Target Practice - OPEN

[jops]

Dangerous and trigger happy was an understatement, the girl was a gorram psychopath!! But, at least, she wasn't pointing the gun at him and Trev couldn't be more glad about this.

"I suggest you get out of the way!" She advised again. And this time he opted for doing so as quick as possible.
A second later, he was crouching behind the bar, out of sight of everyone but the barkeep and that apparently-female creature he was flirting with. Neither payed him much attention. Just the barkeep was eying him suspiciously every once in a while to make sure he wouldn't steal anything.

Trevor felt like he already had more than enough troubles for one day and the idea of risking more by stealing a bottle had been banished out of his mind way before being even considered.

As the commotion was rising and hell started breaking out, Trev made himself comfortable in his little safe spot. He took out his commpack and logged on the cortex to send Lilian a wave:
"Hey Lil, glad you're fine! I'm in a pub on Persephone, making some friends, having a quiet drink and trying to make myself familiar with the world. Everything's shiny. Hope to see you soon, cousin! Take care!"

Yeah, exchanging messages via cortex could get them tracked down, but seriously, the Interpol had far bigger fishes to fry and wouldn't waste resources for someone charged for crimes only one step above shoplifting. And he was pretty sure the man they fooled didn't have the means to do such a thing.
The only thing that really bothered him was the thought: what if she lied to him like he just lied to her?

[deia]

Jac glared at the man on the floor, keeping her aim steady. His mouth was moving, she assumed he was trying to say something, but through the fog of adrenaline, and the noise of the bar, she couldn't tell what it was. Now that she was at this point, she realized she didn't plan to shoot him. If she'd read the scene correctly, he hadn't been looking for trouble. In fact, she may have just saved his life, which was often a good thing. She took a deep breath and prepared to tell him something to that effect.

Then promptly found herself landing hard on her back as he pulled her feet out from under her. She cracked her head on the side of the bar as she went down, leaving her woozy and squinting against the pain. Although the hand she lifted to check came away clean, no blood, she made a mental note to get her skull checked out. No use dying from a concussion, if she had one. Blinking to try to force her vision to stop doubling, she pushed herself to a sitting position, realizing she was still holding both guns.

Jac knew when she was beat. She'd been stupid to not shoot him as she came to bear, but, hell, he was cute. And some foolish part of her hadn't wanted to hurt him. Look what that got her. Even so, with her vision swimming and her head throbbing, causing the room to do funny lurches and spins every so often, she wouldn't take bets on her ability to hit the broad side of a barn.

"Easy!" she called. "I'm putting m'guns away, you've no need fear me anymore." She did as she'd said, returning both guns to their holsters. This was embarrassing, really.

[radegrasan]

Rade heard the lady surrendering, and took a look from behind the pillar. He saw that she had holstered her weapons, and saw the pretty lady staggering on her feet. He decided it was safe to come out.
Rade figured the least he could do after pulling her down was help her get up again and carefully started walking over towards her. It appeared he had hurt the poor girl more than he wanted to.
He reached under her arm and helped her back up again.

"Sorry about that." Rade said. "But I thought you were gonna shoot me."

The chaos in the bar was now complete, and Rade noticed that more goons were starting to converge to the place where he and his new friend were standing. He saw that some of them were holding guns and decided now would be a good time to get himself and his new lady friend to cover.

"How's about we jump behind that bar there real quick before we start the introductions?"

[deia]

Jac leaned heavily on his arm as she lurched to her feet again. Her knees wanted to buckle, but she refused to let them. A moment to focus, to tune out the sickening pain from the new lump on her head, and she could see straight again. She even managed to grin crookedly at the man who she was now leaning on.

"I was. Don't know why I didn't," she quipped, but her voice was clearly teasing. A quick glance around the bar confirmed what he'd seen. In normal circumstances, she'd have jumped in, but even though her balance was quickly returning, she wasn't looking to get beat up any more than she had to.

"Sounds good!" She pulled away and sat on the top of the bar and swung her legs over, dropping down just a few feet from where Trevor was hiding.

[radegrasan]

Rade drew his gun and waited for his new friend to jump behind the bar for cover. After she did, he greeted one of the advancing goons with a gunshot, killing the man instantly. The rest of the goons greeted him back with a hail of gunfire, to which Rade jumped behind the bar as well, and landed next to his new friend and the Chinese man who had been hiding there a bit longer.
Rade saw a bottle of gin laying next to him, he picked it up as the bullets soared above him, opened it and took a huge sip from it.

"Hey, I'm gettin' what I paid for, one way or another." Rade said, and took another sip from the bottle of gin.

Name's Rade. And you are? Rade asked the lady, while offering her to take a sip from the bottle as well.

[deia]

As soon as she landed, Jac flipped and peeked her head up above the bar, only to duck again as her erstwhile savior jumped over amid a rain of bullets. She considered for a moment returning fire, but realized that, for now, hiding wasn't in the least bit cowardly. She just plain didn't want to get shot. So instead she settled back further in to their hiding place, tucked up under the overhang of the bar.

She couldn't help but snicker as he nabbed the bottle of gin. Although the bartender shot him a dirty look, he wisely stayed back. "No arguments there. Pleased to meet ya, Rade, although not under exactly the best of circumstances. I'm Jaclyn, Jac, if you will." Taking the proferred bottle, she tipped it back in what was closer to a gulp then a sip. "Good stuff. So what exactly precipitated you bein' thrown into a table and me havin' to save your skin?"

[radegrasan]

Jaclyn was getting better and better by the minute. She was beautiful, dangerous, a crackshot, and the way she gulped down the gin gave Rade a chill down his spine, in a very good way.
Rade scraped his throat. He knew he was going to have to raise his voice if he wanted Jaclyn to hear him over all the bullets that were being fired above them, and the sound of glass shattering everywhere.

"You're not from around here, huh?" Rade asked, because he knew that most people in this part of Persephone knew all too well Buford was one of Fenix' men.
"That tub of lard you shot in the shoulder, he works for a local crime boss called Fenix. Guy thinks I owe him money, but I'd like to think different."

Rade wiped some of the shattered glass off that had landed on him, and plucked one shard of glass out of his collar.

"Anyway, long story short: that bald gorilla came to collect one day. Unfortunately for him he brought his fists to a gunfight."

A bottle got shot out, and shattered right above Rade's head. The shards landed on his head.

"Dammit!" Rade yelled while shaking off the glass from his head. "I made the mistake of not killing that piece of tzao gao back then, hence leading to where we are now."

Rade looked around from behind the bar to see if there was anything useful, but his search seem to prove futile.

"So Jac, if I may call you that, got an idea?"

[deia]

Jaclyn noticed the way his eyes watched her as she tipped back the gin, and deliberately did it again, slower this time, closing her eyes to savor the burn of the alcohol. She held the bottle out to him, licking her lips with a rakish grin. "All yours, if I drink anymore I'll really be useless."

Rade's question made her laugh. "No, not from around here. Nowhere near." No, the tiny settlement on the tiny moon she'd come from made Persphone look damn near heaven. Her home didn't even merit a name, just a designation, a numeric code.

She frowned and shook her head at the appropriate points in his quick tale, reading between the lines a bit. Sounded like he'd been pretty well humped. She knew the situation, having been in it herself more than once. When the bottle shattered over his head, she started, then laughed as he shook himself like a wet dog. "Missed a piece," she said, reaching over and plucking a stray shard of glass out of his hair. Sure, it might have been an excuse for touch, but a legitimate one.

"I'm afraid my ideas are running short right at this moment. Unless you want to borrow one of my guns and return fire, I suggest we sit tight till the Feds arrive, then we can sneak out the back." She nodded in the direction of the door leading to the storeroom behind the bar - normally only accessible to the bartender.

[jops]

The duo landing next to him and the bulletstorm zipping over his head, suddenly recalled his attention to his current less-than-shiny situation. He sighed and shook his head. Why can't things just run smooth, nice and quiet for a change?

The more this spots gets crowded the more unwanted attention it gets, Trevor noted. And the girl alone was most definitely an attention magnet.
He quickly stashed away the commpack and decided to give a look at the surroundings. He didn't dare to poke his head out from behind the bar, and thankfully that wasn't necessary: shards from the now-hole-ridden mirror on the wall, allowed him to catch a glimpse of what was going on on the other side.

"Folks! I hate to interrupt your sweet chit-chatting, but i think those guys are coming after you!" Trevor warned, pointing at the shard reflecting a pair of goons.
Coming wasn't exactly the right word. The weren't, in fact, approaching the bar. However, despite the total chaos, they were still focusing their attention on it, probably waiting for their prize to show their face and shoot it.

[radegrasan]

Rade liked the way Jaclyn pulled the shard of glass out of his hair. It had been a long time since a woman touched him, and an even longer time since a woman that touched him who he didn't pay first.
He was starting to get caught up in the moment until the Chinese man did a reality check again on him and Jaclyn.

"Thank you mr. Obvious!" Rade said to Trevor and then turned to Jaclyn.
"That could be a solution, yes. Unfortunately, I'm not really in the best position to wait for the Feds to show up." Rade said, knowing that there was a possibility the Riley and its crew had become wanted after the little run in with the Esteem on Whitefall.

Rade then took a piece of mirror too and watched the situation as well.
"Yup. We're pretty humped." said Rade. "Seems the only way we're gonna be able to whack those gentlemen is with a plan."

Rade moved the mirror around a bit and saw that there was a window to the right of where they were sitting. That gave him an idea.

"I've got a plan!" Rade said to Jaclyn. "You ready to shoot?"

Rade then turned to Trevor.

"You! You have to make a run for that window!" Rade said. "You have to distract them so that Jac and I can get a few shots in! Just jump through the window, it's probably holographic so you'll go straight through... normally."

[jops]

"Woah woah woah! Hold on a second! What do you mean normally?!"
Actually the jumping trough the window part wasn't exactly his main concern: "So, that's your plan? Toss me as cannon fodder to buy you some gorram time?" He would have added a Chui Se (go to hell) to close the sentence, but he wisely refrained from doing so.
Self-preservation 101: Never insult the guy with a gun.

"You know? I really like her plan better!"

[deia]

Jac looked from one man to the other, the almost feral grin still on her face. She thought she could guess what Rade was planning, and knew they could make it work if the other one went along with them. Leaning down, she yanked the guns out of both boot holsters, tossing one towards Trevor. It was small - out of necessity, anything bigger wouldn't be easily concealed - but packed a decent punch. The other, the same she had used earlier, she reloaded with a few rounds from the pouch on her belt.

"Cute as you boys are when you argue, we don't have time. My plan only works if none of us mind the Feds, and I'm not exactly their best friend. When he says jump, you jump!" She held two guns now, the much larger one from her hip having practically leaped into her hand. "And Rade? I'm always ready to shoot. Just tell me where."

[radegrasan]

Rade put the piece of mirror up once more and tried counting the amount of men that were shooting and his two new friends. He counted 5 of them, and he hoped he didn't miss one. Sticking his head out to have a quick look was impossible, especially with the bullets flying above them.

"Alright. I count 5 of them." Rade said. "I suggest you start picking them off from the left side, and work your way towards the right. I'll do the same for the right side."

Rade looked over to Trevor, he knew the plan could only work if Trevor would create a distraction, Rade only hoped the guy would be up to it.

"Now listen up! There's a few ways we can do this: either we do this in the way I suggested, or we could wait for the Feds to get here and risk getting booked ourselves. Now I don't know about you, but if I have to risk my own hide for my freedom, I will! Because I sure as hell ain't gonna rot in some Alliance prison cell for the rest of my days!"

Rade noticed the bullets were getting through the bar, and it wouldn't provide cover anymore in a short while.

"I suppose you can always try and reason with these guys, maybe they'd listen, who knows?" Rade said in a sarcastic way. "So what's it gonna be?!"

[jops]

He landed on Persephone no more than a couple hours ago and he already got himself in more troubles he could even imagine. Unfortunately, regarding this sorry situation, he didn't the time to think of an alternate plan.

He hesitated a moment, then stormed: "Alright! Gorramit! I'll run trough the ruttin' window!"
He still didn't like this plan one bit.

Trevor slid past the Rade and Jac, getting himself ready to dash out. Before running anyway, he returned te pistol and pulled out his mini-fire extinguisher again, looking at Jaclyn.
"I don't need this, but i got something to ask you! Is the request of a target to shoot still open?" He was referring to when she dared him to pick a target for her before everything erupted into chaos: "I'm gonna toss this in the air! If you really got the infallible aim you claim, do me a favor... hit it!"

This was his little addition to the plan. Blowing up a can of pressurized chemicals that form anti-fire foam should provide an additional distraction to his running for the window. One that hopefully would increase a little his chances of survival.

Trevor looked at Jac's eyes to make sure she understood what he said and then, somewhat gracefully, he sent the little red can flying up towards the ceiling.
He didn't wait to see what happened to it, a split second later he was dashing for for the window.
One leap and... CRASH!

"Mi Tian Gohn!" He cried in anger and pain: "Holographic my gorram ass!"
Thankfully he instinctively protected his face and his suit does have a protective padding on the forearms, otherwise it could have been much much worse than just some cuts from glass shards.

At least he was outside where nobody was shooting. And that was enough for him to decide to stay on the ground groaning and whining for a while.

[deia]

Jac watched the piece of mirror Rade held, getting her own picture of how the situation looked, memorizing the position of each of the men who would soon be her targets, keeping in mind that they'd likely have moved by a bit by the time she stood. A terse nod was her only answer to him, as the adrenaline started to kick in again in anticipation of action.

She caught the pistol easily as Trevor tossed it to her, tucking it back into its holster as he talked. A wicked grin began to twist at her lips - now there was a challenge! "You just throw it, I'll worry about hitting it. It's a good idea, I'll make sure it works." She bounced up into a crouching position, casting a quick glance at Rade to be sure he was ready. The tiny red can went up, up, tumbling end over end. She took aim, took a breath, and fired.

There was a small explosion, and foam went everywhere. Fortunately, most closed their eyes instinctually, including Jac, but she had flecks of it caught in her hair, and peppering her leather jacket. The window crashing registered vaguely in the back of her head, and she made a note to apologize to the Chinese man - if they made it out alive. A quick nod to Rade, and she popped up from behind the bar, taking advantage of most everyone's momentary distraction to start shooting.