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New WD Rule nineteen

Page history last edited by Sakaki 9 years, 12 months ago

 

 

 

WD Rule nineteen is entitled 'Good Gamers avoid the game over screen. Exemplary gamers see the game over screen as a benchmark for greater gameplay.'

 

Previous rule eighteen: Bad guys plan for funerals, not retirement.

Next rule twenty: The fun in playing Pokemon isn't befriending and battling, but rather enforcing your might upon others and subjugating them.

Summaries page

 

-Short summary-

 

Mo, Meifa and the other Sevens help Giancarlo bid farewell to his old life while also contending with Matilde's sniper and a planning snafu.

 

-Long summary-

 

Jax sits across from Yelena who keeps her focus on the floor. He shakes his head and asks why she’d want to do this now of all times? She could have before returning home. Or even before she left three years ago. He just can’t wrap his head around the timing of this decision. Yelena calmly responds that she has to now before she –her feelings get to a point of no return. He doesn’t understand how much she’d like to avoid this, to continue with things the way they are now but that would be choosing her own ego and the fragile human heart beating within her over the world itself. It’s why she’s coming to Jax the man who was once Lukas’s superior to let him know. It’s dangerous for her to reveal anything to anyone, but selfish as it is she can’t go through this without telling someone. Maybe she wants deep down for someone to stop her.

 

Jax gives her a sympathetic look and pulls his chair closer. His whole reason for creating Sector Seven had been to help kids like this who become a part of the system through no fault of their own and help them somehow. Sadly being in Garden means his embrace is limited, but a heart cannot be contained by four walls or even intangible words.

 

Which is something poor Yelena is learning now.

 

Back in DC on a building behind the Seven’s HQ Salvo whistles Bernard Herrman’s Twisted Nerve theme while setting up his sniper rifle. Once again his target is Matilde Ngai, and his objective is getting the ‘immunity’ from Government scrutiny for doing his job. It’s the reason why he took on this job rather than give it to his siblings. (Besides in his opinion the only one of them who is a better shot than him is Jitka, and she’s currently in China keeping Lukas from getting involved.) Like most who are limited in their ability to plan ahead, he is against him taking action which Salvo cannot understand no matter how much he thinks about it. For one thing Lukas couldn’t possibly think that he can continue to delve deeper into the mysteries of the WD theorem with just his ragtag team of vigilantes can he? He was in a much better position to go after it when he was in bed with the feds. Then there’s Matilde herself who from the reports he had heard and unearthed is an unbridled monster. He knows Lukas well and therefore can approximate his goal of working for her is to bring the terrorist down from the inside but that too is just ridiculousness without proper backup. In short, getting him back in good graces with the fed is the best way for him to get what he (Lukas) wants, and the immunity that he (Salvo) wants. Lukas might pout for a while but he’d see truth soon enough.

 

Opening a window Salvo spies his target sitting on a couch from behind. He steadies his rifle and then prepares to fire when the door to the room opens from behind and he turns startled to see who it is.

 

Heike grins manically as he and Nolan step into the room. He’s really amazed that he and the Irishman’s theory was right on the money. Course he’s hoping to never have to look through financial reports again, and all that legwork of searching those other buildings was a pain in the ass as well. Salvo masks his surprise with a courteous smile and asks what they’re doing here? Nolan points out that rather than asking ‘what’ he should ask ‘how’? As in how did they know? That itself is a master stroke really.

 

Once they had figured out the ‘who’ and the ‘why’ the rest had fallen into place. While he is wily and charismatic, one thing Salvo is not is frugal. His pursuit for immunity had seen him spending a good amount of money. Including purchasing two buildings for the exclusive rights to snipe out of. To be fair, Matilde Ngai is a high profile target and the reward life changing, so they can understand. They looked into the records of the dummy company who bought the buildings around their HQ and came up with a group who had paid for the sniper’s expenses back when their target had been Meifa in France. Considering they aren’t supposed to know any of this from his perspective, it makes sense he would simply move to his other building and take a shot at his target from there. With the cover of night he’d be assured to slip right through their defenses and blow Matilde away, but once they had that small inkling of who he is, it became all too easy to unravel his plans.

 

Salvo blows air thoughtfully and asks what they intend to do now? He could still take the shot and they really cannot stop him. He won’t insult their intelligence and say that he can take them all down on his own, but he knows they won’t kill him. Besides, once he takes the shot (and succeeds), there’s no reason for them to oppose him anyway. Last but not least, he’s already got his shot perfectly lined up. In the few seconds it will take for them to get across the room, he would have already fired the killing shot. So while he does congratulate them for getting this far, it all seems to be meaningless, no?

 

Heike and Nolan exchange glances and then turn to Salvo with the same shit eating grin. Not amused the sniper asks what’s so funny? Heike ignores the question and asks Nolan what’s worse? Missing a chance to snipe down a target twice, or missing once and then shooting the wrong person on the second attempt? Nolan pretends to think about this for a moment and replies that both seem equally horrible. Salvo’s eyebrow rises and he asks what they’re talking about. He can see Matilde sitting in the building, so whats this about the wrong target? Heike dramatically invokes his inner game show host and asks if that’s his final answer? Salvo turns back to the scope of his gun and gasps at what he sees.

 

Chiaki looks through the window while pulling down her eyelid and sticking out her tongue. Despite his suave demeanor and meticulous planning, Salvo the sniper has been completely fooled. As he fumes inwardly, Heike reveals that the real Matilde is enjoying an all-expenses paid dinner with Wargle. While they’re out a couple hundred because of this whole deal, he’s out whatever it cost to buy this building. Granted with its shape and his influence it probably didn’t cost that much, but dinner < real estate.

 

Salvo smirks at them and without dropping his professional demeanor congratulates the two again.  They’ve protected one of the greatest evils known to mankind and made him lose some cash. Though the way he sees it the world > money. He’s fighting for his immunity and against the theorem. Still, it would be less than becoming for him to be caught here so….

 

The sniper turns to the window and looks as if he’ll jump when he notices something below him. Or –someone. Ricca is below, and using her mouth to pull back the launcher has a sling shot loaded with the same munition she gave Lukas before he left for China. Salvo has an ‘oh shit’ expression as Ricca launches the munition and it explodes rocking the side of the building.

 

As the smoke and debris clear, Nolan and Heike see the hole in the side of the wall left by Ricca’s munition, but no Salvo. Ricca looks up at them from the floor below and shakes her head indicating that she doesn’t know where the sniper went. It looks as if he jumped anyway and got away through the chaos. The men sigh, frustrated but satisfied that his mission failed. Heike’s phone rings and he spends a moment on it after answering, affirmatively responding to whomever is on the line and agreeing to meet them soon to plan something. Heike hangs up and walks over to the hole so that Ricca can hear what he’s about to say. Mo was on the line and asked if they could help her kill a guy?

 

The next day the sevens meet up in Baltimore and discuss the plan in detail. Mo figures the best bet for getting Giancarlo into real protective custody (and not that stuff they advertise to the public to get them to testify.) is to ensure that elements on the street do not end him first. The problem is street thugs don’t get cred by letting bygones be bygones. Despite their education being lacking (except for the rare Giancarlo), they have razor sharp memories that will keep Giancarlo in mind if he disappears suddenly. Though if he were to die, that would be undisputed. Which is the crux of her plan; they’d pose as a rival gang, pretend to fill the drug dealer with holes in front of witnesses, and drive away before anyone is the wiser.

 

Meifa admits she gets the plan and stuff, but she would still rather kill him for real. There’s a murmur of agreement in the car, as Mo hides her shock that everyone is so….morally just. She then reminds the group that they’re here to protect a possible asset and to look past what he does and focus on what he could be. Besides Matilde is much, much, much worse than Giancarlo would ever be, and that’s exactly why they have to ensure this gets off the ground. Imagine what secrets they could learn from him once he’s in protective custody. Heike asks about Walter the Deconstructor. Would the Feds really be able to protect their asset to be from him? Mo visibly shivers upon hearing his name and shakes her head slowly. She’s not sure really. They only notion they have is that Walter won’t attack the US Government directly because that would bring undue hellfire upon himself….at least not as long as the theorem isn’t complete. It’s in her professional opinion that it’s nearing completion which is why CPI is looking to eliminate loose ends.

 

Nolan glances back at Ricca and nods his head in Mo’s direction. The Italian bomber gives her a quick glance and shakes her head. She’s sure there will be time after they complete this mission. No need to break up the momentum now. Nolan smiles knowingly and then asks where their soon to be ‘dead’ (he even uses airquotes) friend is? Death (even the fake kind) is dirty business, which is why he chose to be the getaway driver. Even so Mo did make it clear that their time is not to be wasted didn’t she?

 

Mo gives him a look and sighs. She did, but he made it clear that he can’t just up and leave without closing up a few loose ends of his own. Maybe they think drug dealers are a shiftless lot without morals and rules, but apparently Giancarlo had been doing his thing with assistance from many people that he needs to make a clean break with. She had vehemently warned against it, but he would not be swayed. It was actually a little noble. So she had given him two hours to finish his business, and then the ‘hit’ would be underway. That being said he is running late, and wonders if he got cold feet or something.

 

Meanwhile in an abandoned meat freezer, Giancarlo doesn’t have cold feet yet, but he has cold everything else, not helped by the blood seeping from a gash on his forehead. A man in a coat paces back and forth erratically as he unleashes a slew of curses at the drug dealer who is tied down to a chair with his hands bound behind him. The man glares at him and demands to know what the hell is really going on. Why’s he suddenly talking about leaving the business? It’s not like him man! He’s the same guy who said he’d keep slinging even the day after he dies. So for him to start talking nonsense about retirement doesn’t make a damn bit of sense unless this is a set up.

 

Giancarlo breathes heavily and tells the man to believe him. This is something he has to do for his own good. He’s not saying that he didn’t enjoy runnin’ the streets with him, but sometimes you gotta prioritize! He’s doing this not because he wants to, but because he has to. The man who had paced away from the drug dealer suddenly turns back and with wild eyes shoves the gun in Giancarlo’s mouth. He says when something is leaking bullshit, it has to be plugged up right away and if it cannot be fixed thrown in the garbage. Now how long does Nosfatu think he’s gonna last if he can’t be ‘fixed’? Oh, he should forget about his posse coming in to save him since he’s got a few guys outside keeping constant watch. Anyone that comes within a few feet of this place is gonna get a haircut that exposes their cranial cavity. He’d better start talking or prepare to start dying. Giancarlo glances at his phone that has a bullet hole in the screen, and gives his captor a pointed look.

 

Mo pockets her phone after trying Giancarlo for the third time, and makes a frustrated sound. What the hell is keeping him? She had made it plenty clear that they are working on a timeline that’s as short as it is stringent. Meifa spots a passerby in the corner of her eye and suddenly gets out of the car. Heike asks ‘shortie’ where she’s going, and she mutters ‘to get some answers.’ She stops the guy who’s red eyes and tilted walk make it very clear that he’s one of Giancarlo’s ‘customers’, and she asks if he’s gotten a hit today. The guy incoherently mumbles something, and Meifa being more lacking in patience than usual grabs his collar and promises to kick him so hard that they’ll soon share a gender if he doesn’t start making sense and quickly. Heike watches this and sighs, asking Ricca to close Meifa’s door as he pulls the car over to where she is. The guy gives her a blank look, and Meifa begins to make good on her threat until Heike asks the guy if Nosfatu has been in the neighborhood? They’re looking to do some business with him. The guy stares over at Heike and asks why that guy is hot shit today? Chuy had said he was gonna talk to Nosfatu about something too. Mo frowns and asks who Chuy is, finding the name somewhat familiar. The guy falls backward and says in a dreamy voice that everyone knows Chuy as ‘el diablo’. Legend has it that he beat a guy to death for agreeing with him while they were torturing an intruder to his hood. Chuy respects Nosfatu since their folks are both from the same country, but when the rumor that he’s leaving the streets started to circulate, Chuy didn’t quite take it well.

 

The Sevens trade glances amongst each other and Mo asks where Chuy hangs out? The drugged out guy seems to pass out until Meifa steps on his balls with force. Her expression reads ‘I’ll be more than happy to introduce you to the world of feminism’, and the other Sevens simply look away and leave the guy to his fate.

 

A few moments later the Sevens are on their way to the location so graciously provided by the drugged out guy and all for the nominal fee of his manhood. Mo sucks her teeth and curses. She knew she shouldn’t have fucking let him go say his farewells. Heike tells her not to worry about it too much. It’s not like she would have known that a crazy guy like Chuy would figure into the picture. More importantly they need to come up with a new plan now. Assuming that they will be able to drag Giancarlo out of there alive, Chuy isn’t going to forgive and forget so easily. If he’s half as crazy as the druggie suggests, they might have a real problem on their hands. After a moment of deep thought, Mo shakes her head and proclaims they keep the plan as is. In fact rather than backing out of it now they’re gonna turn things up to eleven. Heike stares at his girlfriend for a moment and grins maniacally. Now this he likes. Nolan makes a face and asks if he’s going to do something unpleasant, and Mo makes the ‘so-so’ motion with her hand in midair. She then promises to have any of his clothes that get messy professionally cleaned, and if it will bury the hatchet, buy him a whole new cleaning set. Nolan makes a pleased sound and guns the accelerator as Mo gives him commands.

 

Giancarlo now has a cut on his cheek and on his knee to accompany the gash on his forehead. Chuy taps the gun against his forehead and sneers. He’s having a lot of fun filling him with holes. So much fun in fact that he wants to keep the game going as long as possible. So he should just go ahead keep quiet. Of course sooner or later he’s gonna freeze or die from blood loss. Either way that’s a pussy way to go out and he knows it. All he’s gotta say is why he’s suddenly giving up the game and he’ll straight out kill him. No more suffering necessary! Their parents came from the same place in Guatemala, and although he was thinking of pulling his teeth out with rusted tweezers when he first appeared on his block, Nosfatu’s skill at cooking and slinging was, no –is legendary. So he tolerated the guy on the streets for a while, but leaving means talking and talking means feds and, and… he just can’t have that.

 

Giancarlo laughs and asks if he’s done? Cause he has a few things to say.

 

For real he actually hates Chuy. Dude kills people like Ebert (God bless his soul) eats popcorn and hands out bad reviews. He knows the drug game is serious, and you can’t sling meth without bustin’ a few heads but one thing he will never condone is killing someone for fun. Chuy’s not going to lie to him now and say that every single person he whacked was a legitimate threat is he? Bullshit. When rumors like his spread it’s because they’ve got a nugget of truth in them. Course he’s no saint so he’s not about to step to Chuy on his turf, but since he’s about to die anyway….might as well make things crystal clear between them.

 

Chuy fires the pistol and Giancarlo takes a bullet to his torso.

 

The drug dealer recoils in pain as Chuy, now a shark on the scent of blood in the water gets in his face. One thing he hates ---and Giancarlo should trust him when he says this since he’s seen it a whole lot is bastards who act big and bad when they’re about to die. Makin’ some sorta stand when it’s all over is fucking stupid. That’s why he’s alive and Nosfatu is about to die.

 

The building shakes knocking Giancarlo’s chair over and causing Chuy to shake. He glares at the door leading out of the locker and snarls that he’s in the middle of something. Can’t those dumbasses guarding the door handle themselves? He picks up his phone and asks what the deal is, and a voice laced with shock answers that someone just drove a car through the side of the building. Chuy stares at his phone dumbfounded, but before he can ask for a clarification he hears rattling at the doorway and then a loud ‘pop’ as it is blown open. Ricca stands aside as Mo loads a pistol and points it at the two. She explains that she’s gone through a whole lot of trouble today, and she’s really in a ‘shoot first, ask questions never’ sort of mood. Chuy asks who the hell they are, and Mo snaps back that she has no reason to answer him. If he must have someone to refer to, just call them the 4th most bitchin’ branch of government. She shoots him in the arm, and Chuy goes down while grabbing his injury in pain.  She strides over to Giancarlo, and smiles as she tells him that enemies of the state go to a special hell with stars and stripes themed wallpaper and Satan cosplaying Uncle Sam. Giancarlo offers a weak grin and replies that when compared to his life he’s okay with that.

 

Mo shoots him twice more and lowers her weapon. She then gives Chuy a look and looks as if she’ll finish him off when Heike comes in and hurriedly says that they’ve got to run. The mission’s gone completely off the wall at this point and their superiors are going to have their asses. He then squeamishly looks into the room and asks if she had to do this? Mo gives Chuy a look and asks him the same question. He shakes his head violently, as Mo turns to Heike and motions for him to collect Giancarlo’s body. Heike in turn motions to Ricca who’s outside to help him walk the body out. Chuy finds his view transfixed on Ricca’s arm, and he murmurs that these Government guys are serious…that chick even lost an arm…..Mo then turns back and states that he’s about to have one eye. He covers his face and the trio make their way out. Meifa joins them by the entrance with the keys for a car. She states that one of the guys she dropped ‘gave it to her’. Mo starts to ask Meifa to bring the car around, but thinks better of it and asks Heike. He gingerly puts Giancarlo’s body down as Meifa gives him a glare of pure and concentrated evil.  Heike jogs past, meets up with Nolan (who’s still immaculately clean despite running a car into a building) and the two walk off to find the car together. Meifa is in pursuit and asks if she can just drive it for a sec. Mo sighs and glances over at Giancarlo with a tired expression, asking why she’s even putting herself through so much for this team…

 

Now that they’re alone, Ricca speaks up and requests that later she and Mo talk. She has a question to ask. Mo blinks, but looking at how earnest Ricca is, she agrees that they can talk whenever she wants.

 

 

 

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