Ryorea's story... (ongoing, maybe)

[Ryorea]

The researcher was sitting at his desk, his back to the door, with something playing over Gridstream that had a prominant beat and a woman's whispery voice. He didn't even turn around, as the sound of the opening door was obscured by an amusing bit of Tarryk commentary in the middle of the song.

*THWOMP*

A giant cat flew past Lauryn and tossed the researcher out of his chair and to the ground. "That's one was of doing that," she heard Pete mutter to himself.

She and Pete exchanged shrugs. "Tie him up," Pete said shortly, his voice muffled by the mask.

While she tied the still-befuddled scientist to his chair, Pete searched the desk and dropped a bundle of papers and memory discs out in the hallway. "Start packaging that," he told Albea.

"Who the hell are you?" the scientist asked. Lauryn didn't bother to answer.

"Let's do this. Fan out, everyone."

Lauryn and the adventurer started scouring the rest of the offices for the research materials they were looking for. Pete ordered Albea to turn the motion sensors on in the west corridor so they would know if the scientist managed to free himself.

They were out after two hours. Pete transported them and their huge pile of boxes into the grid while most of the lab was still out celebrating Valentine's Day.

[Ryorea]

Another dingy bar. Or rather, the same dingy bar, but a different time. Ryorea thought she hated her life at that moment.

"Well, that was the easiest job I've had in years," Ryorea snorted at Pete. They were back in Tir the next day, and Pete was treating the lot of them out for (bad, cheap) drinks. "The damn scientist didn't even put up a fight."

Pete grinned. "That was the easy part."

"What?"

"I told you some of the scientists have slightly more powerful friends. More powerful than them, that is."

"And you want us to beat them up."

"Bluntly, yes. I've already arranged to have equipment delivered to you..."

[Cogs]

This is one to follow, thats for sure. Waiting in suspense for the next installement

Cogs

[Ryorea]

"What the hell happened?" Pete yelled. This time, he'd moved the meeting from one of those awful, only pseudo-private bars to an apartment in Old Athen that looked as though it had been hit by a small tornado that swept up most of the furnishings, thrown it out a window, and abandoned the rest of the debris inside. In general, the place looked unusually messy for how sparse it was.

"You didn't tell us we'd be outnumbered two-to-one!" Lauryn yelled back. She'd have insulted him further, but her head was still pounding from rez sickness. She would consider further giving him a piece of her mind after the drink kicked in and the headache wore off.

Pete seethed silently as he paced back and forth, past Lauryn, past Sol who sulked, past Bakaneko who interested himself in cleaning a sword. Sol grumbled, "We couldn't do anything about it. Just because you hired us doesn't mean you could've expected us to kill a charging herd of minibulls."

"Per the contract, none of you are getting paid for the second part of the deal. Since I'm nice, I'll let you keep the equipment I gave some of you."

"You can take your equipment back," Sol said, throwing an assault rifle back at the little opifex, who barely managed to catch it without falling backwards. "Ryo, let's go."

The two of them walked out on Pete. "Unsympathetic bastard," Sol grumbled. "I don't like working for people who expect me to perform miracles. I'll try to find us some better jobs Ryo, eh?"

"Yeah sure. Of course."

"I should've kept the equipment like you did."

"So much for the honest life," Ryo muttered.

[Flameforge]

Whoops, forgot to reply when I had read this.

Pete sure picks interesting meeting places. Good ending, though. Should've kept the rifle