It is currently 18:37 Pacific Time on Wed Mar 20 2002.

Currently the moon is in the waxing Half Moon phase (47% full).

Currently in Saint Claire, it is a cloudy day. The temperature is 34
degrees Fahrenheit (1 degrees Celsius). The wind is currently coming in
from the northeast at 13 mph, with gusts up to 21 mph. The wind chill
index puts the temperature to 25 degrees Fahrenheit (-3 degrees Celsius.)
The barometric pressure reading is 30.23 and falling, and the relative
humidity is 85 percent. The dewpoint is 30 degrees Fahrenheit (-1 degrees
Celsius.)

Industrial Sector, Southwest Side

Several blocks encompassing the southern ends of 13th, 14th and 15th
Streets extend in an area poor and abandoned, with but a few businesses
struggling to survive. Along the northern edge of the district is a junk
yard filled with old washers, dryers, tires, and the myriad other elements
of human-created unrecycled waste. Smoke pours from a few factories, and
the more productive factories to the east combine with it to lay a thin
film of dark ash across much of the streets. Other factories, and
warehouses between them, lie abandoned or are home to the poor; at night,
from some of those with windows, the orange glow of oil drums used for
heating and light shine dully through the grime. Small shops serve the few
factory workers who remain in the area beyond the end of the working day,
or during the lunch hours grudgingly allowed. In the northeastern corner
there is slightly more activity in bars offering drinking and even some
gambling in dark corners. Along this stretch of street, the alleyways have
stairways to second-floor rooms, with the occasional alley entrance
occupied evening and night by painted women making blatant offers to the
male passersby. Southwards, on the southern side of Grym Broders Avenue,
the train station falls into disrepair similar to the rest of the area.


Renee slips past the gates that lead into the junkyard, leaving her duties
behind for a quick walk around the block.

Salem moves through the industrial sector at a restless, prowling stride,
hands stuffed into the pockets of his coat.

Matt strolls the street casually, one hand in his pocket, the other
swinging with his stride. A cigarette dangles carelessly from his mouth,
smoke trailing behind him. Perceptive individuals might notice the
suspicious bulge under his jacket, diagonally across the back.

The three on the street seem to catch easy glimpses of each other through
the greys and dirt of this part of the city. The air itself seems to be
muted over in the colors of an old detective movie. The sounds are of
people drinking their ways into and out of local bars, and the coffee shop
is empty tonight. Then everyone on the street can clearly notice something
of import. A Stop-n-Go mom and pop type store sudden come to life through
the window due to three people inside of it wearing ski-caps with holes
cut through the eye areas and wielding shotguns. The general response of
the few people walking the street is to turn, walk away, and pretend they
saw nothing.

Matt recognizes both Salem and Renee, almost scowling at the latter before
the trio of punks in the convenience store distracts him. "Balls," he says
succinctly, and allows the aluminum baseball bat in his jacket to slide
down into his hand.

Renee's eyes harden when she notices the robbery, fingers curling into
fists. The other garou are noted, then the young Gnawer begins slinking
away. Every building has a back door.

Suddenly a shotgun blast goes off and a customer inside running for the
door goes down. There are two working people behind the counter, and four
customers now all cowering in a nice visible corner.

Salem lifts a brow slightly at Matt, then focusses his attention on the
robbery. His expression is cool, almost blase until one of the thieves
becomes a murderer. Then his face hardens. He angles over toward Matt and
speaks in quick, clipped tones. "Your turf, I believe? Have a plan of
action?"

Inside the thugs are clearly yelling at the employees, one male one female
and both young asians, who aren't quite seeming to understand quite what
is being yelled at them through all their tears.

Matt nods toward Renee, guessing her intent. "Cub's headed around back.
We're buddies, stumblin' inta this accidental loike."

"Excellent," says Salem, cracking his knuckles. "Shall we?"

As you get nearer to the building you can more clearly see the people in
the corner, two of which are young asian teenagers, perhaps the children
of the owners. The other two are what appears to be a drunkard coming from
a local bar, and a young attractive woman whom one of the thugs turns to
look at occasionally grabing at his crotch lewdly when she looks back at
him.

Matt nods, tucking the bat away again and sliding an arm around Salem's
shoulder. Instantly, he's a drunk, singing something in Welsh and off-key.

Salem tenses at the physical contact, then shakes his head slightly and
puts his arm around the Fianna, supporting his 'drinking buddy' and making
an attempt to follow along with a tune he doesn't know that's in a
language he doesn't recognize.

No-one pays attention to the homeless, espically those that wander about
stareing into space and muttering to themselves. Just one more crackpot on
the street. Still, Renee's wandering path has a goal. The back of the
store.

Heading down the street after an unsuccessful hunt for Joey and Junior,
the Gaian shuffles down the sidewalk at a quick pace, heavy boots clomping
along the sidewalk. Hands are shoved deep into her long trench coat, dark
eyes staring out ahead of her without so much of a glance side to side.
She has yet to recognize anyone yet in the darkness, but the wailing of
Welsh catches her ear.

Those inside the store seem to be ignoring the outside of it except for
one thug who constantly looks back out the window to make sure the po-po
ain't nearby.

Matt pushes open the door with his body, backing into the store apparently
without a care in the world. In reality he's turning the pair to give
Salem an opportunity to size things up and shielding him at the same time.
He 'stumbles,' letting go of Salem and grabbing the top shelf of a display
to steady himself.

"Whups." Salem makes a show of trying to catch his clumsy compadre while
he scans the interior of the store. If any of the thugs are perceptive,
they might note that the Walker's steelly and stone-cold sober.

The three thugs inside suddenly are quite aware of the drunks stumbling
inside and two of the guns are suddenly pointed at the Garou coming in.
This close one can tell the thugs are twitching nervously and at high
speeds, perhaps the result of large quantities of drugs, perhaps even
crack. You almost stumble over the dying man who was shot trying to get
out. They are yelling at you to get the fuck in and sit down before they
blow your fucking heads off.

Snapping her gaze over towards the shouts, Alicia stares over at the two,
eyes narrowing just a tad. With a tilt of her head, she starts over
towards them, hands still shoved deep into her pocket, chain links
rattling against her knees as they sway back and forth from the connected
wallet. Her boots make heavy thumps upon the cold concrete of night,
breath misting out in the chilled weather. She doesn't say anything, she
simply heads on over.

Salem's face into a broad, easy grin, an expression that's foreign to the
taciturn and usually dour Glass Walker, and he lifts his gloved hands
slightly. "Okay, okay. We don't want any trouble. Right, M?"

Suddenly a loud crash of metal is heard from the backroom and all three
thugs as well as the hostages turn to look towards the noise, one of their
shotguns going off and pellets slam into and through the wall.

As the shot gun goes off, Alicia's face twitches into that of concern, but
continue on she shall. Swaying and swaggering in her own confident street
stride, she passes right on through the door, shoving herself past the
Walker and Fianna and heads right for the ice cream freezer without so
much of a glance over to them.

Matt staggers, pushed by Alicia into the gunman near him. "Sorry, mate,"
he mutters, then knees the man in the groin.

Salem doesn't notice the Gaian's entrance; as soon as the thugs are
distracted, he bursts into motion, coat-tails flying behind him as he
lunges for the gunman in the middle of the store. The easy smile's gone,
replaced by a vicious snarl.

The back wall is shaking from blows against it from the other side,
product falling from it and loud booms from each attack. Matt's knee
connects with the crotch of the goon near the door who grasps at himself,
dropping the shotgun, but recovers soon enough to throw his hands around
Matt's neck, slaming him out of the store and onto the sidewalk. Salem in
the meantime finds himself face to face with a shotgun that goes off just
as the Walker knocks it up and out of the way, spraying his left shoulder
and the ceiling full of pellets, but Salem now has the gun away from the
thug, who is backing away in terror as what should have severly injured or
killed someone else meerly annoys the man who is used to being shot.
Alicia is on the other side of the ice cream freezer now, a clear view of
the third thug who is pointing the gun at her, looking like he is going to
pull the trigger any second now.

A wordless, outraged cry snarls out of the Glass Walker, and the would-be
robber suddenly has to deal with something worse than an annoyed man, but
a very pissed-off Jack Salem. A gloved fist lashes out at the thug's face,
and whether the blow lands or misses, the Walker doesn't pause a moment in
continuing the beat-down.

Salem's opponent seems almost happy to be in a fist fight instead of
looking at a gun and appears suddenly to be much stronger then he did a
moment ago due to his body being hidden by baggy black clothing. He dodges
the first punch as a second swings under and into his stomach, causing the
thug's breath to explode out and propelling him up and into the air a bit,
landing on his feet about two feet behind where he was standing a moment
ago, suprised as hell at the sheer force of the punch just used against
him... leaving him wide open to another attack which a moment ago he was
prepared for.

Matt finds himself on the bottom of a pile, an uncomfortable place to be.
He rolls, ignoring the hands around his neck for the moment, to free the
ball bat from under his jacket.

Salem doesn't give the thug a moment's breath. He closes the space between
them, feints low and strikes high, moving faster than any human has a
right to move.

Suddenly, from the backroom, Renee leaps from behind the wall onto the
third gunman that Alicia was staring down and is on him like a feral
monkey actually bitting harshly through the pulled-down ski-mask and into
his neck causing him to drop the shotgun and reach up around his back to
claw whatever the hell it is off of him.

When the Gnawer cub distracts the man from behind with her surprising
attack, Alicia moves quickly in a blur, throwing up one hand, holding a
heavy looking Glock, black, sleek. Squinting her eyes, she double taps the
trigger quickly to hopefully catch the man in the chest and to take him
out of the fight quickly.

Outside on the sidewalk Matt seems to take a moment to close his eyes and
concentrate, ignoring the strong hands clenching tightly around his
throat. This done for about five seconds, his eyes snap open again, a calm
yet intense glow seeming to come from them that chills the man beneath
Matt to the core as Matt reaches back and practically unsheathes a
baseball bat from under his jacket. The thug under Matt uses this time to
throw an adrenaline backed punch at Matt's face which connects squarely
with a crunch and breaks Matt's jaw turning his head to the side roughly.
In the meantime in the store Salem closes quickly with his adversary and
commenses a beatdown on the bewildered goon, fury and speed back his
punches and soon blood is splattering from the blows the Walker is laying
into the man who a moment ago shot him. Over a bit more the man with a cub
on his back bitting the hell out of him is shot twice in quick succession,
once in the upper chest and once in the neck. He goes down like a brick
with wide eyes and a suddenly splattered with blood cub on top of him.

Renee grunts and sits up on the dead man's body, squinting past the blood
that splatters her face. Managing to get back onto her feet, the cub makes
her way towar the store's owners. Pointing at the door that leads into the
backroom and trying to shepard them toward it.

The baseball bat is labeled 'Worth,' as in 'prove yours.' Wielded in one
hand, it swings brutally down to connect with the head of Matt's opponent;
the Fianna sitting on the poor bastard with a beatific smile on his face
(the part that isn't a bloody mess, anyway). "Fuckin' Septic," he gurgles,
barely comprehensible. "Tryin' this shit in my bloody Pope."

It is time folks, in the distance the muffled sound of sirens is finally
heard.

Salem pauses. All the fight seems to have gone out of the thug under his
fists, and he straightens up, yanking off the ski mask as he lets the
battered body slump to the floor. The Glass Walker's nostrils flare as he
scans the shop, bleeding and bloody, his scarred face something to have
nightmares about. "Time to go," he says curtly, in response to the sound
of sirens.

"Everyone Ok? No one has holes in 'em, right?" Alicia asks as she slips
the gun back under her jacket, glancing to them as she quickly heads over.
Stepping into the night air, she lets out a soft breath, rubbing the back
of her neck.

"Nothing a good night's rest won't cure," Salem quips. His blood's still
high; he's not feeling his blasted shoulder. Yet. He glances quickly back
toward Renee and the shopkeepers, marking their progress.

Matt is still outside, beating his punk nigh unto death. There is a wet,
bloody spot on the bat.

The man beneath Matt is unconscious, bloody, and on the verge of death
within moments. The shopkeepers almost seem about to follow the cub but
just hit the deck behind the counter when the siren is heard. The hostages
in the corner however have a bit more wit, and instead of answering
Alicia's question, run out the back. Lights are visible in the distance
and the sirens are growing clearer and closer every moment. The unmasked
man beneath Salem is a white teenager, suprisingly well groomed... and
probably equally hopped up on drugs at the moment.

Renee scowls at the shopkeepers, as hit the floor. So be it. Blood
splattered and tense, the cub makes her way out back. Heading for the
safetly of the alleyways and shadows.

"Aiiight, so lets get the fuck outta 'ere then..." Alicia quickly shoves
her hands down deep into her pockets and starts off at a quick pace, head
once more dropped and down.

Salem apparantly approves of the Gnawer cub's choice of exit, and starts
heading for the back himself. To Alicia, he says, "See if you can drag
that boy away from his target."

Matt finally steps up from the unconscious robber, turning the body over.
He digs in the boy's back pocket to find his wallet. From it he pulls a
bit of cash and the driver's license. "Now Oi know where you fookin'
/live/ you moron." He drops the wallet on the unconscious boy's back.

"C'mon Matt, the po'po are about here." Alicia calls out from the alley in
a hurried hush before disapearing into the darkness, letting it swallow
her up.

Closer still like speeding snails the cop cars seem to be getting closer,
any moment now perhaps they will have arrived.

Salem heads out the back and into the night, cursing quietly under his
breath.

Matt nods, and jogs into the darkness with Salem and Alicia. As he does
so, he shifts up, gaining a little mass and facial hair. He grabs his jaw
and pushes it back into place with a sickening, wet crunch, a painful
sound that doesn't make it to his eyes.

Renee is long gone. These streets are her home and she knows them inside
and out.

Wincing at the sound of Matt's jaw, the Gaian bites on her lip not to let
out a muffled groan. She continues to follow after Salem quickly through
the darkness, letting out a breath, staying silent.

"Excellent diversionary tactics," Salem mutters, mostly to himself, once
they're well away. "Have to mention it to Kaz." He winces then,
remembering his shoulder, but remains in human form. "Otherwise, sloppy."
He glances at Alicia and Matt. "I'm headed to the safe house."

"Wasn't that bad Salem. Good guys won, thats all that matters in the end
eh'?" Smiling, Alicia steps off a bit and rolls her shoulders a bit. "Tell
everyone back at the homestead I said Hi.. I guess I'll get back home and
see if Tom is sleeping or not. Take care.. you too Matt."

Salem nods once, though still the Walker seems... unsatisfied. "Be seeing
you," he says, and then parts ways for the nonce.