Rising Phoenix Gaming

"Good!" Jo growled as she drove pass the entrance to the parking garage. She glanced at the rearview and side mirrors, catching sight of one of the cars, and taking the word of her passengers that they were indeed following them. "If we can catch some of 'em ahlive," she said with a quick look at Glory, "we might be gettin' some answers, ah reckon. And maybe some new wheels to boot." Jo flicked on the blinkers to turn left, then took a sharp right around the parking structure, stepping on the gas. "Hope this place has an entrance on th'other side. Ah'll go down to the bottom where nobody likes to park. Fewer risks to those not involved. Ah'll slow on the way, our gunwoman and gunman jump out, and if one of 'em follow us, y'all come up behind 'em when they think us cornered." Jo took another right, slowing back to the speed of the surrounding traffic, and letting out a breath as she saw another entrance to the garage. Adrenaline began pumping once more. "Good? Hope, so, since Ah'm going in."

Scarlet's eyes shifted away from her scan out the left window to find the car in question and grunted softly. She pointed out her window to a dark blue SUV a few cars back, no surprise evident on her face. "There's two, actually," she returned flatly with a shrug and little chuckle, "At least two, maybe. Our conspiracy could have more of them hiding in the traffic flow or parallelling us on other streets." She pulled out her portable medkit inventorying its meager supplies, not entirely unhappy. More heat on them should mean less heat on the SUC. And that was something to be hoped for. And it showed all her training under her Uncle and others hadn't been entirely wasted that she'd managed to find the two cars.

Cole was looking out the window, and happened to look behind them. There was a car that seemed to be trying just a little too hard to not be noticed behind them, yet it was staying there, doggedly keeping up. "We may want to make a detour, I do believe someone is following us." He didn't point, simply kept looking out the window. "Green sedan, about 4 cars behind us on the right. Turn somewhere and let's see if it follows us."

"Turn left, head toward Berkshire." Glory instructed. She though about Johansson's questions, but in truth she didn't know the answers. Glory was used to being given a task, a job, a target. Here she was on her own with three strangers and no idea what was really going on. Her instincts said to cut them loose, get away from them and go it alone. BUt she also felt that if she did they would end up dead and for some reason she felt responsible for them. This wasn't like her. Not at all. "We need to ditch this truck, find something less conspicuous." While she had been thinking and Jo had been driving she had been using her phone. They hit Berkshire. "Which way," asked Jo? "Right. There is a parking garage with an automated entry go in there. We need to figure out what we are going to do. and find some new wheels."

"Ah'm guessin' you've got lotsa friends," Jo muttered wryly to Glory when she climbed into the Hummer. She might not totally disagree with the consiglieri or whatever she was in how she had dealt with the gangers shooting at them, but forcing the EMT to come along, even if Scarlet was making their lives harder was another thing. The huge woman put the equally huge SUV into drive and accelerated away from the suspect Emergency Clinic at a non-suspicious speed. She caught Scarlet's eye in the rearview mirror and gave her a discrete shake of the head, trying to convey she'd get her away as soon as she could. "Ah ain't no investigatah, so where do we go or who do we all need to be 'talkin'' to, to find out who here is behind all this shit and make 'em stop?" Jo asked. She was a fighter and a lover, and direct in both cases. She wasn't made, in physique or personality, to equivocate or dissemble. "Can we find out who tipped yer lot off, Glory, see if they're behind this? Or maybe talk with the Tongs, see if they know anything?"

Cole shook his head. Scarlett was going to push too far, and while he certainly understood, now was a time for discretion. He knew Glory was already watching him, his skill with a gun had already put her on edge. Still, short of killing her, there wasn't a way to extract from this situation, and guarantee the safety of Jo or Scarlett. Fine, I'll go along. This isn't something the Concern normally gets involved with, but with such violence so close to home, we can't afford to turn a blind eye to it. He was aware he'd likely have a hell of a debriefing after this, but that would only be if he survived.

"Works for me. The one-and-only basis for trust between us is the men you needlessly killed, so the only time I'd *not* expect a bullet in the back as I walk away would be after I double-checked you for a lack of pulse, Miss Assassin," responded the blonde EMT with enough acid in her tone to bleach the paint on the humvee, body language radiating contempt as she strode past the killer. She had done her best. The people of the SUC knew what might follow this exchange, and whether or not they could act to deflect that storm, Scarlet would sleep easier knowing she tried. Her body thrummed with adrenaline, knowing now was where the danger really started, when the hostage taker saw she was non-compliant and might take measures to break that behavior. Flickers of a man in a red coat looming over a younger Scarlet and her friends in a dark cabin danced in the corners of her vision. If this was the storm, let it come. Her past was not today. She'd done too much work to let it be. God, let her assessment of the other two be correct if it came to that.

Glory and Jake were working the last of the details when Juanita and Maria, nurses at the clinic, came in eying Glory and relayed Scarlet's warning to the Doctor. The back door to the clinic opened and two young men, one white and one Latino, came out with a wheeled stretcher. They were followed by A doctor and Glory. They proceeded to unload Basilone while Glory checked her phone frowning at the messages. The mob assassin, for that is how everyone was thinking of her, gave Scarlet who was talking to the Doctor now, a studious look. As soon as it looked like Scarlet had given all her information on Basilone, Glory stepped in and addressed Scarlet. "I was going to leave you here so you could get back to your life, but from what just happened with Juanita and Maria I obviously can't trust you. Get back in the car, you are coming with us."

"Yes," the blonde EMT answered with her best disarming 'things are bad but we've got the skills to solve them' smile, instantly putting the two nurses on guard, "As we speak an armed and dangerous criminal is trying to admit a badly injured Basilone mobster to the SUC after a fire fight that's gotten 4 people dead. I don't know what her plan to do so is, but even if she doesn't take the staff hostage openly like she did my partner and I, the patient is absolutely going to bring a lot of heat from a lot of dangerous people down on you all. I need to get back to the Humvee before she misses me and gets more violent, but you two need to get the word to the police and get everyone out of the building safely before it goes wrong." This was The City. Its medical staff were no strangers to things going wrong, veterans of the SUC more so than most. While the two nurses digested that, Scarlet rattled off a quick description of Glory, indicating the enforcer's height with one hand. She took their silence as understanding and smiled more reassuringly, "Got it? Good luck."

Glory was spotted by her target the second she entered the clinic, Doctor Jacob Zareem, a Tall rail thin black man, very good looking, an immigrant from South Africa by way of the United Kingdom. When he saw her, he immediately looked all around then with a word to the nurse standing by him walked oward her and then turned into an empty examining room motioning for her to follow him. When she did, with one last look around he closed the door. "Gloria it has been some time." His accent was very hard to place due to his origins but his diction was perfect. "I hope this is a friendly visit as this clinic does not do what I used to do." "I know Jake. that's why I cam to you. I have a very seriously injured man I need to get to a hospital. Anonymously. Scarlet found the smoking area and she was in luck two women where there and both wore the blue green scrub tops most nurses in the city wore. The women were Latinas , and probably in their late twenties. The nurses had seen the big garishly painted Humvee roll past and into the back of the building by the emergency entrance but they were some what surprised by the appearance of an EMT coming around the corner. As the put out their cigarettes the taller of the two spoke. "Can I help you?"

"Fair enough. I definitely understand." He sighed. "This isn't good at all for me, but as I said, I'm in too deep to walk away. I'm not big on walking away from a fight either, but all the same, getting involved in a gang turf war isn't fun for anyone. The Tongs are some of the worst to cross, and she's right, whoever that was, that was not a Tong hit team."

Jo watched Glory exit the vehicle one way, then Scarlet slip out the other way with a very transparent excuse. Jo groaned, thick tendons in her forearms dancing as her hands tightened on the steering wheel. This was far from the best situation, and it looked like there was every opportunity it might get worse. Glory entered the Clinic. Jo looked the other way, and saw Scarlet disappear around the corner of the building, and sighed in unison with Cole. An arm on the back of the passenger seat, Jo looked over her shoulder, first at the raggedly breathing Basilone, then met Cole's eyes. "Ah ain't never walked nor run from a fight before. Ain't gonna start now. They burned down mah bar, and Ah wanna find out who did the deed and make the fuckers pay fer it. It was mah bar. Ah paid fer it. Ah helped build it, and Ah ran it. It was mine. They don't get to take it away. Don't care if it was Tongs, Mob, or whoever else." Jo hand balled into a big fist, her bicep swelling impressively. "Ah'll find 'em and show 'em whatta mistake they made puttin' me in the middle of their shit."

Cole sat there, and sighed once it was just himself, Jo and the injured man. "What a bloody damnable mess." He looked to Jo, and shrugged. "We're in too deep now though, both you and me. We hit them, and I killed them. We can't just walk away, unless we want to look over our shoulders for the rest of our lives."

Well. Before, this situation (forcibly) had her attention. Now it had her interest. The small hot fire at the back of her mind burned a little higher and ate away at Scarlet's restraint now that the enforcer's actions were going to loop even more people into this hostage crisis. As much of a bad reputation as the SUC had, each of them had been young and driven and devoted to their mutual craft as she was and they didn't deserve this. "Be right back. Need to use the bathroom while I don't have a gun pointed at me," she flatly intoned, holding the gaze of the gunman and the corrupted actress for a heartbeat before slipping out the back of the hummer. Without waiting for an answer, the blond medic dropped into a crouching walk, hugging the walls of the building and heading left towards the inevitable picnic table smoke pit, hoping to catch one of the employees on break and alert them to the impending hostage crisis.

Glory took the phones and just looked at the guy when he offered her the change. She turned around and opend up one of the phones and started setting it up. "Here's the thing," She started talking occasionally indicating where Jo needed to turn, "We were tipped off that the fire at your club was the first move in an attempted take over of the Southside by the Tongs. But those guys weren't chinks." "How do you know that, they were wearing masks." Glory pointed at Jo. "Because when Miss Muscles here charged them she caught em flat footed. All the Tong soldiers are trained in martial arts, those guys didn't know any martial arts or she would have been met with a bit more of a challenge." She pulled out her own phone held it up to the new burner phone. "Turn you phones off and keep em off." "So what does that mean?" "Like I said earlier, someone had to have been following us, or that little ambush wouldn't have worked. The Family knows we were tipped off about the chinks, if the ambush would have worked, it probably would have started a war. Might still." She pointed up the street they were on. "There's the clinic pull around back, there's an emergency entrance for ambulances." Jo did as she was told. Glory looked back at everyone. "Stay here I need to go inside and talk to the doc. I won't be long." She opened her door and slid out of the Humvee and disappeared inside.

Cole could tell Glory was suspicious, but he didn't care. He entered the store, attended by an older man, and he smiled. He saw several different kinds of prepaid phones, and of course, the camera watching the counter, Only one of the phones had five of the same. He did a bit of mental calculus, and nodded. "Good morning. I need to buy those five phones." The older man looked at him, and seemed about to ask questions, and Cole simply laid the Cash on the counter. "I imagine this will cover it." The amount he laid out would pay for the phones, taxes, and another fifty as a tip, for no questions." The older man nodded, quickly ringing them up, activating them and placing the money in the drawer. He bagged them up, and Cole smiled. "Thanks." "To you as well, sir. Enjoy your day." Cole took his phones and head out the store. Jo and the hummer were just coming back around the corner, and he got in. "I got enough for each of us, all of them the same, and all are properly activated." He shrugged, he still had some of the money. "I have your change as well." It hadn't been enough to get another phone, so he didn't try.

Glory listened to the nervous chatter and watched the street ahead, to the sides and behind. As they approached an intersection She told Jo to pull over, She took a wad of cash out of her pocket and counted out some bills then leaned back over her seat and thrust the money at the man who said his name was Cole. "Take this, buy as many pre-paid phones as you can, the cheap ones. We'll drive around the block and pick you back up." Cole hesitated then took the money and got out and went inside the store on the corner as the big garish vehicle drove off. "Go around the block take your time. How is he?" That last was at Scarlet alone in the back now.

Cole shook his head. "No that wasn't an accident at all." He'd seen it happen, and truth be told it had all the markers of a professional hit." "Whoever that was had alot of firepower to make sure the job was done. I've been around awhile, and for them to shoot at an Ambulance, well, that invites alot more heat than I can imagine is healthy. Nobody shoots at an ambulance. Not without being desperate." Cole knew too that there was a sort of unspoken rule to not shoot up first responders, those that did were quite poorly thought of. That these guys had meant they were after someone in this trio, and were more than willing to suffer the increased heat and scrutiny, and the hit to their reputation if they were caught. "Who's got that much hate to throw away good sense?"

"Boomtown," Glory said, tone deadpan as her eyes continuously scanned the road and side mirror, checking to see if they were being tailed. Taut and on edge, but not anxious. Jo had seen the same in the better fighters in MMA before a bout. "Sheffield Urgent Care." "Right," Jo replied with a frown as she turned to go in the right direction. Jo didn't often go to Boomtown, and when she did, it was mostly just passing through to someplace else. It was one of the poorer neighborhoods of the City, but it hadn't always been that way. Once, it had been the manufacturing center of the city, peeking in the late 19-teens, near the end of World War One. Many of the businesses had converted to munitions manufacturing. At least one business had taken a shortcut in getting a piece of the military funding... The accident explosion had leveled large swatches of the area. With the war ending, the neighborhood had been rebuilt as cheap, government-assisted housing for returning soldiers. As they moved out or died off, immigrants moved in. Boomtown had barely been updated since it had been built, save for a spate of renovations in the 60s after a tenement fire killed twelve people, but the name had stuck around despite municipal initiatives to change it. Buildings grew more colourless and worn as they reached Boomtown. Jo felt more than a little conspicuous, more than she did as a six-and-a-half foot tall amazon, in the brightly painted Hummer in the drab neighborhood. She muttered, "...stickin' out more'n a sore thumb." "Keep driving steady," Glory said coolly. "Some of the gangs have an informal truce here for street racing. This is far from the fanciest car these streets have seen." "If yah say so. Ah'm gonna need some directions, Ah ain't been here much," Jo admitted doubtfully, being careful navigating the huge SUV. "I'll guide you," Scarlet said from the back. "I know the way to the SUC." Sheffield Urgent Car - or The SUC as it was derisively called - was known to most of the first responders. Poorly supplied - unless you knew the right people to talk to - and poorly staffed with the laziest or most socially troublesome employees, first responders avoided coming here as much as they could. But Scarlet had to admit, it was the one of the best places to avoid questions about incongruous wounds or injuries, for the price of a few bills surreptitiously slipped into a palm or pocket. "Lead on, Blondie," Jo said as she started following the route Scarlet gave her. Her eyes flicked to Glory. "After this ruckus, where we start figurin' out who's behind this? Yah might be thinkin' that lot was after Basilone, but Ah'm thinkin' The Box burnin' up is tied up in this too. Was no accident."

With Cole and Jo, Scarlet settled Basilone in the back of the Hummer with minimal fuss, pushing down the last bank of seats for more space. Jo threw her gymbag behind the driver's seat then locked up locked up her storage unit after giving it another glance in case there was one more thing she wanted to grab. Cole took a seat next to Scarlet, where he could get a decent line of sight both forward and behind. Jo climbed in behind the wheel, and adjusted the seat with a smile. She didn't even need to move the seat all the way back to give herself enough legroom. The Hummer was even more spacious than her Escalade. If it ended up being a write-off, she'd have to consider replacing it was a Hummer. Maybe even buy this one off Chad. With a faint, calculating frown, Glory considered where to seat, then settled into the passenger seat next to the oversized blonde. Jo drove up to the gate, punched in the code, then eased out at moderate speed, trying to as inconspicuous as an enormous, remodeled military transport vehicle with a bright paint job could be. Turning right, she flicked her eyes to the rearview mirror, catching Scarlet's eye and the closing storage compound gate, then shot Glory a quick glance. "Okay, where are we goin'?"

Cole said nothing, but Jo's display was impressive. "So, secret Hospital or a public one. If anyone here knows how to save his life, it's her." He looked to Scarlett. "He's your charge, so you make the call, or we're going to bring him to City General, and he'll have to take his chances." His voice was even, but he was certain no one had forgotten he was armed. "Now, let's get him loaded up, and we can go from there."

"Ah. Yes. It would be appreciated," replied Scarlet trying to think chaste thoughts. Jo's films were a guilty-pleasure background noise for her and Freddie's quiet stay-at-home nights, but that... display had been a lot. She cleared her throat, "*Regardless* of any conspiracies, real or not, your boss needs a hospital, and soon, before someone accidentally taps him on the head the wrong way and finishes off what the crash started. It'd be easier to say what wouldn't kill him at this point, Miss Bodyguard, and unless you have a secret hospital in your pocket, City Hospital is his best bet to last the day. And *THAT* is in line with my professional oath." Her voice got harsher and flatter as she wrapped up her mini rant, daring Glory with her eyes. She was fairly confident if it came to violence it would be at least even odds, and she'd faced worse than that before when out of arms reach of any number of implements to defend herself with.

It was more than merely curious that they couldn't hear any sirens. Jo figured they must've gone after the ambulance and she hoped Scarlet's partner got clear. Jo gave Glory a shake of her head. "And mah Escalade didn't escape The Box. Don't know what the damage is, but it's probably a write-off, Ah reckon." The big blonde moved over to one side of the climate controlled storage unit, to a large object covered in a heavy grey tarp. "All Ah got fer now is this." Jo yanked off the tarp with a flourish. What was underneath was big, black, accented with chrome. A motorcycle, with big, thick wheels, it suggested brutal power rather than grace, scarred with apparent wear and tear. It was from one of her first movies, Ride or Die, a pulpy number set after society collapses by a director who considered himself the successor to Russ Meyer. She patted the stitched leather seat with fondness. "Ah'd forgotten 'bout this. Good 'nough fer me and whoever wants to ride bitch, but not fer us all, let alone Basilone." Jo continued riffling through the junk of her life. She found an old gym bag, inside a set of workout gear and a change of clothes, then moved over to a clothing rack, several garment bags hanging from it. Peeking inside one of the garment bags, she chuckled. They were outfits from some of the movies she'd been in. The leather straps and fur from In The Valley of the Valkyries wouldn't do. The movie was practically softcore porn. It was a terrible movie that unaccountably developed a cult following, and Jo admitted it might have been the most fun she had had on a set, filming in Iceland. The stylish business suit with the heeled ankle boots with their distinctive red soles from when she'd played a henchwoman in a Bond film went into the gym bag. Not what she needed now, but could definitely be something for later. She grinned when she looked into the next bag. It was one of outfits from Ride or Die. Unabashedly, Jo stripped out of her ruined Box uniform of tight leggings and tight shirt. In just her red bra and thong, the others got a good look at her impressively muscled and toned physique, and the faded scars from injuries she'd sustained over the years from Crossfit and MMA. Pulling on the rugged, black denim pants - Still fit! - and the shirt with the fictional club logo based off the Anarchy symbol, Jo reluctantly said over a broad shoulder. "But Ah got an idea. Gimme a second." Jo shrugged into a short leather, studded biking jacket, then stuffed two more garment bags into her gym bag, and was barely able to get the zipper clothes. She turned around, redid her ponytail with a strap of supple, braided leather, then strode briskly from the storage unit. About five minutes later, the others heard a growling engine and in a moment, a 1st Gen Hummer HI rolled into view beyond the open doorway, an ostentatious yellow with red abstract flame-like designs on the side. Leaving the massive SUV outside, rumbling, Jo climbed out and rejoined the others in the storage unit with a tight grin. "Belongs to a guy two units down. Flirts heavy everytime he sees me, offerin' to drive me 'round in his baby. He's cute enough, but supposed to be settlin' down with the wife and kid. Promised the wife he'd sell the Hummer, but can't bear to part with it, so hides it here. Showed me where he hides the key," Jo explained jerking a thumb over her shoulder and giving a shrug. "It surely ain't subtle none, but if we all need some wheels and he ain't using 'em, Ah guess there ain't any harm in borrowing 'em fer a spell. If he turns into a bother, Ah'll just put on the Valkyrie leathers and make out with him some. If we all need to go, let's get goin'." The giant beauty pointed at Basilone with her chin, stepping forward as she asked Scarlet, "Yah need any help with movin' the guy into the Hummer?"

Well my Aston is right the hell out for all of us. Cole thought. They wouldn't all fit that was certain. More than that, He Might trust the blonde or the paramedic to not notice or say anything about his car, which definitely didn't fit the lifestyle he had been living, it's other accoutrements would certainly stand out and draw far too much attention, especially to the eyes of the bodyguard. "My normal car isn't close by either."

Glory gave Scarlet a cold stare, but she spoke to Cole, "Just walking by." Then she looked back at Scarlet, "No one was kidnapped. You're here because you have a patient, don't you people take oaths or is that just doctors. These two came willingly, I didn't even ask him," She points at Cole. "And Police? I am not worried about poilice." "Why not," asked Jo? "Listen." Everyone got quiet they didn't here anything but the air conditioning unit. "No sirens. We are only a few blocks away from where we were attacked. If police were coming, we would hear them." She glanced from Jo to Cole, "We need a vehicle big enough for all of us and we need it quick."