"What's a pretty little thing like you doing in a place like this?" Ali rolled her eyes as she turned to the hulk of a human who'd just plonked himself at the bar next to her.

"Business," she said with a sweet smile, before knocking back the last of her drink.

"How much, sugar?"

Ali laughed as placed the glass back on the bar. "You couldn't afford my wares."

As she turned to leave he grabbed her upper arm to stop her from leaving. Ali looked at his hand before giving him a pointed look. "I don't think you understand the power structure -" Ali didn't wait for him to finish before she dug her thumb into the soft tissue between his thumb and forefinger, whilst twisting her hips to strike at his throat with a leopard blow. She didn't even have to worry about hooking her calf behind his to trip him, one of the bar stools did that quite nicely.

She sighed as she dusted her hands before crossing her arms. She considered giving him a warning, but she decided she'd made her point. "Your meeting is ready," the bartender said.

Ali turned with an almost genuine smile. "Need something extra to clean this up?" She wasn't surprised that the bartender confirmed that this was perfectly normal and simply beckoned her to get to her meeting.

It was a fairly standard weapons deal with one of Ali's less than favourably remembered old contacts. On the face of it, it was a simple fact finding mission, she had the supply lines set up in her cushy new job and she was reaching out to find out what he needed. For the most part she just needed to sit and politely listen to his spiel about how long it had been since he'd heard from her and how well his "business" was doing. At least she knew when to smile at the right time as she reclined on a plush chair, idly taking in the gaudy decor. Velour draperies and shiny beads were an odd decorating choice to try and hide the dull panels of cheap, identikit construction.

She had just managed to gently nudge him into talking about his armoury needs when his head jerked towards the doorway. "What's the point in having guards if they just let anyone invite themselves in?" He demanded as Ali stood to look at who had just joined them.

"What are you doing here?" Both Ali and Wood asked at the same time as they glared each other down.

Their host quickly assessed their reactions before clapping and laughing loudly. "You two know each other?"

Somehow, and she didn't know how, Ali just about resisted rolling her eyes where they were still glaring at each other. "You could say that," Wood agreed. He was glaring at her too. "Why is she here?"

"This is my playground and my meeting. What the hell are you doing here?" Ali asked indignantly.

"Making a new life for myself after the trail of destruction you leave in your wake," Wood spat.

Ali gave him a little smug smirk. "You can't blame me for USEP kicking you out." She paused for effect. "You enjoyed it too much."

"You -"

"Weren't the one popping off like a teenager."

They held each other's gazes for a moment before Wood struck her with the back of his hand. "Maybe we should put you to a better use than smuggling," he suggested as she nursed her cheek with a dark look in her eye.

Ali reached for her pistol. "Out, now!" Their no longer amused host warned as his guards had trained their weapons on her already. "Before I consider his suggestion."

Ali glared at Wood for a moment longer before forcibly relaxing her arm and nodding respectfully to the dealer before taking her leave. After passing under the curtain she was soon lost in the din of the club. "Was that really necessary?" A voice in her ear asked.

"They needed to see us as enemies, and what better way to anger a man than criticise his bedroom abilities?" Ali breathed as she went to buy another drink. She needed to show that she would not be intimidated easily.

"Don't take this the wrong way, Ali, but sometimes I do wonder how you survived as a merc," Grey teased. Ali laughed softly into her drink. He wasn't the only one, she was sure.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Ali had long since scarpered from that club by the time Wood was done having usurped her meeting. She was a couple of streets over looking at specs for spaceships - and wondering if USEP would care if she kept a Hotpot 2 aboard the Faraday - when the subdermal comm Etsile had planted flared to life. "There isn't a password, but it sounds like there's a sponsor system. We'll have to play it by ear."

"Then you and Pixie go first, Rila and I will follow separately and follow your lead." Ali whispered as she pretended to scratch her head to cover her quiet words.

There was a pause before he confirmed that made sense and their overall plan hadn't changed, and Ali knew he had considered warning her against coming at all. They had already had that conversation. They all agreed it was dangerous for her to go, but they had all also agreed that they needed her on the ground. To his credit he had respected her enough not to rehash old arguments. Ali felt oddly pleased by that.

When the time for the rally rolled around the four of them had all staked out a good viewpoint to observe from. Wood was going first, with a legitimate invitation from that dealer, with Pixie as his associate. Rila would wait a while before copying his moves at the door and then Ali would repeat last. That got all four of them into the rally with no suspicions.

If everything went according to plan that was.

Weirdly Ali was most worried about getting Pixie in. Everyone in the know was worried about her gaining entry to a rally that could potentially be anti-hybrid. Ali was worried about getting the unknown with no experience of undercover in. It wasn't that she didn't think Pixie could handle herself - Ali knew that she could - but they were walking a fine line, and finesse wasn't Pixie's strongest suit.

It turned out she needn't have worried. Wood simply glared down the guy working the door and dared him to question him again. Though Ali did have to count to ten as she watched Pixie stick her tongue out at the bouncer as she sauntered past behind Wood, otherwise she was about to let loose a very colourful scolding over the comm. "You know, I didn't think he had it in him…" Rila observed, "the man can hustle."

"You do know that he can still hear you, right?" Ali checked. She did agree with Rila, though she'd never been intimidated by Wood - and he had tried when they first met - apparently when put in the right situation he could pull it off.

"He was supposed to," Rila shrugged.

"You know, if we pull this off, you two owe me a drink," Wood chimed in, making both of them laugh.

Wood and Pixie's test run of the door was all Rila and Ali needed to blag their own way in. They both had people they could name drop, and they were both relatively well known in the underground world to be recognisable as potential contacts. Their presence wasn't out of place.

Once inside it was easy enough to lose themselves in the crowd. Ali was surprised and disgusted at just how packed it was. It looked like an old warehouse, decorated with Cosmos' Champions' paraphernalia and dimly lit with green lighting. The walls were lined with various walkways. There were some make-shift bars operating here and there - never leave your thugs thirsty - and someone had had the presence of mind to set up some music to occupy the masses with until it was time for the main event. There was even a podium and everything.

Wood and Pixie were to try and locate Pixie's brother and let her do or say whatever she needed to do. Rila was hunting down the ringleaders of this gathering - they suspected Touchard or Zychene - and Ali was gathering as much information from the masses as she could. The more they could find out about why everyone was here the better. Ali couldn't believe that they all hated hybrids with a burning passion, it was far more likely that they were here for money or other material gain.

At least what she overheard as she made her way between groups and weaving through the crowd bore that out. They wanted the prestige of joining such a well known merc group, or the money, weapons, people… Few were there for any specific hate, it was just the usual lack of convictions or principles so long as they got paid. Ali found it hard to judge them, after all she had found out what lines she wouldn't compromise on to get by. "The speaker is Touchard," Rila suddenly confirmed quietly. "Given how much he's preening I'd say it's something big, but he was too cagey to talk specifics."

"The size of the crowd would corroborate that," Wood agreed.

"Pix, any word on your brother?" Ali asked, she had nothing else to add because she agreed with Rila and Wood so she switched to their other business.

"I think I can see him now."

"Okay, be careful and try not to draw attention to yourselves." That was the last thing they needed in a mob-in-waiting.

After a few more moments Ali spotted Rila up on one of the walkways and as they caught each other's eye they started making their way towards the stairs that would allow them to meet up. No matter the situation they were better off in closer proximity to each other. As Ali continued to scan the crowd she couldn't help but think there was going to be some irony in the future based on the multicultural aspect of the crowd. She'd put good odds on a number of inter-species relationships forming from meeting here, though she'd put less money on many of them lasting long term.

She saw a good spot next to a stairway to watch the proceedings from and was about to make her way to it when someone in Cosmos' Champions branded armour blocked her path. Ali made to simply sidestep around them - she'd rather not instigate a fight in this crowd - but they stepped into her path again. "How about we both step to our lefts?" Ali suggested as politely as she could whilst keeping a firm tone to discourage the woman from messing with her.

"I don't think so, Captain Turner."

Ali finally looked up properly at the sound of her name - she'd been keeping her head down to lower her chances of being recognised - and scrutinised the other woman with curiosity but feigned indifference. She needed this woman to think that she was insignificant. However, as she took in the details of her face a familiarity blossomed in the back of her mind. "Petra," she gasped.