Midnight Melee

Thread PL: 5,000 | Items: None

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In the middle of the night, Derry finds himself nearby an old warehouse, ready and prepared to take on a task on his own. Apparently, one of his previous customers, a mob boss named Gra, have stabbed Derry in the back, resulting in the deaths of several goons within the Dirty Snakes. Naturally, the boss wanted to bring this traitor down to his knees himself, and luckily for him, he's already figured out where Gra was. He was rather sloppy when it came to covering his own tracks.

As he was nearing the warehouse where Gra was located, Derry hears two gunshots in the distance. No one else was supposed to be around here, since this job was his. Derry rushed forward to see just what exactly happened, his eyes now looking over two corpses. The two guards that were once standing here protecting Gra now had holes right in between their eyes. How could someone be this accurate? Derry glances over towards the front door of the warehouse and spots the silhouette of a man who he swore was wearing a cowboy hat. At this point, stealth was probably not going to be an option considering he might not be the only one here anymore, so the boss decides to throw caution into the wind.

Derry was given two options: Either go through the same door the stranger went through earlier, or make his own, and Derry knew exactly which one was more fun. Derry has been suppressing his power level this entire time, but for this occasion, he's going to go all out. His power level skyrockets back up to its normal value and he unleashes a barrage of small pink fireballs at the gigantic metal door used for vehicles. Soon enough, Derry punches a hole right through the door and springs into action, ducking behind the nearest crate and begin taking pot shots at whoever was exposed.

As Derry was still taking cover behind a box while taking fire from a whole bunch of different thugs, a single phrase rang out throughout the entire warehouse. Someone said 'It's High Noon,' and he could hear six shots from what sounded like a revolver to Derry. The only other thing he could hear was the dropping of several bodies as they fell face first onto the floor, the sounds ringing out across the warehouse. There was some shouting from the back, and Derry takes this opportunity to peak once again and fling another fireball aimed towards the back of the building. This fireball hits its mark, setting the man on fire and engulfing him in a pink blaze. The rest of the men were shot down by the mysterious stranger, which Derry had yet to properly meet. 

Before he peaks out from his box, the stranger asks how they're going to settle this sort of affair with each other, to which Derry slowly rises upwards, staring straight at the man. "I'm not entirely sure what you mean by that. I came all the way out here to kill that bastard Gra. He's crossed my boys for the last time. Who the hell are you?" At this point, Derry senses an opportunity here. Judging from what the man was saying, it was somewhat safe to presume that he is a bounty hunter of some kind. He certainly didn't recognize him among the rogue's gallery, but he's certainly strong considering what he did to Gra's men earlier. "Look buddy, if it makes ya feel any better, if you were hired by someone to do this, go right ahead and take all the credit. I just want him dead. It's not like I've got better shit to do back at HQ anyway."

The man kept staring straight at Derry, not looking away for an instant. He was very closely studying him, considering each individual word he has spoken very carefully. At the same time, Derry was attempting to get a bit of a read on this stranger. At this point, he most certainly is a bounty hunter from the way he speaks and his remarkable skill with a revolver, although having the ability to manipulate his shots through the use of ki was... rather unique. He can't recall anyone from the Dirty Snakes ever being capable of that, since they either use guns or ki. No one has ever used both, not even Derry himself. As time went on and he became more accustomed to his own powers, he had less and less of a need to keep a weapon on him since the only weapon he every truly needed was the flames that burned within him. This man, however, is giving the gangster some... ideas.

The stranger suddenly spins his revolver around and fires off all six shots into a nearby cardboard box, once again impressing Derry with the speed of this man, although the ability to take down a cardboard box wasn't anything special to him. What truly stuck out to the crime boss was the stranger's kill time, and how long it takes for him to take out each individual guard almost in the blink of an eye. The man asks Derry about this HQ that he spoke of earlier and wonders if he has a bit of a setup back at base, to which Derry responds, "Well, I suppose you could say that. I'm a part of the Dirty Snakes, if you've ever heard of 'em. Kinda hard to not hear about 'em considering the fact that we basically live in their city here. We take on all sorts of stuff: Assassinations, mercenary work, high scale bank robberies, pretty much any illegal business. Derrick Ottoy, friends call me Derry," he says as he extends his hand outwards in an attempt to make peace with the bounty hunter.

The man introduces himself as Cassidy Cerrone, a name that sounded oddly familiar. Derry definitely recognizes it from somewhere before, and hell, he even somewhat recognizes the face as well, but he doesn't recall seeing his face in any of his files before, so where does Derry know him from? Perhaps time will tell when he does a quick search of his background. "Oh, what you're about to say next? Now you've got me a bit intriguied, Mr. Cerrone. What is it that you want from someone like me?" Derry asks as he pulls out a box of cigarettes from his pocket. He puts on in his mouth and ignites it using a flame he created on his finger tip. He takes a few quick puffs before listening in on what this cowboy has to say to him.

Cassidy asks if he could actually join up with the Dirty Snakes and see if he could get his hands on some higher end contracts. He says he's been taking on a whole bunch of small fry and has been looking to climb up the ranks and reach some more... dangerous jobs that could net him some good dough. The cowboy then asks if there is some sort of application for joining up or if Derry plans on denying him, and the crime boss ponders for a moment. Given what the group has right now, they do lack in terms of raw power on their side. Yangcong and Alto were always busy with their own projects, Mirin was a better fit for stealth operations, and Kon just joined and is about as rough as anyone could get. Derry could very much benefit from having someone of Cassidy's caliber in the Dirty Snakes.

"Well Mr. Cerrone, if you don't mind getting your hands dirty, then by all means, I would be glad to have you among my ranks. This certainly is going more smoothly than the last time I've tried bringing someone into the organization, that's for sure. So what is it you specialize in, because the Dirty Snakes take on a whole plethora of jobs. Assassinations, mercenary work, high scale robberies, you name it, we've got it so long as they're paying us."

As Derry was lighting his cigarette, he catches Cassidy staring at him, and he could very easily imagine exactly what was running through the cowboy's mind: Is this some sort of magic? It's been a question the man has been asked multiple times whenever someone sees his power for the first time, and his answer has always been the exact same. He stares at Mr. Cerrone and states, "And before you ask, no I don't know about these powers. Safe to assume I inherited it, but I never knew my parents, so who knows? Not me, that's for damn sure." He takes another puff and starts pacing around some of the nearby crates before lifting himself up on one of them and sits down. 

Thankfully, it seems like this cowboy wasn't shy of killing off a few people every now and then, and he even sites the fact that he murdered many of the guards here as a piece of evidence. "Ah, I suppose I'd give ya that," Derry gives in as he proceeds to take the last bit of his cigarette out of his mouth. He crushes it in his hand, and when it opens up, all that remained was a tiny pink flame before being retracted back into Derry's body. It also seems like Cassidy was very much interested in the Dirty Snakes and 'running with the big boys,' which results in Derry chuckling to himself and asking, "And how many of these 'big boys' have you worked with before, 'cause let me assure ya, we're as big as it gets here."

The cowboy's final question was in regards to who he's partnering up with, and Derry ponders for a moment, thinking about who exactly was a good candidate for Cassidy before coming to one natural conclusion. He looks over the cowboy one last time, making sure this guy could really be up to the task before responding, "Well we've got a bit of a wild card among our ranks. Her name's Kon, and she ain't exactly the friendliest type around the park. Who knows, maybe you'd be the one to get her good side."

Derry gets off of the crate he was sitting on, his landing echoing throughout the mostly lifeless warehouse. He walks back over to Cassidy and reaches his hand out and asks, "So what do ya say, cowboy? Ya interested in workin' along some snakes?"

The cowboy seems to know what he's talking about, which was very reassuring to Derry. He doesn't have to spend much time trying to explain all this sort of lingo to Cassidy, and he seems to be a pretty natural fit for either an assassin or an enforcer. Perhaps he'll have the man stationed as an enforcer early on, and depending on how well he does and how eager he is to become an assassin instead, Derry will pick a good spot for him in the gang. It's always nice to have a few extra hands on deck, especially when the crime boss' major plans are slowly starting to get rolling.

The man's bigshot title was Cowboy, which in hindsight is pretty self explanatory given the getup he's in. It certainly makes him stand out from any of the other hotshots, but he'll have to check in and see if there's any real information surrounding this guy and whether or not he could truly back up his claims. "Oh yeah, I see the whole aesthetic," Derry states as he begins to inspect the man up and down, from his cowboy hat all the way down to his boots. There's barely an inch on him that doesn't scream the style. "I probably got some files back at HQ about you, though it's certainly been a while since I've read them, or else I would immediately recognize you."

Cassidy seems so sure that he could actually calm Kon down, and Derry just knew he had to see this for himself. Maybe if he slipped some sort of camera onto the cowboy's shirt or belt, then perhaps he could see how he does in high definition right from the comfort of his office. Either it actually works and Kon finds someone she doesn't loathe in the organization, or she beats the ever loving shit out of him. "Well then, if you're so sure, I'll make it so that your first big assignment will be with her."

Derry moves in with a handshake and Cassidy fully commits to their little bit, locking the crime boss' hand in a rather tight grip. Some say that you could tell the strength of a man's character by their handshake, and though Derry didn't completely believe in that sort of thing, there was something about this newcomer in particular that screamed promise. "Oh trust me, Cowboy," Derry replies, "if you're ever bored, we'll always have a job around. The business never sleeps."

Exit

Word Count: 422

Total Word Count: 2,168