn't that convincing up close, she couldn't be. Even if they weren't hollograms these types of guys never actually really scared her even when she moved here and didn't spend nights pastering them to the pavement. Now, they were nothing but an annoyance. She tried though, she let out a squeak as she took a step back and fell over on her ass, which sort of made her remember the several ways she knew how to not do that in combat. Still she laid back prone her hands on the pavement looking up at the thug like a scared rabbit. Hopefully her lower proned position gave room for the rest of the show without her being caught up in any crossfire that might reveal the illusion.

[Fox]

At least she didn't have to wait on the pavement long. One of the shadows behind the broken streetlight was moving, subtly at first as it slid through the fence at the back of the alley, taking a female shape as it calmly stalked up behind the thugs.

Then one of them happened to glance that way, and the very, very short fight that followed made its presence somewhat harder to miss.

It didn't take the thugs very long to apparently decide that sticking around really wasn't a very good idea; the ones who were still standing helped the ones who weren't back up onto their feet and then they were all off, scrambling over the alleyway fence into the darkness with remarkable agility for such big guys. Silhouette - the fake one, that is, not the costumeless woman sitting on the ground - didn't speak, but she did kneel down to make sure her real-life counterpart was unharmed before following the gang out of sight.

Mara sighed, putting her binoculars down and rubbing her temples. It had gone better than she'd expected, anyway; that was a lot of preparation to do in not very much time. Thank goodness for security camera footage and a really, really big computer....

[Supercape]

GM

"By Hoover! She did it! She actually did it!" spluttered the Suit, who was half expecting the whole thing to go south on him.

"Zoom in! Get it all! This should satisfy that loony!" he said excitedly, watching the show unfold in front of him.

He rushed up to Carrie.

"Go Silhouette!" he said with a smile on his face "Damn, did you see that? she kicks ass! Damn, I wish I could get her autograph, that would sure be one to show to the Grandchildren, huh?"

The man actually seemed excited.

"We got a whole chip full of photo's, videos, the lot! that was perfect. Hey, I don't know how you pulled that off, but you are one lucky gal to have those kind of strings to pull, honey!"

He took another look at the footage.

"Yessir, that's more than enough. Got both of you in the shoot, clean and good. Ma'am, sorry to have inconvenienced you, but rest assured that our client will be off your back now!" he smiled, and shook her hand politely.

Clutching his prized shots, the four men walked back to their car.

[Aoiroo]

Carrie had to say, Dragonfly did a good job. Those guys were eating it up, Carrie couldn't help but smile as she got up and dusted herself off,

"Well luck had to happen one of these days, anyway, Silhouette doesn't seem the type to do autographs, and it'll probably be a hassle to find her again if you ever want to look."

She stretched a bit yawning,

"Well, it's been fun, but I think I'm gonna head on home."

Carrie didn't wait around for anything like a ride offer, or any more chatter. She was just glad, glad Dragonfly was so very excellant, glad that she found away around this, and glad that the night was over. She really just wanted to go to bed, so Silhouette really wasn't going to show up again that night.

Next Day 3:28 PM

Carrie felt a little better today, she got a goods night sleep and got up early to run some errands. She felt a little like grocery shopping so she head over to a little whole in the wall grocer and got out with two handfuls of bags with various veggies, protein shakes and microwave pizzas. The bags kept most of her attention trying to keep them balanced while she walked that she didn't notice the nice car that didn't belong in the Fens.

[Supercape]

GM

Out of said car popped none other than Tobias Oshima.

The man looked like he hadn't slept. He had bags under his eyes, his hair was a mess, and his suit ruffled. A tied, half undone, was slung lazily around his neck.

And he was waving a small pistol in the air. It wasn't so small that it couldn't fire bullets, however.

"Goddam you!" he yelled. The tone of the voice indicated he was, as he had said, desperate. And probably well past desperate into insane.

"You gotta go and goddam screw me, didn't you?" he screeched at Carrie. "I'm in real trouble now, paid those men, and then, what do you know? Mr. Knuckles comes and kicks down my door with his two equally simian friends, and now they kidnapped my wife, my daughter!"

He was completely hysterical.

"So, you didn't just screw me over, lady, you screwed my family over too. So, I may as well pull the damn trigger myself!"

He pointed the gun at his temple.

"If you don't rescue my family, I'm going to shoot myself and it's going to be your own Goddamn fault!!!"

[Aoiroo]

Carrie didn't say anything, the moment she saw the gun she dropped her groceries and in one smooth movement she jumped into a front flip with no reason or recall, she landed right in front of Oshima and rangled the gun from his hands and held it in front of his face. Her eyes were narrowed and she was scowling. She pulled the bullets from it's chamber then took the gun's edge and whipped it against Oshima's face.

"You're the most stupid, persistant, little asshole I have ever met. If you're family is in danger, what the hell are you doing here, shouldn't you be with the cops or the bloody Freedom League?"

[Supercape]

GM

"Wha....?" said the startled Oshima. Before he knew it, he had been disarmed. His hand actually fired the imaginary gun, his trigger finger twitching in mid-air.

"Holey...Silhouette....fast...." he mumbled.

"I can't go the police" he sobbed "I'm in it, I just got over my head, took some...deals...I shouldn't have" he said, still holding his empty hand like a pistol.

"Well now they are going to kill my family, and its their blood on your hands, Silhouette!" he said, his red eyes looking accusingly at Carrie.

[Aoiroo]

Carrie narrowed her eyes, took a few steps back and grabbed all her groceries in oen hand. She walked back to him and dove her free hand into his front coat pocket pulling out a keychain and key and unlocking the automatic locks on the car. She then proceeded to yank Oshima by his shirt, open the passengers side and toss him in turning only to set the child lock on the car then pushing the grocery's into his lap and closing the door. She went to the driver side, adjusted the seats and mirrors, buckled herself in and took off down the road, she looked over at Oshima and said with a growl,

"Buckle up."

[Supercape]

GM

A bit later, at Steam Manor...

"Greetings, Madam, and...Sir..." said the polite butler that opened the door for Carrie and Tobias.

"I shall call someone to park you...vehicle..." he added, giving the mini a snooty look "I am sure it can manage a few more yards..." he concluded, gesturing towards the elegant frame of Bessie, Lord Steam's customised horseless chariot.

"This way, if you please. His Lordship is, I believe, in the Library." he said, escorting the two guests into the Manor proper.

"What is this place?" mumbled Tobias "what crazy guy lives here? it's all...brass...copper...holey! is that steam coming out of that television?" he gasped, referring to some crackling brass television set with some outrageously extravagant copper wiring. "

"What crackpot have you brought me too? how is this going to help!"

[Aoiroo]

Following the butler in, Carrie looked around Steam Mansion and nearly sighed, she really didn't need to get Lockwood involved, but he was far better at looking then she was. Honestly this guy seemed genuine, but she wanted confirmation on the situation first, and maybe a lead to look at. When Oshima talked though she lost the sympathy for him. She narrowed her eyes, then balled her first and swung it at Oshima stopping about three inches from his face,

"You will speak only when spoken too, or next time I'm not stopping."

When they were led into the next room, Carrie and Oshima was seated in front of a spread of tea and many snacks. Carrie didn't even hesitate to sample some while they waited for the mansion owner.

[Supercape]

"Ah my dear Carrie" said Lord Steam, slamming shut his book as they entered the Library.

Impact fractures in industrial materials was the uninspiring dry title. He tossed it casually aside. Not so casually it didn't land on a chair cushion.

"You should have told me you were coming, I would have had some salmon sandwiches served!" he smiled "Jasper!" he called to the Butler "do crack open a bottle of champagne, its a bit early I know, but what the devil!" he laughed.

"Oh and M sends his regards to, the old cad!" he mentioned to Carrie as he gestured for her and the wild looking Tobias to sit down.

"Who is your friend?" he asked "Businessman? Bit on the manic side? Traumatised by recently firing a weapon?" he said, studying Tobias' appearance and twitching fingers "right handed, small calibre weapon, I would imagine..." he concluded, pressing his fingers together.

"What caper have you brought me today?" he asked Carrie.