Scene #1826: Firecracker Chicken

Owner	Pose
Polite Words	Location: Middle of Bumfuck Nowhere, Minnesota, Exalted: Modern Earth. Time: Nowish. Also, evening. Violence Behind Polite Words had made some contacts, sent out some feelers both Confederate and Syndicate, and finally issued offers for a few select people - she needed muscle for a task, someone who could 'make a lasting impression' of intimidation on some people, and she needed it not on Confederate time. She was offering to pay well, but didn't explain the mission much in advance, just that no actual bloodshed was expected. She'd given an address and a time, and the address leads to a curious thing - in the middle of nowhere, a good five miles from the nearest town, a large factory building, made of very solid looking cinderblock. Specifically, the Happy Boom Boom Fun Time Fireworks Factory. There are even logos and signs and everything in all sorts of neon colors. In the parking lot, sitting on the roof of her car, is a rather nondescript woman in a suit. She's got a number of guns on her, and she's in the parking spot the job offer had indicated would be the meeting point. Meet the new boss!
Eliot Ness	If you wanted someone who looks intimidating, you can't go much more stereotypical than a detective from the 1920-1930-era United States. Ness fits that bill almost perfectly, arriving at the appointed meeting place in a 1929 Nash 450 Sedan. He looks like he stepped straight of out a piece of American Noir Fiction and into the real world. Pulling the car into a parking spot, he calmly steps out of the vehicle and locks the door before placing the key into an interior coat pocket. Reaching through a half-open window, he grabs his hat off the back seat and places it atop his head. He then walks slowly towards the woman sitting on the car. "Eliot Ness, US Treasury Agent. Syndicate sent me."
Souji Murasame	Souji sees value in keeping the 'ground floor touch'. He is a man who feels that it is necessary to continually test oneself and put the things he seeks to have happen around him into practice. The additional experience in dealing with the worlds of the Multiverse are a bonus. The corporate heir steps out of a nondescript black vehicle that might seem more suited for government agents (of the more modern type) or a black ops team out of a cyberpunk dystopia. Well, you might be half right. Souji steps forward to stand before Polite Words, his arms crossed. His suit is impeccable, and the crimson-bound sword at his side holds the promise of potential violence at any moment. The air around him is still, like the moments before a thunderstorm strikes. He gives a polite bow to Polite Words. "Souji Murasame, of the Murasame Zaibatsu." He doesn't say where he came from. His eyes shift to look over the others present, his gaze measuing each one in turn. He doesn't seem to see anything to comment on at this time, so he brings his attention back to Polite Words.
Starless Night	Starless shows up, not because she needs the money, but because it hones her skills. She's also taken the time to do a little research about what's going on here, at least enough to show up in the right clothes. Shirt, jacket, jeans... the usual sort of things. Nothing fancy. Naturally, she doesn't look anything like her real self, either... in fact she's occidental in ethnicity right now. Hair in a ponytail - black, at least, so her natural color - she keeps it tucked under a ball cap and otherwise looks... unarmed. "Elaine," Starless introduces herself as, when she approaches. She didn't come by bike or car, apparently she walked. "Freelancer, at the moment."
Polite Words	"Aah. Well, greetings. Thank you all for coming; regardless of the mission outcome, I'll make sure you're all paid as promised, given that you don't run or turn traitor or some such. It should hardly be necessary, anyways." The woman will roll off the hood of her own car, landing on her feet by the trunk. "I also have weapons if anyone wants. Don't actually fire them. This place isn't exactly what it appears, but we still don't want any explosions." She'll pause, and then finally start to share. "As some of you may remember, I am something of a.. not well known, but high volume weapons dealer. This.. is supposed to be one of my suppliers." She'll say, gesturing at the fireworks plant. "It's run by a fat bastard of a former gangster known as Vic Santos. This place is supposed to be turning out high explosives, rockets, anti-aircraft weaponry, and other useful little toys like that, and for the last month they haven't been delivering. I'm a bit worried that he may have.. forgotten our deal." Forgotten has an odd emphasis. "And so, we're going to go in there, and we're going to remind him, and make sure nothing else fishy is going on like a Federal case. Did any of you want a weapon? I can take them out of your pay at cost." She'll gesture openly towards the trunk. It appears to be approximately four times the size of the car's exterior, and filled with a staggering array of guns and other weaponry.
Eliot Ness	Ness sighs. To think he would go from doing police work to a mafia-style shakedown in the course of an evening. Still, he owes the Syndicate for their help, and if nothing else he knows how to do this sort of thing properly by virtue of stopping them constantly. "I see. I don't need a gun, I have something in the car." He turns away and walks to the 'trunk' of his car, opening it and taking out a wooden baseball bat, which was probably evidence or some crime or another. A gloved hand is wrapped around the handle as he shuts the car and then locks it again. "No firing, intimidate him into paying, and look for signs of an ongoing investigation. Alright."
Starless Night	"No need," 'Elaine' says, turning down the weapon. "I didn't bring any weapons because I thought it might be suspicious, and I don't need any of these." She turns toward the building instead. "Mmn... so we just need to find out what happened, and make sure it doesn't happen again. Easy enough. My partner is the one who is better at pulling the terrifying angle, but I think I can manage." Unlike some in her organization, Starless doesn't spit giant centipedes on people for laughs. Right now she's searching out the building with her eyes, taking a casual stroll away from the car to see what she can see. She wants to note any entrances or exits that may be nonstandard, because she's probably going to use those.
Souji Murasame	Souji listens to the mission outline with a cool and quiet demeanor. He shakes his head to Polite Words. "I have everything I will need. Thank you." Nevertheless, his eyes glance over the weapons present, and he purses his lips slightly. "Perhaps we might have something to discuss regarding future business after this mission." He comments.
Polite Words	"Of course. I'll be right with you all, of course." The Sidereal says, as though she wouldn't be, heading for the door. "And I am always happy to discuss business, though my supplies of some items are low courtesy of this disruption." The building has only a few entrances, but it has a large number of fire exits, doors not designed to open from the outside but that a resourceful person might be able to. As the building is approached, the machinery working within can be heard. Additionally, for Elaine, there are a few other possibilities depending on how insane/creative she wants to be - a loading dock, a smokestack, windows. The entrance Polite heads for is the one that is right off of the parking lot; subtlety doesn't seem to be how the gunslinging Exalt is going to go today. Once everyone's inside, there will be a great surprise!*
Souji Murasame	Souji approches the building and enters like a civilized man. He is going to be assuming that the people inside are going to be similarly civilized. Otherwise he might have to be disappointed. They don't want to disappoint Souji. "I more mean in terms of supply instead of demand." Souji comments. "Should this fall through, perhaps."
Starless Night	There is no way Elaine is going to go through a smokestack. She /could/ do that, but she isn't going to. Instead she assesses what she's looking at, then slips along the side of the wall toward the dock, keeping to the shadows with uncanny ability. Two clones of herself are much less skilled in scaling up the walls and slipping through two windows, feeding her some input from their different vantage point while the 'real' Elaine is slinking into the dock.
Eliot Ness	Ness, for all his downs about participating in a shakedown operation, has a pretty neutral expression on his face. He also doesn't mind going in the front door. So he simply lifts the bat up and rests it on his shoulder as he follows the 'boss' of this operation. He looks between his co-workers. Souji seemed normal-ish. The other one didn't seem thatnormal, vanishing off into the shadows for her ninja business. The multiverse, for all its wonders, continued to surprise him with strange people. "What are the odds he will attempt to attack us?"
Polite Words	*for some values of surprise. Within the munitions plant disguised as a fireworks factory, on the crowded floor of the plant, with many workers in safety gear attending to them varefully... are fireworks. Not even fancy, explosive fireworks currently. They're those paper-wrapped poppers that jerk children throw at the feet of pets and parade participants in Thanksgiving parades. As soon as any of them are noticed, workers nearby will start to give the interlopers looks. To one side of the wide open room, where some of the windows lead, are stairs up to a foreman's office. Polite Words is staring at the assembly line product, looking like she may be either about to have a fit or about to murder everyone present; no immediate directions are forthcoming.
Eliot Ness	The factory certainly looks... nothing like what Ness imagined. The Treasury agent looks around. If questioned by a worker about why he has the bat, his replace is always the same three words: "Company baseball team." As if this were pre-written on a cue card for him somewhere. "These do not look like the products you were expecting to pick up. Are you certain you are in the right building? Or perhaps they moved operations and... never informed you." He suggests. It's a common practice, especially with illegal manufacturing. Move, go into supply on your own, and your supplier might never find you.
Souji Murasame	"It seems that explains some of it." Souji murmurs quietly as they survey the much less lethal things being fabricated in the factory. for a given definition of less lethal. Be careful with poppers, y'all. When Polite Words seems like she is about to explode, it looks like that explains everything Souji needs to see. He simply turns and mounts the stairs heading up to the Foreman's offace. "Come along." He says, expecting the others to follow. Unless they want to hang out on the floor with the workers. Whatever.
Starless Night	Elaine's ninja clones will just find some boxes and start rummaging inside them, looking for anything that isn't a normal firework or looks suspicious. They do this even when one of the employees stops and sees them, though Elaine's attention is only enough to give a curt, "Hi." Nothing major. The real Elaine will slink in and stay hidden, since she actually has good stealth skills. She's observing the process, at first, but when she sees nothing of interest she slips off to head toward the foreman's office, if she isn't detected or stopped.
Polite Words	Polite Words still seems apoplectic; she may not be the best for intervening now. Still, the desription she'd given for Vic seems to apply to the man in the foreman's office, who at a guess may well be at least three hundred and forty pounds. Some of it may even be muscle, but mostly it seems to be concentrated in fat. He's smoking a cigar, in spite of the horrific danger, because of course he is. Several other rather tough looking men are also in the room, and will move hands towards their suit coats as they see people approaching. It seems as though they haven't entirely moved out of the way, but Vic will make his way to his feet. "There something we can help you all with? I think that's about close enough." The foreman will call over towards Souji, and Eliot if he's come along.
Starless Night	Elaine continues to search with her clones, but the real one slinks into the darkness and perches on a railing, watching the exchange. If push comes to shove, she's going to need both her clones. Not to fight. Just to move this guy.
Souji Murasame	Souji appears to be utterly unintimidated by the none-too-subtle threat implicit in the hands reaching for the suit coat, but his eyes narrow slightly. "Very well. I am a representative of one of your associates." He gestures down to the moderately furious Polite Words below. She will recover eventually, he is sure. While she looks like she wants to murder things, Souji's behavior is as smooth and unruffled. "My friend and I are here to inquire about some agreed-upon deliveries that have not arrived. Perhaps you would like to offer an... explanation for this." His tone is crisp and businesslike, his voice putting just the right emphasis in order to convey a faint tone of displeasure, as if he is irritated that he even needs to be here.
Eliot Ness	Souji, for his youth, seems to have a good tongue for investigation. Ness will nod his head, "You are late on your shipments and it is delaying business for some very upset people. We would hope that, in apology for this oversight on your part, you will be delivering what you owe as well as, perhaps, a bonus for the inconvenience of us being brought here." Ness brings the baseball bat down off his shoulder and rests the top on the ground, leaning on it as he sizes up the other tough guys hanging around. They probably have guns, despite the danger. Not that it will bother Ness, since dealing with thugs in tight quarters is HIS particular area of specialty.
Polite Words	"I don't know what yous all are talking about, but you best be on your way. This is no place for any sorts of, ah, amateurs." The man says, after blowing out a cloud of smoke. "But if you want to come up and, y'know, talk about it..." Starless Night may be at the correct angle to see that the hand that had looked like it might be reaching for a weapon under the desk is not doing that, and is in fact jamming what appears to be a panic alarm over and over. There's no visible result of this, though, at least not immediately. "So what kind of fireworks did you say we were late on, 'zactly? We did have a batch of roman candles go missing, I heard." The man lies.
Souji Murasame	Souji's eyes close for a moment, and he exhales. Disappointment is clear on his stony face. A moment later, his eyes snap open, and the air around him swirls, blowing outwards to put that cloud of smoke back in the man's face. "I apologize. Perhaps you should leave then, if this is no place for amateurs. I was under the impression I was dealing with /businessmen/." Souji's voice is like a knife as he compresses pure scorn into his tone. "A businessman knows that their agreements must be upheld. A businessman knows that failure to do so comes with /penalties/. You have an opportunity to avoid these penalties, and I recommend that we come to an understanding instead of hiding behind flimsy excuses and delays. Do the reasonable thing, and we can let this pass. Otherwise, it could become... Most regrettable."
Eliot Ness	Eliot Ness looks between the men in the room and then lets his eyes fall on the man again. He adjusts his hat and says, "You are late on the kind of fireworks that collapse a bridge. Or that people accidentally find under their cars after they get off work. Those kinds of fireworks, my friend." "If you don't know where I can find those, well then I suppose you are just useless." Ness brings the bat up and thumps it against the palm of his hand once."
Starless Night	"I don't mind if I do," Elaine suddenly announces. This reveals herself, but it will hopefully seem like she came out of nowhere, just waltzing right up to the fat man and... sliding onto his desk, scooting her rear up onto it and cocking her leg up atop the desk, regardless of paperwork. "As you can see," she purrs. "My companions are very... concerned about your business. You should treat them with more respect." She reaches out and plucks the cigar from his mouth, then lazily puts it out... by opening her off hand and snuffing out the tip with her palm. The smell of burnt flesh - and a hint of sandalwood - fills the air, indicating that she wasn't immune to the flame. She just doesn't seem to care, but then he can't know about the worms that dull her nerves on command. "Of course, if there is some... /problem/ with the shipment, then I'm sure we will be more understanding."
Polite Words	The man seems unnerved enough by Eliot and Souji, nervously looking back and forth between the two as they seem unimpressed by his attempt to brush them off. Those efforts, combined with those of Elaine, who seems to just arrive from nowhere to steal his cigar, snuff it out, and wreck his paperwork. Which mostly seemed to be racing forms, anyways. This'll finally break his nerves, and he'll say, seeming much more desperate than his earlier swagger. "Look.. I've got a wife and kids, okay? I had to take their deal, I can't go to jail at my age." Which seems to be mid-fifties. He's not going to mention that his kids are in their early thirties. That would make the begging less likely to succeed. Any of the group with particularly keen senses may just barely be able to hear the sounds of approaching sirens over the machinery. This won't include Polite Words herself, who doesn't have exceptionally exceptional senses and is nowhere near a window.
Starless Night	Elaine's clones are at the windows, so she'll be able to pick up on the sirens. That means that they don't have much time. She dismisses one of the clones to save on her energy, then shakes her head. "Mn, we don't have much time," she admits. "Was this a trap, I wonder? Oh well." The ninja turns and slides off the desk, scattering paperwork. "Deal from who? Tell us. We'll take care of the problem."
Souji Murasame	"A lot of people have wives and children." Souji says, heartlessly. "But now you are beginning to understand. You are under pressure. Tell us from whom and how." Souji can't hear the sirens coming, but he has a feeling they need to make this fast. "Tell us about this deal."
Eliot Ness	'Take their deal.' "The fuzz is coming," Ness says seriously, glaring daggers at the man across from them, "We won't have long, either, if they've pinched him." The Federal Agent spins the bat in his hands and then slams it against one of the office walls, aiming it so it makes an immense noise in the tight space but doesn't do more than scuff the paint. He looks to the other two. "We should take it on the lam."
Polite Words	"The feds, okay?" The man says, and the sirens will be growing louder, even as the man cringes back from the lunatic with the bat. "They caught on to the operation, and said they'd let me out of it with parole if I helped them try and catch the buyer." This may actually be because of various signs that the buyer in question is something supernatural, such as the barest of traces to who or what they are courtesy of Polite's little identity crisis. The fuzz is indeed on the way, though, and the mission's employer is starting to look up towards the office, seeming to have heard THAT little confession. She's about ready to go if everyone else is, even if her temper still looks like it may boil over.
Eliot Ness	Ness turns right after he admits it's the Feds and then starts to head out. He figures the other two will be following suit, after all: A bloody shootout with the cops in this factory will just draw MORE attention to the operation everyone is here to keep intact. "Remember one thing," Ness points the bat at the man threateningly, "No one ever notices when a rat turns up dead. They just get shoved back in the sewer." And then he's pretty briskly trying to make it towards an exit.
Starless Night	The second clone is dismissed, and Elaine flashes a smile. "See? That wasn't difficult. Now then, we just take care of these 'Feds' and everything will be up and running again in no time~" As if it were that simple, right? Well, to her it is. That's the idea. She just gets up and walks away... but the papers are still moving. The man may discover numerous spiderlike bugs are crawling all over his desk now.
Souji Murasame	Souji has no need to kill this man. Murder is pointless here. He says nothing more, simply narrowing his eyes and turning to leave. More importantly, he steps down to Polite Words. "We have to leave. The authorities are coming." This should just underline what Polite already knows, but maybe his words will help add some haste. Souji himself moves at a brisk pace for his car.
Polite Words	Polite Words gives a serious consideration towards murder anyhow, but given that the rest of the group had decided not to slaughter him, the Exalted will leave it be for now. "The authorities? Wonderful." She says, seeming mostly irked but not horribly surprised by that mention. When she steps outside, her car is already waiting directly by the door, cranked and ready to go. She'll be happy to give a ride to any who choose it, but anyone who doesn't want will be given payment in the official currency of weapons dealers everywhere; that is to say, she'll rapidly toss them a briefcase full of cash from the back of her trunk. "I'll be looking for help dealing with this further later. Thank you all for your assistance this evening." The lights of the police cars are visible in the distance; it's of no worry to her, though. Where she's going, she won't need roads, which is mostly to say that she's going offroad along with anyone who accepts the ride in a little sedan that somehow has no difficulties. MEANWHILE, Vic is in his office, screaming like a small child and hammering at the bugs on his deck with his shoe. His men are mentally making further fun of them in their heads.