Chapter 11: The Shadow in Our Caves

[John Duddy]

Duddy could barely open his eyes when he felt he face explode with pain. "What the fuck wast that!" he tought. Then as he barely opened his eyes he saw Sy's face, radiant and those big brown eyes staring at him. "Take me to Swaggerts place of L street, he might be able to patch me up. If he can I would really love to see your beautiful face again," strained Duddy. Sy helped him up and from then on Duddy doesnt really remember what happened. It all seemed like a blur. The next thing he knew, John was waking up in a bed. He opened his eyes, grimaced in pain adn saw Sy sitting bedside with him sleeping.

[Alexei Nacharade]

"Why not bring Malak along?" Alexei asked, "Isn't that your friend who was kidnapped? I'll bet he's dying to get out and see what freedom tastes like again."

Alexei ordered himself a bottle of vodka and a shot glass, pouring one. He smirked as he watched Danny out on the floor, dancing what looked as if his life depended on it. Those afghan drug dealers were party animals.

"I promise you'll have a good time."

[Sharon Anderson]

As was usual for during the day, Sharon sat in her "room". It wasn't really her bedroom since she slept on the couch, more like a work station. Various pieces and bits of things laid around, stack in piles according to what exactly they were or what kind of metal they were made out of.

A pile of converted guns laid near the door as if simply tossed there from where she sat. She supposed she should be more neat, but hey, if her guns can't survive a tossing across the room what good were they?

A glass of murky water sat on a random stack of books beside where she was sitting on the uncarpeted ground. She had pulled the carpeting out ages ago, useless as it was. In the far corner where her bed used to be, a desk rested instead with one metal folding car.

Despite the desk, Sharon often sat on the floor. The sun only shined in through the window at the right spot for her to sit at the desk in the mornings. Her fingers and lower arms were covered in smudges of black, cradling a small gun that appeared most like a Beretta 92 between them.

Her own two firearms that she carried in case of need were designed from the Beretta 92, though modified. The stack of books her drink rested on were old gun books. They hadn't been easy to get a hold of. It was very good to have contacts, especially in this goddamn Manalist filled world.

Sitting the core of the gun back down with the other pieces, she glanced at the dirty watch around her wrist. With an annoyed face she wiped the smudge off the top with the bottom of her not so white t-shirt. Ahh, Kiley should be home abo-... Just as she was thinking it, she heard her sister's usual greeting from the door.

Standing, she walked to the door of her room, grabbing an also not so white towel from a rack next to the door. As she cleaned her hands the best she could with the towel, she mentally tallied up the number of finished guns. She'd need to sell those and then buy some more to alter.

Finished with her mental calculations she swung open the door, walking into the hallway and grinning at the form of her sister near the front door. "Hey there! You look pouty, no one'd walk you home again?"

[Lilith "Mistress" Antekkereh]

"That is good, you should never judge a piece based on it's-"

Mistress stops in mid sentence as her cell phone rings. It was a piano/harp dual piece that she found to be the most relaxing song in existence. "Excuse me a moment." She mummered, standing from the bench.

Walking a few feet away, she pulled her phone out. "Lilith... Leaflets? What did they say?... I see... No leads?... I'll be there in a moment." She closed her phone, putting it back in her purse as she pulled out a card. Turning to Mollie once more, she swiftly made her way over.

"I'm sorry dear, I have business to attend to. We should talk more, I'd love to hear any other pieces you play. Do give me a call." She was beginning to talk again as she did around all those other humans, as if the call had reminded her of who she was now.

Handing the card with her contact details on it to Mollie, she nodded her head. "Thank you for the necklace. Good luck with those toys." Was her farewell before she exited the toy store. Sticking a hand out, she grabbed one of the falling leaflets and glanced at it.

After another moment, she finds the nearest line and teleports as near to Violette's office as it ran. Still holding the leaflet in hand she enters the building and simply walks past the front desk, knocking at Violette's door. This was certainly a matter that needed discussing and Mistress distasted discussing matters on the phone.

((Post to Li Violette.))

[Lena Eva Aysel]

Lena is glad to see Malak is awake and obviously feeling better. She moves out to the living room, deciding to wait there until Tuesday was done when she hears Tuesday comment about snow. "Snowing?"

Feeling a bit hopeful, she stands and looks out the window. It was not snow, but it was certainly something falling from the sky. She walks out the front door and plucks one of the papers off the ground.

"Hey, you guys might want to see this." She glances around as the other people staring and mummering at the leaflets falling from the sky. Deciding it best not to be noticed, she reenters the apartment and offers the paper to Tuesday and Malak.

"I'm assuming you two know what Communism is?"

[Kiley Castiglione]

"No." She said, sticking out her bottom lip. Kiley collapsed on the couch, as though wearied by the burden of having to walk home all by herself.

"Everyone had some stupid story to go to, which is apparently more important than walking me home." She crosses her arms. "Hmpf." After a few more moments of pouting, a small ball of black and white fur pawed at one of Kiley's blonde curls. Grinning, she picked up the kitten. "Hi there, Danny-boy." She cooed, stroking it between the ears.

"Bella, I'm bored." She whined, even though she'd just gotten home from work. "Dreadfully bored. What're we doing today?"

[Sharon Anderson]

Sharon smiled, crossing her arms and leaning against the kitchen counter. Kiley was such a drama queen, but she was the one person who she didn't mind it from. In fact, Kiley did a lot of things she would normally shoot a person for.

"Oh my. How could anything be more important than walking Ms. Castiglione home?" She teased heartily, watching the kitten paw up at his master's curls. Reminded, she moves into the kitchen to fill Danny's water and food bowls.

Poor thing. She hoped he never died due to Kiley's tendency to be a bit of an air head or her own tendency to bury herself in work. There was enough death in this world that they couldn't help.

"Well, I just finished another shipment... How about another adventure?" Sharon hated bringing Kiley anywhere near her associates, but due to her sister's useful power, sometimes it couldn't be help. Her work was illegal, she lacked a "real" job, and her sister's labor card was the only valid one they had.

Sometimes she could convince Kiley to simply loan her her card, but more often than not she conned her older sister into coming along. Thankfully, Sharon was usually able to let Kiley run wild in some store a safe distance away while she conducted her work. "Let me ring a guy up, see where he is."

Motioning for Kiley to stay, she moved back down the hall to her work station. She plucked her phone from the desk that had various piles on it, wiping even more black onto her shirt. Who would she ring? She needed a big deal, she couldn't give any percentages off right now.

Flipping open her phone, she scrolls through her contacts. Mafia seemed her only ideal possibility of deals right now. They were good for business, but she didn't want Kiley even in the same town as a Mafia worker. Lacking other options, she presses the "Call" button for one of the various Mafia contacts she had programmed into her phone.

((Post to Alexei, or any other mafia worker, but there don't seem to be many around.))

[Markus Dunstan]

Markus stood ontop of a tall church dedicated to father manala when the leaflets began to fall. He caught it and peered at it, titling his head.

Communism? What an odd act of rebellion. A frustrating one, too, since there was obviously no enemy to lash out against. He'd have to see what Lena made of it, since he had trouble grasping the audacity of it. Until then, he'd wait.

He crumpled up the paper and flicked it away.

[Kiley Castiglione]

"I know, my questions exactly." Kiley said, not realizing Bella was teasing her.

"Oohh! Yes, lets go!" She said, perking up in her seat. She watched her sister leave to make a call, and stood, following behind her. She looked at her cat, and pressed a finger to her lips, as if telling it to be quiet, before pressing her ear to the door and eavesdropping.

Sometimes she thought that people must find it a little hard to believe that the two girls were sisters, apart from their noses, they looked almost nothing alike, and were basically alter-egos of one another. But they got along well, unless Kiley was in one of her moods, and she loved her older sister dearly.

[Alexei Nacharade]

Alexei saw he had another call.

"I have another call, dear. Tell you what, if you do want to come, just give me a ring, yeah?"

With that he terminated the call with Tuesday and answered the other incoming call.

"Da?"

["Danny" Damascus]

It was hard to tear himself away from the sound and the movement but Danny whirled gracefully from point to point until he came to rest against the bar, leaning back on his elbows and laughing, barely taking his eyes off of the ladies long enough to sent a grateful look Alexei's way.

He wanted to say something but seeing as Alexei was on the phone, he mouthed thank you and observed the crowd, winking, smiling and nodding his head at the more spectacular ladies on the floor.

[Sharon Anderson]

The voice sounded familiar, but no face came up in Sharon's mind. Then again, most of those Russians sounded familiar. With a shrug she tried to recall the name the contact had said.

"Yo, it's Anderson, the American weapons dealer? I just finished altering a shipment, about twenty. Are you interested? There's about five sniper based ones, the rest are mainly various handguns and some rifle/shotgun types. I'm also wondering if you got any new shipments of Manala guns."

She knew the Mafia mainly bought her guns to sell them out at a higher price, but business was business. She couldn't see why in the world they would prefer the Manala ones besides the fact it required some stupid crystal instead of ammo.

In her work, she found ammo in someone's body hurt a lot worst then a beam. Especially attempting to remove it. A slight grin fell on Sharon's face.

[Alexei Nacharade]

"Ms. Anderson!" Alexei said happily, still straining to hear over the loud club music, "What a pleasure. I actually have a unique problem I'd like to discuss with you, but not over the phone. How soon can you be in Moscow?"

He glanced over at Danny and winked, then poured some vodka in a shot glass on the bar and slid it over to him.

[Sharon Anderson]

Apparently, he knew her name. It made Sharon feel a tinge of pride for her work. As far as she knew, she was the only one around who had an active weapons dealing of her type. She restored and altered other things, like her motorcycle, but the weapons was what got her the good money.

"Understandable. Moscow, eh? Soon enough, I can take a teleportation booth. Can't say I've been around the area much though. Where should I look for you?"

She was the type to pretend she knew who someone was rather than ask. She wondered how the bars were in Moscow, maybe she'd stop at one while she was there. Leaning back against her desk, she picked up a piece of metal, turning it over in her hand.

"Shall I leave the guns here or would you like me to bring them? I haven't had a chance to test them yet as I just finished them." She actually still had to finish the last headgun, but hey, she'd said about twenty. She'd prefer not to bring them, as a unique problem didn't sound like a large weapons deal.

Still sounded like something that could get her some pretty rads, though. She was also rather curious. It wasn't often people wished to discuss unique problems with her.

["Danny" Damascus]

A couple of different plans had run through Danny's mind on how to get out of drinking, one of which involved himself exiting through various breakable objects but those hadn't seemed pratical for continued business relations. He didn't object to the stuff, he just didn't see the use in it.

Not wishing to offend Alexei's offer, though, he downed the glass after a quick careful examinations of its contents and placed it carefully back on the bar, a slight twist to his features. He'd never taken much to critical examination of alcohols but it had always seemed to him that the worse it tasted (and the more it burned) meant it was expensive. Or that it was poisonous, maybe something like that.

He sent a weak smile Alexei's way and placed the glass back next to the vodka bottle, trying to think of a way to excuse himself politely. If Alexei was on the phone . . .

"How about I come back when your done there?" He said ina low voice to Alexei, gesturing to his phone. He started to push of the bar, hesitating slightly to see if Alexei wouldn't mind.