"Who's the stooge?" Devon asked, raising an eyebrow when he met up with a waiting Daniela outside the Taste of Old with an orc in tow.
"Hey!"
"He's our ticket into an exclusive bar," Daniela said, smiling up at the elf. "Were you able to find something a bit better than our current clothes?"
"Yeah, for you and me. Not for underbite there."
"I am literally standing right here," Raul said, blinking at Devon's blunt treatment.
"Don't get jealous, it doesn't suit you. If you think I am going to go through the trouble of getting some random dude through the gauntlet that is even taciturn approval in the eyes of Ronan then we might need to have a conversation." Daniela shook her head, dismissing the tangent. "Anyway. Anthony should be back in a few minutes, I just cooked the steak of a lifetime and now I am ready to drop the hammer on some fools."
"What? I thought you just wanted to mooch some fancy booze!" Raul exclaimed, glancing between the grinning woman and the elf with concern.
"Don't think about it too hard, stooge," Devon said, following his girlfriend into the Taste of Old.
The brunette had gotten the approval of Jeb for her steak and been given the opportunity to start making special meals as they came through the day. Of course, the situation was limited due to the incoming storm but it was a plus considering she'd only been working with the Taste of Old for two weeks. The sous chefs had been flabbergasted, but Daniela wasn't going to complain. One of the benefits of the responsibility came with access to the small locker room set aside for staff. She wasn't technically supposed to bring Devon into it, but she wasn't technically supposed to not bring him into it. Danny had been working nonstop for fourteen hours, and she wasn't about to get into a fight while smelling like picadillo and ripe armpits. That was a bad recipe.
Thankfully, she wasn't operating under scouting rules and actually got the opportunity to wear something that smelled nice and not just like rotting wood or a soggy stream for the sake of staying hidden. This was a more 'in plain sight' operation. The brunette explained her plan while she and Devon changed, the former whipping the man on the ear with a towel when he tried to get a frisky look. It wasn't a complex plan, considering the number of unknowns in play, but she made sure to address a few contingencies.
Once she was all done, the two headed back to the loading dock where a fuming Raul pulled heavily on a cigarette. It was obviously not one of the pre-Fall brands, but it did surprise Daniela to see him with one. Then again, if there was booze why wouldn't someone grow tobacco? She could only hope there wasn't an Attuned variant of the plant roaming around that she'd have to deal with at some point; her magic was not a good match up.
"I'm just a joke to you, is that it?" the orc complained, giving the two Dreg Warriors the stink eye.
"No. But if you keep complaining I'm going show you the punchline," Daniela said, flatly. "You already agreed to this, Raul. Don't throw a fit because we changed. Not all of us can just polish glasses and run away from sweat of work when it rears its head."
"You--"
For the man's sake, he was lucky that Anthony chose that moment to insert his massive head into the loading bay. The ant looked surprised to see Devon, but greeted it with plenty of gentle antenna pats that left the man giggling. In the hopes of keeping Raul from blowing a gasket before the trio had even made it to the speakeasy, they and the poor station cook attached hanging from the Fire Ant's side made quick work of the harness they'd used for meals. They hoped to continue enlisting him the following day, but Daniela wasn't going to let the staff keep her friend burdened just to save a few minutes from the hours of heartburn Anthony was saving them.
With that, the group was free of the last obligations to the Taste of Old and they made their way north from the restaurant. Daniela tossed Anthony a hunk of raw meat, along with a crate meant for the Bunker Busters at the Embassy containing several servings of the rosemary-pepper steaks and pan-fried potatoes she'd prepared. She hoped it was enough of a distraction, but she couldn't spare Samuel any more of her mind.
There were only a handful of people moving about on the streets courtesy of the darkening sky and the incoming storm, but Danny had noticed a significant uptick in them as she moved closer to the Breaker's territory. It wasn't that the Zebelos area of influence was devoid of people, but they tended to be teams of Cloth Muscles or people going about 'serious business'. Lights on the roofs of apartment blocks shone a bit more casually and Tendrils hung out openly as if unbothered by the attack of nature. A few Partials showed off their elemental bodies for the enjoyment of more than one street crowd drinking in public. She'd heard of 'hurricane parties' as her father called them, but she didn't think the tradition would have survived the very real threat of magic.
Despite all the ambiance, it was her companion that drew Daniela's attention. The further west the trio moved the more nervous Raul grew.
"You didn't tell me we were coming this deep into the Breaker streets!" he complained. "I don't exactly have the best reputation with the Breakers of Flesh."
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"Those are the fighters, right? Bunch of boxing idiots?" Devon asked, appearing aloof but never keeping an eye glued to one place for more than a few seconds.
"Let's just say I owe them a few bucks and leave it at that," Raul huffed. "Come on, let's get to whatever crazy place you want to use me to get into. I want to get home."
"One more block," Daniela said, glancing at the directions she'd gotten from the cook. It wasn't too far off where the trail of the Air Tendrils killer had disappeared. The two things could be entirely unconnected, but considering the Dreg distilling operation Sam had found...
The three arrived at a strange amalgam of an apartment block. Where usually the structures were cobbled together from whatever magic the residents could use to build or augment it, the one they were led to had been very deliberately shaped. The foundations of the structure were rock solid, four thick stone pillars holding up the building with several beams crisscrossing its surface as reinforcements. Making up the walls were vertical and horizontal planks of wood that changed orientation between each level. There wasn't a single window to be seen on the structure. All in all, the aesthetic made the building look like a giant shipping crate.
Daniela double checked they hadn't missed anything, it wasn't like they'd gone wandering through the woods. Before she voiced her confusion, Devon tensed slightly. He tilted his head in the way she'd become familiar meant he was both leveraging his Trait and magic to spy. "There are people posted around the back. And... there's a whole mess of vibrations coming from the ground. It's faint, but they aren't random."
"Seems we did come to the right place. Come on, let's cause a stir."
The moment the group got close to the building, a slat on the second floor opened to reveal a not-very-friendly demon. Nothing but his blood red eyes were visible as he stared down. "What's your business?"
"You're up," Devon air-whisperer to Raul.
"Can't be here for pleasure?" The orc said, taking over and using the wide-tusked grin he gave people that came to the bar.
"No."
"Geez," the orc said, shaking his head smoothly. "Then it's a good thing we came for business. I'm a bar hand down on McMoney and I heard from a little birdy that you all were looking for some extras."
"Who are the tagalongs?"
"You think I wouldn't bring assistants? Don't you know for bartenders it is all about the show and delivery?" Raul pointed to the fine vest over his sleeveless shirt that showed his green-tinged musculature.
It was funny to Daniela how different the man appeared when he was in 'customer service' mode. Then again, he'd been doing that for years longer than Daniela had been at the surface so it shouldn't surprise her. Just because she was experienced at leveraging people's weaknesses didn't mean they didn't have strengths. His presentation had been perfectly according to plan.
"Fine. Let the bouncer know to take you to the side door," the demon grumbled, dropping the slat window without another word.
"There, can I go home now?" Raul said, dropping his grin for a scowl within seconds.
"Not quite," Daniela replied, tipping her head in the direction of the entrance. The orc sighed as if he'd expected the rebuttal but was disappointed anyway.
Flanking a doorway that seemed ripped entirely from one of those old gothic buildings Ronan always tried to show off were a giant and a dwarf. Her Implant showed them as run of the mill Fallen, albeit Q4s which was a bit above average for the leveling-adverse city. The two stared down the orc, elf and brunette when they walked up to the entrance. The giant turned his head slightly, listening to an air-whisper if she'd ever had to guess before turning back to the group. "Which way you going?"
"The fine gentleman at the window said the side door?" Raul said cautiously.
"Good answer. I'm glad I didn't have to smash any heads this early in the day," the giant replied. The two Earth Attuned shared a look before calling forth almost identical spell chains. Raul yelped in surprise, clearly not having expected the display of magic, but Daniela and Devon were unimpressed. Tough to do that considering who they lived with. What did impress them some was the sliding motion that the floor did as it opened a portal to an entirely new place.
No longer were the trio on a middlingly clean street outside of a suspiciously shaped building during a lull in the storm encroaching on the city. Instead, they were transported to the 1920s pre-Fall era. Smooth lighting courtesy of odd cloth-wrapped tubes of slime glow goo and upholstered red walls greeted them along with a stairwell leading down to the building's basement. A rhythmic thrum escaped the locale without the cover of its foot-thick entrance.
"Go all the way straight until you get to the orange door. Don't open any of the side doors and don't linger in the hallway. If you make us, or the other bouncers, get involved you are going to hate it."
"We got it, big boy," Daniela said, grinning and sauntering forward ahead of Raul.
The giant bouncer took a half step as if ready to retort, but found himself eye to eye with an elf. Unsettled by the behavior he'd forgotten he could receive from others outside of his Attunement, the giant took a step closer to the dwarf. Devon waited a beat for Raul to follow Daniela before breaking eye contact and following down. After a few seconds of tense silence, the stone rolled back over their heads, leaving them trapped within the underground portion of the apartment block.
"I didn't realize you could expand downwards," Raul said, breaking the reverie as we scanned the surprising quality of the finish on the walls and floor. "My wife is a giantess. Maybe she can give us some extra room."
"Save the home renovations for when we aren't undercover, yeah?"
"I'm just going to find a comfortable corner. Don't look at me," Raul said, throwing his hands up.
"Fine. Devon will keep an ear out for you. If you get into a mess just yell his name and hopefully we haven't got our hands full. Got it?"
Instead of answering, Raul started knocking on the first door he found. When no one answered and he opened it to see a small sitting room devoid of people, they knew he would be just fine. Especially considering the full tantalus propped on a table in the corner flanked by antique-looking leather couches. Daniela shook her head, closing the heavy wood door. Considering they'd come to the speakeasy with the intention of causing trouble, she could hardly blame the orc for benefitting despite the bouncer's warning. She turned towards the orange door standing ominously at the end of the fifty foot hallway.