[hr][h1][color=dimgray]Sam Clarke[/color][/h1][hr] 

[i]Well somebody had a dump taken in their Cheerios this morning,[/i] Sam thought. As [i]Caesar[/i], as he called himself, ranted and raved Sam clenched his fists and sighed aggressively. The guy said "Dreadnaughts", and Sam froze. Dreadnaughts, Dreadnaughts, where had he heard that before? He thought back to his days in Mendel, thinking that it might've meant something back then. Then it hit him; the Dreadnaughts were mercenaries, a PMC company out of the Aland Islands. Why was there a mercenary on his comms? What the hell was going on? Something was very wrong here. While Sam wanted to give this guy a thrashing, he was also in a way horrified. How did a hired gun get onto a secure channel. Luckily, Lihua cut in and prevented them from getting into the biggest comms fight in the history of NEST. 


"Dreadnaughts?" Sam seethed in reply. "Like, the mercenaries? Jesus, Lihua! Who's idea was it to hire damn mercenaries to help us?! This is utterly ridiculous!" Sam looked over at Nightingale and gave her the cut sign, two fingers across the throat. There was no way he was going to take orders from this guy.  "This is bullshit. Lihua, let NEST know that my team and I will not take orders from a hired gun, especially one who's immature enough to throw a damn temper tantrum over my communications system! Until I receive orders from elsewhere, I will not proceed any farther with the mission. If Director Caryl disagrees with this, I am sure that KINGFISHER EAGLE would be happy to talk to her about it himself." Sam leaned back against the wall and looked around. He hoped he hadn't been too loud about it. If his cover was blown in this neighborhood, there would be hell to pay. 


[hr][h1][color=darkslategray]PLAGUE[/color][/h1][hr] 


Meanwhile, in the Iron District, a manhole popped up in an intersection of a dark alley. From the manhole came Plague, a black duffel bag slung over his shoulder and a gun stuck in his waistband. Roark followed close behind. He carried with him a flashlight and a submachine gun. Once reaching the surface, Plague looked around to see if anyone was coming. Then he opened the duffel bag, took off his mask, and stowed his gun inside. Roark did the same. Then he handed the bag to Roark and they walked out onto the street, looking like two completely normal citizens, albeit rough ones. Doing this made travel much easier, as no one was sure what either of them looked like without masks on. They easily slipped through the streets, avoiding police officers and weaving through back alleys when things looked suspicious. In one alley, a group of men tried to mug them; they would never be heard from again. 

It wasn't long before they came to an abandoned power plant near the center of the district. They walked around the rusted building until they reached a barbed chainlink fence. Looking to make sure that they weren't being followed they slid through a gap in the fence and walked up to a back entrance hidden behind a row of old shipping crates. At this point, they put their masks back on. The guards standing at the door parted at the sight of the Fiend lieutenant and he walked in unabated. 

"Let Khan know that I am here to see her," he said to one of them. He nodded and rushed off. 


[hr][h1][color=teal]Santiago Woods[/color][/h1][hr] 


It was a fairly standard day for Verthaven's greatest jewel thief. He awoke in his crummy apartment in Union Point Hills around noon and ate a ham sandwich to take care of his dying hunger. He wistfully wandered around the small room for most of the daytime, playing video games on his abnormally-large flatscreen, watching porn on his computer, and caring for his very expensive New Caledonian Giant Gecko. Then, when night came, he slipped out and took a walk in the streetlights. It was hard looking unsuspicious with a giant reptile snout and tail, but he tried his best and the streets were relatively empty. He decided this night to take a trip to Knightdale Rows. As all criminals usually did, he took the sewers over. On the way, he passed a scuffle of sorts involving the Fiends, but his chromatophores allowed him to slip past easily; Fiends never looked up, you see. 

Reaching Knightdale Rows, Santiago climbed the brick walls of a row house and began to climb across the walls in back alleys, looking carefully in windows to see if there was anything worth stealing. He passed a few empty rooms, a family having dinner ("Look, mommy! It's a dinosaur!" one little boy cried out), an old couple arguing, two teenagers having sex (boy did they get a surprise), and a few men huddled in front of their computers with their pants down. Nothing unusual. He was sitting camouflaged against a brick wall, wondering what he would do with the rest of his evening if he had nothing to steal. Then he heard shouts from nearby. He ran along the walls on all fours and jumped down into the backyard of a large beach house, where there was a party being held. Intrigued, he climbed the walls and slipped inside of a window into a very poshly-decorated room. [i]Jackpot,[/i] he thought. Immediately he began to rifle through drawers, looking for expensive-looking jewelry and stuffing it into his knapsack. He found a beautiful white jewelry box sitting on the vanity in the corner and, rifling through it, discovered that it had an exceptionally-large amount of diamonds in it. Snickering to himself, he placed it in his sack and, not wanting to press his luck any further, slipped back out of the window. As he left, the door opened behind him He climbed to the roof and blended back in, waiting for them to discover it. It wasn't long until:


"... Quoi? Quoi? Sacre Bleu! où est mon putain de collier? Merde! Merde! Merde!" Well damn! Santiago had to try hard to keep from laughing. The voices sounded drunk, though, and he didn't feel as if he had anything to fear. He snuggled down on the roof and prepared to listen to the hilarity unfold. 


[hr][h1][color=powderblue]Taylor Pierpoint[/color] and [color=gold]Carole Elias[/color][/h1][hr] 

This party had gotten out of hand. People were running amok, booze was everywhere, Carole was walking around naked, and now there was fighting. Taylor sighed and left the room, leaving other people to break the fight up. She was too drunk to care and was at her wit's end. At this point, she regretted having ever thrown this party. She went to her room to take a break from the raving, and plopped down on her bed, her chest heaving. She heard voices from down the hall, and Eli walked into her room. 

"Taylor, this party has gotten out of control," he said. "There's people fighting downstairs and most of your bedrooms are filled." 

"I kno," Taylor sighed drunkenly. "I don't...don't know whut to do. I cna't just kick them all out, cnI?" 

"I don't know what you should do, my friend, but I do know that this isn't the place that I should be right now, so I'm leaving. I haven't had anything to drink, so I'll be alright getting home. I wish you the best of luck. It was nice seeing you again." 

"Oh Eli," Taylor replied. "I feel afwul abuot all of this! Maybe we can mete fer lunch tomorrrrrrow?" Eli smiled. 

"I'll see what I can do," he replied, smiling. Then he tossed Taylor a water bottle from off of her dresser, walked down the steps, and left the house. It was then that Taylor realized that her jewelry was missing. 

"... Quoi? Quoi? Sacre Bleu! où est mon putain de collier? Merde!Merde!Merde! Who stole my FUCKING jewelry box???" She stormed out of the room and ran down the stairs, falling as she reached the bottom and hitting the floor hard. 

"WHO STOLE MY FUCKING JEWELRY BOX?" she screamed. 

"... The one full of your nipple piercings?" Meifeng giggled. 

"IT HAD OVER TWELVE THOUSAND EUROS OF DIAMOND JEWELRY IN IT!" she screamed back. Johnny intervened. 

"Well go get them then!" she shouted. "Nobody leaves the damn house until I find it! Where is Jasmine and her weirdo friend?" 

"Pretty sure she's in bed with her girlfriend," Neal said from the hallway. 

"No, I'm right here," Jasmine Chang walked down the steps somewhat clumsier than usual. Her clothing was messed up and the top three buttons of her blouse were undone, and her trench coat was nowhere to be found. "I'll look around and see if I can find anything on your box. In the meanwhile, get me coffee." 

"Get it yourself!" Taylor barked back. 

"Can't I'm busy sorry please leave a message after the beep. Now if you want your necklace found you'll bring me that coffee. Without it, the alcohol in my system will prevent me from using my abilities." Taylor grumbled and stumbled off to the kitchen to find coffee (well, get a sober servant to get it for her). Jasmine walked back upstairs and leaned against the wall, trying to stop the walls from spinning. Carole walked up to her, still in her underwear. 

"H-hy," Carole muttered "Wahtsoup nyerdd?" Jasmine rolled her eyes. Carole got uncomfortably close to her. "I nyvr nuticzed houw qte u r." Jasmine could smell the alcohol in her breath. A foreign hand was uncomfortably close to her breast. In one fluid motion, Jasmine punched Carole in the face and swept her legs out from under her. She shouted and crumbled to the floor. Jasmine lifted her up and half-drug her back to her room. Claire stuck her head out of the room she was...occupying and looked at the two of them quizzically. 

"She fell," Jasmine said. Claire nodded and went back inside.