The Night Life - Invited Derrick

Thread PL: 72,000 | Items: Scouter (Pink)

---

Derry never anticipated that his stay in South City would be this long. Originally, he came over here to train with General Kraktus, but now that that was out of the way, the gangster thought about staying for the night and taking off back to Central in the morning. That was when he got a call from Lucas. Derry was in his hotel room preparing to retire for the night when his phone started ringing. The gangster picks up the phone and answers, "Something wrong, Lucas?" Lucas clears his throat for a bit before responding, "I, uh, got a guy on another line. He says he's got a job for ya in South City, if you're still there. This guy named Surge needs some help with an assassin tailing him, some guy named Jex. He wants you to swing right by one of the local clubs, I'll send you the coordinates." After finishing his statement, Lucas immediately hangs up. Derry stares back at his phone for a bit, then sighs and puts it back into his pocket. Seems like Lucas still has a lot of work to do before he can actually grow a spine.

A few minutes have passed and Derry is now standing outside the club that housed his client. From the outside, it wasn't anything to brag about. It's got a few neon lights strewn about and even some fresh paint, but nothing really stood out about the club itself. Derry takes a step inside the building and is greeted by a giant disco floor, complete with a bunch of party goers, dancers, waiters and waitresses handing out drinks left and right, you name it. According to the description Lucas sent to Derry, his client Surge should be in the V.I.P. section of the building down in the basement, and he'll be looking for a man with blue skin, brown hair, and mutton chops.

Derry takes his pink scouter lens out of his pocket and inserts them into the slot in his sunglasses. While the scouter boots up, the gangster takes a cigarette box out from his other pocket. He just ran out before meeting up with Kraktus, so be made sure that he got a brand new pack before heading to the hotel. Derry places a single cigarette into his mouth, and while he puts the box away with one hand, he conjures a small, pink flame on the tip of one of his fingers in his other hand and lights the cigarette. The scouter is now finally active, and Derry begins scanning the current room for any potential threats. Sure enough, almost everyone in the room didn't have a power level that exceeded the double digits. No threats were detected, at least, for now. 

Derry approaches one of the nearby security guards and asks, "Where are the stairs to the basement from here?" The guard says nothing to the gangster, and instead points his thumb behind him. Derry takes a glance behind the man and spots a rather unkempt and poorly lit staircase. He nods to the guard and proceeds to descend into the lower levels of the club. He reaches the bottom of the stairs and is greeted by a much more... serene environment, at least, in comparison to upstairs. Everyone was simply chatting amongst themselve, but while Derry was making his way past the guests, he swore he could hear things such as 'hits,' and 'robbery.' "Oh, so it's this kind of club, eh?" Derry responds to himself as he now arrives outside the V.I.P. entrance. A lone security guard stands outside and stares Derry down. "I've got business with a client inside," he states as the security guard begins to open the door. "They've been expecting you, Mr. Ottoy," the guard replies as Derry makes his way inside.

Derry would be greeted by two individuals, a red majin who he remembers was a kinda sorta friend of Lucas', and who the gangster presumes was his client, Surge. He makes his way to the duo and takes a seat at their table and asks, "I presume you're Surge, then? Today's your lucky day then. You managed to grab me before I was gonna head outta South City. Derrick Ottoy, friends call me Derry. Now, what can I do for you?"

From the few looks that Surge gave Derry, it was somewhat safe to assume that he's already impressed. As the majin leaves the room, the client gives his complements to Derry and states that while he would want to hire Derry for some jobs even greater than right now, he needs to see the gangster in action. For an assassination job, 20,000 wasn't exactly the largest amount ever, but he'll just have to see how dangerous his target really is. Moving on, he requests that once the job is done, Derry should come back to discuss potential future jobs. Securing an extra client for the Dirty Snakes wouldn't seem like such a bad idea. 

"Consider me interested, Surge," the gangster responds. While assassination jobs weren't exactly one of the more common jobs he takes up, it was always one of his favorite ones. If there was any hope of meeting someone who was just as strong as he was, this sort of job will do the trick. Surge continues on about why he believes he is being hunted down, stating that he was preventing an invasion and protecting locals, and as a result, the invaders have been sending assassins to take him down. Taking a quick glance at Surge, Derry wasn't entirely sure if that were the whole story. Whether or not he was telling the truth or not, it didn't matter to the gangster: He just wanted the zeni.

"I presume you at least have a photo or description of the target?" As soon as Derry asks this question, the brenchian hands him a photo of his target, another brenchian, but this one possessing red skin in comparison to Surge's blue skin. They even have the location of where his target was staying at. Derry raises his hand to gather readings on Surge, and notes his power level of 47,748. He tells Surge, "From the reading I'm getting from you, your power level sits at a little under 48,000. This assassin is likely stronger than that. Thankfully, you've just hired a man with a power level of 72,000. Don't fret: This won't take long. Ah, and one question: You only want him dead, correct? Should I not bother attempting to bring him alive?" He has no qualms with killing his target, but he wanted to throw that idea out just in case.

In the meantime, Derry gets off of his seat, takes the photo of Jex, and proceeds to walk out of the V.I.P. door. Once the gangster makes his way outside the club, Derry takes off towards the location of the assassin in order to... make him disappear.

After a few minutes of flying arund, Derry finally arrives at the location of Jex's living quarters, a motel by the name of 'Beach Side Motel.' The place was strangely quiet and dark, with the only light emitting from the motel being from a single window originating from a room near the very back of the motel. Derry checks the back of the photo once again to confirm the room number, then begins to move towards the lit room. As he moves towards said room, Derry uses his scouter to take a look and see if there are any high power levels nearby. Unfortunately, the scouter couldn't pick up any significant power levels, nor could it even detect anyone. Either Jex isn't here, or he has a way to hide his location and ki. Regardless, the gangster presses onward, and arrives just outside the room with the lit window. He looks at the room number to his left, and sure enough, it matched what was on the back of the photo. Just to be absolutely sure, Derry runs a second scan, but still can't detect anything. He slowly reaches for the doorknob, then ever so slowly twists it.

The door erupts violently as Derry is launched backwards out into the lot, leaving Derry with a few scratches and tears in his clothes. He gets back up onto his two feet and looks back over at the door entrance to see a red brenchian approaching him with some sort of weapon. The mist emitting from that weapon and the cold that Derry's feeling can only mean one thing: Jex has access to cryotechnology. Jex pipes up and threatens, "Looks like this job will be easier than I thought," before aiming the cryo gun at Derry. "I'm glad to see that you've been expecting me, Jex," Derry replies as hides one of his hands behind his back while charging up his signature technique, Cremation. "So, what exactly tipped ya off that I'd be coming? You seem pretty well prepared, what with the rigged door and a cryo gun. You wouldn't happen to have had a run in with one of those Renegades, have ya?" Jex continues to aim his weapon towards Derry, but decides to humor him. "I don't know anything about these Renegades you speak of. I just happened to have gotten a tip from a buddy of mine that you were coming over for a visit, and would you look at that, I caught myself a Snake." 

"Alright, how about we go through process of elimination, shall we?" Derry asks, now his signature technique at 25% charge, "First question, were they in the club?" Jex chuckles in response and barks back, "You really think I'm gonna answer that? You can just stay right where you are. I can freeze you solid at any moment, so just be thankful that I've kept you alive for this long." Derry then asks another question, "Alright, perhaps let's move on from your client and talk about you. First, how come my scouter couldn't see you?" Jex smirks to himself, and responds, "I received a very generous gift from my boss: A jammer. Doesn't do jack shit against anyone who can sense ki, but it's rather effective against those who are forced to use scouters like you." This guy certainly knows a decent bit about Derry himself. Who exactly was this boss? There could only be a few potential candidates back at the club, but he doesn't know for sure which one. Those security guards, that red majin, hell, even his client could be guilty. At this point now, Cremation was now 50% charged.

This got Derry thinking for a moment, then he continues asking questions, saying to Jex, "Alright. Second, why exactly are you after Surge?" Jex lowers his cryo gun ever so slightly and replies, "I'm pretty sure he's already told you everything that he knows. He certainly does love to prattle on and on about his... er... achievements." That little pause at the end sure was strange. Did he actually know who Surge was before all of this, or was he just misremembering things, or...

With Cremation now at 75% charge, Derry now needs an opening in order to land his attack. It requires him to touch the back of Jex's neck, then the fireworks can finally begin. All he needs to do now is buy just a little bit more time. The gangster asks Jex one final question, "So, how powerful are ya, then? Only weaklings would consider hiding their power like that. You think you hold an advantage just because ya got some fancy schmancy weapon." Jex smirks and slowly pulls out a remote from his pocket, stating, "Go ahead and check again, Derrick, it'll be the last thing ya see." Derry raises his other hand up to activate his scouter and analyze Jex's power level, which was currently sitting at 125,000 on the dot. Jex exclaims, "This is the power of my new transformation! With this boost, not even Surge stands a chance! Any last words, Derrick?" As Jex pulls his weapon back up and aim towards the gangster, Derry simply responds, "Yeah. See ya soon, kid." Cremation was now fully charged.

Derry's eyes were set aflame with pink fire and his hair was set ablaze. His power level was now tripled to 231,000, and the gangster rushes in towards Jex, leading with his now fully charged attack. Jex was quick on the trigger, and fires it at the gangster, only for Derry to jump directly over the beam as it was heading right for him. Derry lands behind Jex and grapples him with his right hand while placing his left thumb directly at the back of the assassin's neck. At first, nothing happens as both men stood completely still. A few seconds pass, and Jex is now screaming in pain as he forcefully wiggles his way out of Derry's grasp. The gangster calmly pulls out his phone from his pocket as Jex claws at his face, his head now smoking. Derry snaps a picture. Pink flames begin pouring out from inside Jex's throat as he screamed in agony. Derry snaps a picture. The flames make their way to Jex's eyes, his skin now being blackened by the the flames. Derry snaps a picture. The assassin now falls to the ground knees first, reaching out towards the streets in a vain attempt at getting help as he succumbs to the flames of the gangster. Derry snaps a picture.

You don't know how long it's been since I wanted to do that," Derry mutters to himself as he puts his phone away. The gangster looks back in the direction of the club and ponders upon the job as a whole. There were only two people that he could think of that would be able to set something like this up: Lucas' majin friend, or Surge himself. Derry smirks to himself, and mutters, "I swear Mr. Surge, if you're the one who told Jex 'bout me... You just might as well be one of the most interestin' clients I've ever had. I might not just kill ya out of respect for such a ballsy move." Derry opts out of flying back to the club, and instead walks away from the motel towards the club, leaving behind a pile of charred bones and ash blowing away in the wind. No one ever saw Jex again since that fateful night. 

Upon finally arriving back outside the entrance to the club, Derry descends back down into his base form, his hair now perfectly normal alongside his eyes. He barges into the club and make a b-line for the stairs that lead down into the basement. He passes by some partygoers and even shoves one onto the ground. The dancer gets up and shouts, "Ey, watch where ya goin', ya fucker!" before Derry grabs him by the collar of his shirt and shoves him to the other side of the dance floor, knocking over other dancers in the process. Derry wasn't exactly in the best mood right now, and despite the commotion he caused on the dance floor, the gangster pushes onwards. Upon entering the basement area, Derry notices that it wasn't nearly as crowded as it was before before moving towards the V.I.P. room. The security guard immediately steps out of the way and Derry forcefully opens up the door.

The gangster is greeted by the sight of Surge, still sitting in his seat, now with two more brenchians, one blue and one green, who were sitting alongside their boss. Derry immediately takes a seat in front of Surge and states, "So, it turns out Jex knew I was comin'. Mind explainin' that to me?" In the meanwhile, Derry takes his phone out of his pocket and places it onto the table. He turns the device on, and opens up his photo gallery. "I suppose, in spite of the target being fully prepared for my arrival, Jex won't be messing with you ever again. 'Course, my powers can cause some... disfiguration, so I made sure to get a lotta photos. Will that suffice?" He then proceeds to stare down Surge. The only two people who could've possibly leaked this information were him and that majin, but now that he thought about it, Derry hasn't exactly seen the guy around. "Say, where's the majin? Wasn't he around? Could he not stick around?"

As it turns out, that majin bastard that was friends with Lucas was the one that leaked the information. Derry will have to reprehend Lucas later for keeping around such an untrustworthy contact, but still, the deed is done. According to what Surge has to say, they apparently had some sort of deal going on between the two, and the majin got a bit too impatient, so he gave a bit of a heads up to Jex. Thankfully, the majin has since been taken care of. Derry's whole body now relaxes as he sinks into the chair, stating, "I'll have to have a bit of a... discussion with Lucas back at my HQ, but yeah, Jex is gone, and hopefully his employers get the message not to mess with ya."

Derry takes a look at the two briefcases that Surge brought forth as he places them onto the table, both facing the gangster. His guards open up the case in order for Derry to confirm the contents. Derry takes a single stack out of each case and closely examines each one to see if they were fake. Thankfully, Surge was a man of his word, and both stacks were the real deal. Derry places the stacks back into their respective cases and closes them. Afterwards, the gangster slides them off of the table and places them right next to his chair, ready for him to take once this last little meeting is done and over with.

Surge wanted to discuss some future jobs that he's got planned out. First was a permanent housing station wherever he wants, second was assassination contracts for 1 million each, and last was bodyguard duty for 2 million when he's moving around. The gangster thinks to himself for a moment about what these offers could truly provide for him, but he eventually comes to a decision. "Well Surge, I myself am leader a gang back in Central, of course. I'm afraid that with all of this Renegade business, my schedule is rather packed right now, and I doubt that I'll be available for a job such as bodyguard very often. If there's a gap in my schedule and you need the security, you can ring me up, but I wouldn't count on it being an every day occurrence."

Derry takes his cigarette box out of his pocket and takes a single stick out. As he places it in his mouth, the gangster continues, "Although it's rather generous of you to offer a permanent home. I won't need one in Central since I just live in my office, but let's say we've got some... business in North City. I myself won't need much up there. I'll only need the bare essentials. If you're willing to go the extra mile, however, a personal gym would do nicely up there."

Derry raises his finger up to the tip of his cigarette, and he once again conjures a flame on the tip of his finger, igniting the cigarette. He takes a single puff aimed away from Surge and continues once again, "Now for the assassination contracts, I'm all in on. The Dirty Snakes will make great use of the money, and it gives me an excuse to go all out on someone with few repercussions. Trust me, if you call me for an assassination job, I'll make sure I fit it into my schedule, 'cause there's no way I'll miss an opportunity such as that." Before he slinks back into his chair, Derry takes the box of cigarettes still in his hand and moves it closer to Surge, noting, "I saw yours run out when I came in. Need one?"