I got there late. I know Rolf and Dakota don't like that- like I'm supposed to care what they think? I need 'em to do their end of the work. Anything else would just get in my way.
So I roll into Rolf Belfast's chop shop. Rolf's my fixer. We need something for a job, and he fixes it right up, often out of nothing with little time. I like that. Its my style. Rolf's place is located up in a old Clayborn neighborhood on the north end of the Moria Weave. Its not too upbeat of a place, but the neighborhood is a bit safer than some of the other shitend places you find in Moria. A heavy metal guitar rang out from a old computer panel on the back wall, covered in some glowing fungus of one kind or another.
"Hey, hey, look whose here," Rolf grumbled. The bearded clayborn glared at me. I gave the thought to shift my body to mock him, but decided to let it go. No need for me to show off.
"He set the time, he knew we'd be here." Dakota flashed me a smile, her glowing blue eyes dazzling as ever. Dakota is my heavy- she's cute as a button, yet has enough flash and fire to get the job done. Heat can't ever track down anything precise in the middle of a fire. And having an Angel on the crew has its benefits, you know?
Alecto sat on the ceiling. His three eyes locked onto mine. "We got the time, heehee. Well, those of us with hands. Right Lefty?"
Alecto is my box guy. He's a hacker, and when I first met him, a marathon athlete. The guy is also on the border between crazy and psychotic. Demon with a mad addiction to trouble. Can't blame him, I'm a demon too, although I never feel the need to get people nearly killed. At least, not without some sort of payout.
"I hope you got something better than that last Job, Thresh. I'd like to have frog-eyes here get us nearly killed again, you know?" Rolf always complains. Don't he appreciate all the awards that come with me?
"Well," I began, "Its a bit quieter, yeah. The Dragons asked us to prove loyalties. Nothing big, just want us to shift targets a big. Prove our skills, as it were, and prove we care about the syndicate first, you know?"
"Lefty's got skills. Scream real loud for one!" Alecto then started to chuckle at his own joke. His slobber dribbled all over the floor.
Rolf picked up a wrench and hurled at Alecto's ceiling perch. The frog-looking demon ducked, then fell to the floor giggling like a mad man.
"Your the damned fool who left me handcuffed to that cart, yah flycatching piece of shit!" Rolf turned to me. "Why the fuck do you trust a piece of garbage like this? The damn idiot is crazy, stupid crazy. He wants us to get into bodybags, man. He's been giggling like that on my fucking ceiling for last ten minutes."
Dakota wrapped a arm around my shoulder. "Leave Thresh outta that, Rolf. Isn't his fault Alecto is sick in the head."
Alecto turned to Rolf. "Besides, you didn't listen to a word I said, Lefty. I say stay in the car, cuz you're useless, you should stay in the car-"
"Fuck off, frog-face. You ain't the boss of me. You'd been in a cell somewhere if I didn't save your damned ass-"
"If I didn't do my job you'd never even wake up in the morning, clayborn monkey." Alecto stood up, the bones shifting in his hands. He was weaving up something with his biokinesis, trying to look bigger.
I glanced at Rolf. My fixer had a big, rusty pipe wrench in one hand. His face looked red, that big vein on his forehead throbbing.
I put a hand on my gun. I reached for my own biokinetic senses, trying to get a sense for Alecto was trying to do. I glanced over at Dakota.
The Angel floated a inch or two off the ground. She had pulled out her own shotgun, but kept her distance. She looked at me. I recognized that face. She was trying to figure out what I was going to do, to see how or why she should back me up. And then winked at me, giving me a chance to act.
I took in a deep breath, and tried to think of what the best way to diffuse this was.
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