Swoop: Just a job.

[Harland "Swoop" Tomms]

The Verrill Central Mall was a ranging cauldron of humanity; one that offered no privacy and precious little breathing room. Which made the job Harland "Swoop" Tomms had gotten seem all the more implausibly stupid.

Sure, we'll just meet you for the exchange in the middle of the single most densely populated area in the city other than the subways, Swoop thought derisively. I mean, yeah, what you're doing is technically illegal, but hey, you need the money right?

What really irked Swoop was that he did need the money.

Badly.

Ever since he'd found out the college he'd applied and paid for ahead of time had been nothing more than an elaborate cash scam for some hackers, Swoop had been hard pressed to make a living. The cops were far too interested in having an eye on every single security camera feed, even the ones in the men's restrooms, that they had no time with his petty extortion case.

Ya'd really think that with how much they blow each other over how security conscious they are and how safe the city is because of it, that they might actually want to do a bit of police work. But hey, who am I to throw stones? I'm only the guy who's down fifteen-freaking- grand, what could I know 'bout police work?

So, here he was: doing odd jobs for enough to make it by and hopefully get the hell out of the city as soon as he could afford it. Sadly, little things like eating and sleeping on a bed had gotten in the way of that goal thus far, so Swoop had decided to risk doing a few courier jobs. He wasn't a Runner really, just a guy delivering a few odds and ends for cash. In fact, Swoop honestly couldn't fathom how somebody with even an ounce of god given sense could jump around on top of buildings for a living. One slip, one bad step and splat. That really wasn't the sort of life he had planned for himself. Still, he had to respect their skills, that sort of work had to require all manner of talent since Runners weren't dropping from the sky like ducks during hunting season.

Although, any sort of non sanctioned product trafficking was very strictly illegal, and if the cops ever decided to look him up, he probably would be labeled a Runner. Life was fun like that sometimes, especially for Swoop.

He had luck like that. More specifically, he had what his oldest brother had called, Parker 's Luck. Swoop's eldest sibling had loved Spider-Man comics and had immediately given his younger brother that dubious award when everything and their grandmother seemed determined to come after Swoop with karma's whip.

All this left Swoop standing in the mall's food court, waiting for his client to drop in and pick up his delivery. He really hoped whoever the guy was showed up soon, the smell of the nearby Cinnabon was killing him. Swoop absently put a hand in his right pocked and jingled the tiny pill bottle, resulting in a somewhat soothing click-claking sound.

What Swoop really just couldn't understand was this: why on Earth was this little bottle of pills so damned important?

The sound of automatic gunfire suddenly cut through the mall like a razor through butter and Swoop's head snapped up, dark green eyes wide and suddenly very uncomfortable.

Or better yet, why was somebody shooting a gun off in a crowded shopping mall?

[Harland "Swoop" Tomms]

Apologizes for my long hiatus, but with school kicked back on, my time was badly taxed. I'll be posting a little more regularly from now on. Enjoy.

---

Three long strides brought Swoop to the railing, and he had just enough time to see some poor bastard finish getting riddled by bullets courtesy of a whole squad cops. He idly wondered when that ball of ice had suddenly dropped to the bottom of his gut.

Oh. Well. Terrific.

Cops -blues he reminded himself- gunning down some random guy in the middle of a public space. A man who wasn't visibly armed. That didn't bode well for anybody, least of all him. Swoop ran a finger over the little pill bottle that had seemed so important a moment before, but was rapidly becoming something he'd like to just drop in the nearest garbage can and call it a day.

Cops shooting at an unarmed guy. Shoppers freakin' out. And I have contraband. Harl, old man, you are on the stinking edges of a very dangerous shit storm. He watched the blues police the nearest shoppers, and caught a pair of figures slink out a red door on the other side of the food court. Labeling them as irrelevant, he watched with more than a little dread as several more squads popped up like cats who'd just heard somebody crack into a can of tuna.

It wouldn't be long before they started coming upstairs. Either to explain or tell everybody what 'really' happened. Once again, his mind happened to drift back to the less-than-legal item in his pocket. And considering what they'd just done to the guy down there, it painted a very unfavorable result to a meeting between one Harland Tomms, not-at-all-but-sorta-a-runner, who currently had incriminating evidence on his person.

Not good. Exact damn opposite of good.

One of the cops, the captain maybe, making a motion towards the stairs that lead up to where Swoop happened to be was all the additional incentive that he needed to make his timely exit. With a quick twist, Swoop gave his surroundings a hurried once-over.

No doors with neon signs that said "run through here to get away from the cops", so that option was right out.

Windows were all out of reach and couldn't be opened anyway.

Come on law of serendipity, show me an exit. A vent would be fine; I don't mind gettin' a little closer to TV dinners. I love Hungry Mans. Swoop thought with increasing anxiousness.

And there, like a piece of tempting candy, were a pair of red doors with a friendly little 'exit' sign just above it, tucked into an innocuous corner of the floor next to a video store. With a determined and not-at-all panicky stride, Harland made for his deliverance. Most of his company up here were either watching the goings-on downstairs with rapt horror, or checking companions over for injuries. This was just fine by Swoop, the less people saw him leave, the better.

Alright, go out the doors the Jesus himself sent down, thank you by the way, loose the pills, go home and stare at a wall for twenty minutes trying not the freak the hell out. Sounds like a plan.

Three more steps, and his hands pressed open salvation with all the light and angel's singing that one would expect from a miracle. He took one deep breath of freedom-

the shrill wailing of the fire alarm got every head in the damn mall turned to him

-and Swoop wanted to cry.

Oh sure! Those folk that go through the door that nobody at all notices don't get an alarm! But Swoop? Heck no, he's blond, and screw blonds! They should all be pretty young secretaries!

"You in the black shirt! Do not move!" A voice yelled from somewhere behind him.

Harland shot through the door, hollering something along the lines of 'Oh, move? Alright!' over his shoulder. Twisting around, and throwing both hands against the doors, he slammed them shut.
The alarm continued to be eternally helpful.

A quick glance showed Swoop that the door could be bolted shut and he did so. And in that moment, he really realized exactly what he had just done.

You have contraband, and you just ran from the cops.

Oh...hell.

[Esme "Shorts" Hale]

For the rare times that Shorts got off of runner duty, rare being almost never, she loved to people watch, mainly at the mall.

As if the blues weren't dense enough, it was fun to see how many times the passed by her, or many other runners that come to the mall for a quick hand off, or a easy job, and not even notice them as runners. She guessed that just showed how these runners in the city could trump the cops, if they had more people that is. It was easy to say that runners will forever be an endangered species. One comes in, another dies out, the circle of life, where as the blues were as common as roaches, always there and impossible kill, even if they are dumb.

This one particular day, though, as Shorts sat perched in her small, hidden space with a great view of the open court of the mall, it wasn't the only the site of the trigger-happy blues, but one had the nerve to shoot in a crowd of civilians.

Again, dumb roaches.

She spotted a few fairly known runners in the area, most evacuating quietly and unseen to avoid their plans being disrupted, just like that one poor, unfortunate runner that happened to get caught, and sent running through the mall.

As soon as she trailed his track his her sharp, green eyes, another one caught her attention, a lesser known, or even an unknown runner, as even she didn't recognize him, bolted to a door, and managed to escape, but not without letting almost the whole mall know of his leaving.

Shorts thought she might want to introduce herself to this newbie.

She got down off of her ledge and blended into the frantic crowd, a scared facade on her face as she made her way through the mall and out the door. She mapped her way around to the same area the exit the runner had made and saw him standing there, bolting the door shut.

She silently ran to him, grabbed the collar of his black shirt, and dragged him around the corner, knowing the blue were never far behind, just like roaches, and pulled him into a rather large utility building, both connected and separate from the mall.

The door closed and she pulled the string to give light to the enclosed area. She stepped close, and locked eyes with those the same color as hers, and shed a small grin on her face. "Well well, look what we got here."

[Harland "Swoop" Tomms]

Harland had just enough time to really start getting concerned for his future when he felt a firm yank on the back of his shirt. Whoever it was, they were strong and knew their way around, because in the time it took Swoop to yelp, he'd been shoved through a door that slammed with unpleasant finality behind him.

Swoop shook himself from his stupor -how the hell had somebody gotten behind him, anyway?- when a light suddenly clicked on. A cursory glance revealed that he was in some sort of utility room, probably where somebody would come to flip the circuit breakers on and off, a nearby door with no window, and a smiling young blonde woman in green standing in front of him. The fact that she wouldn't have even had to lean forward to touch her tongue to his skin was somewhat.... conflicting.

"Well well, look what we got here," She just about purred.

Considering the shooting from not five minutes ago, Swoop wasn't sure he liked that somebody was grinning, and especially not when they were near him.

I would bump into some hot psycho when I'm trying to get away from a shooting

"A man and a woman in a warehouse, I'd say," Swoop replied irritably. "If we were in a broom closet it'd be just like prom, but maybe that's for the best."

That got him a quirked eyebrow.

"So, do you expect me to talk Goldfinger, or should we both just mosey our own ways? Cause I ain't to fond of them cops knocking on the door while we both cross our arms and chit-chat, cool?" Swoop asked.

[Esme "Shorts" Hale]

Shorts leaned back casually and crossed her arms.

"Nah, you don't need to worry about those blue roaches following us, I got a decoy leading them east to a dead end. Cops are easy to trick, that is what makes this game of ours so fun," She smiled easily.

Taking a look around the room, it was full of electrical supplies, easily a nice place to snatch some equipment. She would have to send her runners here later to stock up.

"Anyway, let's talk about you, your little spectacle back in the mall. The blues didn't notice you until you tried to go through the fire escape, setting of the alarm. You could have easily walked through the front door with all of the scared civilians and got off free. What are you carrying that has you nervous?"

Shorts paused for a moment.

"Then again, if you don't want to talk that is fine," She picked at her green painted fingernail. "But keep in mind that you do owe me for saving you're butt back there."

[Harland "Swoop" Tomms]

A time-share pitch with some guilt trippin for good measure. Classy gal.

"Well, if you really do think I owe you, I can just buy you a taco or somethin," Harland said and moved past her. "And by the by, my butt is just fine and doesn't need your eyes on it. Discomforts my humble sensibilities."

He didn't have time for this. There had been a lot of cops down there and, decoy or no, some of them were going to be after him. Once they got through those doors he'd locked, it wouldn't take a rare moment of genius for them to start going through the nearby rooms. And given how much time it'd taken this woman to put him in here, chances were good that the door behind them would be one of the first checked. But just booking it was inviting a bullet in the back. What they needed was a distraction, and Harland started looking for a telltale gray box on the walls.

"As for the alarm, well that was just dumb luck. Saw some folks going through some red doors downstairs and figured that since they didn't set no alarms off, I wouldn't either. Stupid damn city don't label their fire escapes, go figure, huh? And there ain't no way in hell I was going to walk past them cops down there after the just shot that guy. They'll be talking to everybody down there, probably searching 'em too so that just puts me in line for a frisking and an arrest," Harland said as he searched the room.

He glanced back at the woman who hadn't moved but was still watching him. Probably sizing him up. "And 'tween you, me and the good lord, I don't like to be frisked. Least not by somebody I just met."

Come on, I know this type of room has 'em, where's the damn breaker?

A large boxy shape on the far wall brought a smile to his face. He made for it.

"Stupid thing is I ain't carrying anythin' too illegal. Just some pills for some guy who's off his doctor's plan. No high profile secrets or porn of the mayors daughter or nothin'. Heck, the last one might not even be worth the fuss."

It must have been a pretty laid back mall on most days, since for some crazy reason the circuit breaker didn't have a lock in it. It was a good bet that with two violent police take-downs here in the same week, that this was going to change.

Should've known. Should've known at the words "murder" and "Monday" that coming here on Friday wasn't smart thinking.

With a quick twist of the little handle, the door popped open and a play land of possibilities revealed themselves in the form of some well labeled black switches.

Lights, doors, elevators. Perfect. Flip one of these and the cops will have a devil of a time getting after us. Man, it's getting more like the prom every second. If the sprinklers go off and somebody sets the punch on fire, it'll be just like old times.

Swoop turned to the woman in green and offered her his first grin of the conversation.

"Now that we know each other a little better and the fuzz is a little closer, what say we get outta here?"

[Esme "Shorts" Hale]

Shorts stretched her arms and shrugged.

"I wouldn't cut the power. Runners all around the city can dig into the power from the mall," She informed him. She cracked her neck and rolled her head around, relieving some pressure in her head.

"Anyway, what do you have in mind? You have anywhere to go?"

(sorry for such the crappy post, I have just been busy...)

[Harland "Swoop" Tomms]

"Anyway, what do you have in mind? You have anywhere to go?"

Swoop blinked at that, and gave the woman an odd look. Why would she care if he had somewhere to lay low? He did of course, but the pragmatic part of his mind didn't see any point in traipsing around with somebody else after they'd gotten away from the police. If they ran together, and she got taken down, Swoop had no reason at all to believe that she wouldn't just point in his direction to get a lighter sentence.

Sure, she'd growled and moaned about the cops -cockroaches she'd called them- but when the cuffs snapped shut, the ideals of criminal honor became a hell of a lot less sturdy.

"I can just loose 'em in west side's Old Town no prob. After that, I keep my pleasant features nice and down-low for a bit. Cops don't like searching out there, 'fraid they'll have to do some actual police work I suppose."

Should probably make myself a little less recognizable too.

Swoop pulled off his black over-shirt and tossed it into the
corner. He'd miss it a little, it was a reminder of home and better times, but he felt jail beat out nostalgia in most any argument.

"As for what I'm planning, don't worry. I ain't gonna shut down the whole building, that'd only bring a butt-load more cops after us. Gotta notice something like this place goin' dark, right? I figure if I flip the switches to the main concourse or whateva ya wanna call it, folks are gonna start freaking out a little more. 'Tween the shooting, fire alarm, and a suddenly bein' in the dark, they might just get unruly enough to maybe call back some of the cops that're after us. They restore order, and since my clever self killed the security door power from this here breaker, we pull an E1M1 and stroll out like we just kicked hell's ass."

Her lip curled into a small smirk and she gave him a bemused stare. For a moment, Swoop was genuinely curious if she got the reference. He shook the thought for his mind.

"After that, we go our separate ways, I lift myself a new jacket and both live nice happy lives of whateva we do for fun."

Swoop grinned, putting a little bit of cockiness into the gesture. If he egged her on a little, maybe he could speed this whole nonsense along and dodge another bit of questioning.

"So, whaddya say greenie? Ready to get on outta here?"

---

So sorry for taking so long. School has been an absolute pain for the past month.

[Esme "Shorts" Hale]

Shorts scoffed a bit, just in amusement. This kid really had his mind working, that was for sure. As he ditched his over-shirt and continued with his idea, she licked her lips.

She blinked, and walked over to his thrown shirt. She picked it up, and put it on. It was soft, she could see why he didn't really want to part with it. Smelled good too. With a band from the pocket of her shorts, she tightened her hair into a bun, with a few spirals of curls hanging around her face.

One thing was certain, this kid didn't know who she was. She could have some fun with this.

Her earpiece clicked, and she heard some of her runners were able to get most of the blues away from the scene, and that the mall crowd was calmed, although, confined, by the few remaining cops that were there, but they were stationary, their only job was calming and containing the crowd.

"Well, you can do whatever you want. But I am tagging along, just to see what you can do."

[Harland "Swoop" Tomms]

Swoop looked back at the woman to give her some more snark, he really didn't want anybody following him after all, and did a double-take.

Is...is she wearing my shirt?

He watched her for a moment, and she stared back, unrepentant.

Creepy.

"I think we've skipped a few steps for you to be wearing my clothing," Swoop said in bemusement.

She simply shrugged.

"Why are you.." Swoop began but shook his head.

No. Some things were best left unexplained.

"Never mind. All bizarre fetishes aside, let's get outta here while the getting's good."

Swoop turned back to the switchbox and flipped a few off. With several loud corresponding clicks, the power to the main concourse of the mall shut down. The quiet roar that was barely audible through the several doors between Swoop, the woman, and the main area of the mall told him that nobody outside was appreciating the sudden power outage.

Swoop grinned to himself.

"Some people. Freak out over not a damn thing."

He closed the switchbox and scooped up an errant brick that the janitor or whoever had used this room had repurposed as a paper weight and slammed it against the handle of the switchbox door. The door gave a squeal of protest as the handle twisted off at an unnatural angle. Swoop gave it a tug and was satisfied to find it didn't give.

"Good, that'll take a bit of time for them to get 'round," He moved to the door, and glanced out. Everything looked calm and quiet. "Alright, seems clear."

Swoop took a deep breath, mentally preparing himself for a run. He glanced back at the woman and found her right next to him, evidently waiting for him to go first.

Man, seems like she really is going to follow me. One more thing to deal with I guess, and if worse come to worse and she trips, oh well, the killer in the hockey mask ain't getting me.

"Ok, let's beat feet," Swoop said and pushed the door open.

[Esme "Shorts" Hale]

Shorts strolled out of the room, letting the sun hit her face.

She looked at the kid, and spotted a few familiar shadows pop up. She smiled as her earpiece beeped.
"Leader, we got a situation that needs your attention, i suggest you drop the kid..." One of her runners told her. Just as she was about to reply, one dropped right behind them. The kid breathed in sharply as he came face to face with one of her runners.

her runner looked at the kid. "Should I get rid of him?"

"Nah, its fine." She shrugged it off. Then she spun on her heel, facing the kid once again.
"Listen, I would love to stay and chat with you, but I've got work to do. If your interested in a job or two, just look for the green." She took a small card out of her back pocket that read the word Docks on it and flicked it to the kid. "I'll keep an eye on you." She began to walk in the opposite direction, but was stopped.

((sorry again for the absence, lifes been difficult and sorry for making you wait))

[Harland "Swoop" Tomms]

(Not a problem. Sorry for doing the same.)

Green lady, who had taken my old shirt --what the ha was that about anyway--, stopped and held a hand to ear. Probably listening to some report from her buddies.

Speaking of...

The guy who'd decided he wanted to menace me was still glowering at me, waiting for the sic 'em order from his master. He had the same sort of grace and bearing that green lady did. A runner then. The punk had surprised me when he'd just made his ninja like entrance, straight out of a Saturday morning super hero cartoon, but he would have been better served hiding. Little guy had totally lost any element of surprise and he wasn't.

Probably a minion.

That word choice brought a grin to my face and I briefly imagined the punk slipping on a matching green turtle shell over his oh-so-stylish wife beater and haplessly wandering off a cliff. After all, only the red ones didn't walk off cliffs. Well, technically the blue ones did too, but they had wings so the point was moot.

Maybe if I got a star or something I could do some menacing of my own. Or I could just jump on his head. That could work too.

(I'll leave this open since it looks like you're not quite done with Swoop yet Shorts. Interested to see what happens next.)

[Esme "Shorts" Hale]

Shorts turned to the kid and smiled. She looked him up and down. "See ya around the town, kid"

Then, she whistled slightly, and watched as four other runners dropped from the sky, two exchanged cases and then jumped back into hiding. Another one gave Shorts a small package and into the opposite direction and the last one went with the one next to her and disappeared. They all gave the kid a sort of disapproving glance as they passed by.

Shorts looked at the package and smiled widely before leaping off the building onto the ground below.