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Time: 15:35pm.

Year: 2245, January 13th.

Location: New Vega, South-East District.

I quickly strode down the empty streets of the South-East district of the city; it was almost always quiet during the day - with the exception of the odd checkpoint or two - which I'd decided to take advantage of. If Elle knew what I had planned for today, she'd probably kill me herself, regardless of our current situation with Blood Clan, though my plan was simple enough; the streets were practically abandoned, so no one would realise - or care - if I crept my way into one abandoned building, took one little peek at the basement area and shoot my way past any Ferals that got in my way...simple...

But I wasn't alone today; originally, I would've taken Archer or another Seeker with me on this mission, but today I was feeling more than a little pissed off with Blood Clan, and I aimed to make them regret bothering me in the first place. Today, I'd be working with the dirty, the deranged, the Dangerous-Half-Dozen (DHD).

As the Enforcers began hitting us Seekers harder and harder, some of us decided to hang it all up and live a quieter life. The Half-Dozen however, had a different idea; a couple of years back, six of the most dangerous Seekers had banded together after breaking off from the Club and formed their own group; for them, it was all about delivering Drugs and everything good (and illegal) in life, and picking off any poor bastard that asked about it, by any means necessary (and often the unnecessary)...

I noticed a reasonably large black limousine parked just outside the building I was supposed to get into, surrounded by six dark green figures; a closer inspection told me they were all dressed the same way as well, each of them wearing a dark-green Seeker-jumpsuit, with the exception of one of them, a Feline dressed in a full black suit, leaning back on the hood of the car and waving me over as the other five quickly faced me; this was definitely the DHD...

There were six members of the group in all; one Wolf, one Fox, two German Shepherds, one Avian and a Feline, all of which had different stories...

First, there was the Wolf, Andrew 'Hellspawn' Striker, the leader of the group, covered in black fur from head to toe, with the exception of the long streak of burnt fur covering his right arm; a souvenir from when he tried to take on three 'Hellfire' enforcers at once, hence the nickname Hellspawn.

Then there was the Red-Fox, James 'Mad-Dog' Moreau, the youngest of the group, and the most insane, who got his nickname after taking out a Police-Car by leaning out of a moving van and slashing the tires with a shard of glass no larger than his paws.

The Shepherd-Twins, nicknamed 'The Arguers', were completely identical; because of that, no one even bothered to ask their real names anymore. They earned their nickname from the amount of trouble they caused each other over the years; mostly in bed, of course...

The Feline, Jack 'High-Jack' Jager, was the driver of the group, who earned his place in the group (and his nickname) by making almost all his escapes from prison in stolen vehicles, one of which included the red Van that had been recently involved in an 'accidental collision' with an 'innocent bystander'.

Lastly, there was the Avian; Daniel 'Wingman' Rane, the 'second-in-command' of the group, though there was hardly any 'commanding' in the group; didn't stop him from earning the nickname, of course. The only problem with him was that no one knew what kind of Avian he actually was; all his feathers were a mixture of red, blue, green and yellow (at least, those were the only colours what weren't underneath his clothes...).

"Kobalt; I see you've come prepared." Hellspawn observed, indicating the rucksack I had hauled over my back, holding my Seeker-Jumpsuit as well as a couple of 'gifts' for Blood Clan. The Wolf also indicated my dark-grey fur, fully dyed so that no one would realise a world-class criminal was walking through the city streets. "You look nice...very grey..."

"People tend to get nervous when they see me walking through the streets." I replied, walking up to him and shaking his hand as the rest of the gang exchanged glances with me and stepped over to the boot of the vehicle in unison, pulling out a briefcase too large for one person to carry. "If you don't mind, I'm going to get changed in the car."

"Go for it; we all need to be dressed 'formally' for this occasion." The Wolf laughed, stepping over to the back of the vehicle with his group and unlocking the briefcase; I managed to hear him mutter; "It's a fucking limousine...I didn't pay up all that money for it to be called a fucking 'car'."

I stuck my middle finger out humorously, making sure the Wolf could see it from the back window as I slipped into the limousine, taking off my grey shirt and worn-blue jeans and quickly pulling out my white jumpsuit; it barely took me a minute to undress and redress into my jumpsuit, letting the leather almost wrap itself around me as I pulled over my hood and clipped my facemask on. Finally, I pulled out my two weapons, leaving my hollow rucksack in the vehicle as I strapped a short-sword onto my back, and hauled my second weapon over my right shoulder as I stepped out.

"...is that a fucking Crossbow?" The Shepherd Twins asked in disbelief, each of them holstering two large handguns.

My second weapon of choice was a simple, fold-out crossbow, made almost entirely of wood; the parts that would be metal were replaced by hard-plastic, used mostly by criminals to avoid metal-detectors, and the same material that my short-sword was made from; even my ammunition was replaced by wooden bolts with hard-plastic tips, all laced with chemicals that would be fatal to almost everything; hopefully Ferals would fall into the 'almost anything' category.

"What are you going to do with a fucking crossbow?!" Mad-Dog also asked in disbelief, holding a rifle almost half his size over his back, staring at me partly in amusement, but partly with concern. "Are you expecting an Ogre to just pop out or something?!"

"This is the only thing I had at such short notice." I replied bluntly, clipping a belt along my waist, holding about a dozen thick cylinders containing at least ten bolts each; "I didn't have any other weapons that I could get past the metal-detectors..."

"Well it's not like we had enough money to bribe the whole district." Hellspawn grunted, handling a rifle that looked reasonably small in his arms; "we had enough trouble trying to bribe out this one street."

We all traded glances as we loaded our weapons, with the exception of High-Jack, who decided to stay behind and keep anyone from getting in (or out) of the building; Mad-Dog quickly strode up to the entrance into the building, raising his right leg and slamming his boot into the front door, immediately breaking the lock and sending it inwards, revealing a dark, empty entrance waiting for us.

I have to admit, I was curious as to what Blood Clan may have in store for us, that is, if they were here at all...

"After you." Mad-Dog smiled, standing to one side of the entrance and beckoning me inside; I smiled back at him, revealing the top right row of my teeth as I raised my crossbow, stepping inside as everyone else came in behind me, closing the door and leaving us with hardly any light to see in.

"Wingman; be a dear and get the lights." Hellspawn ordered, to which the Avian immediately responded, running one talon across the wall to our left until finding a large switch, finally illuminating the corridor, though there was hardly anything worth noting; just a reception desk and a few empty chairs.

"No one told me we'd be fighting ghosts, Drew." One of the Shepherd twins remarked, targeting the Wolf as I walked onwards to the double-doors at the end of the dull-grey corridor, pushing them open with my weapon, still feeling wary about the situation...if Blood Clan were here, they should have the entrance covered...

"Shut up and keep going." The Wolf replied, an edge of humour in his voice as he slapped the Canine on the back of the head, leaving him at the back of the group as they followed me forwards.

We spent several minutes of traversing through the dull corridors that made up the building, and all the time I was asking myself the same question; why hadn't we run into anyone yet? So far there were no signs that anyone had even come through this building; the whole place was silent except for the footsteps we made, and the occasional cough from some stray dust. It was relieving, yet very unsettling to know we hadn't even let off a shot so far...

We eventually came to an elevator at the end of a corridor, that sense of relief and concern still in my mind as I made a quick sprint over to the elevator, making sure it was still working; if the lights were still working, there's no reason why the elevator wouldn't be working as well. Luckily enough, the elevator was still in order; I waved everyone else over with one paw as I called the elevator up with another.

"Well, it beats taking the stairs." Wingman said curiously, most likely sharing my feeling of uneasiness as we held our weapons up, covering all three of the corridors leading to the elevator.

We all waited for the elevator in an awkward silence; I slowly tapped my fingers on my crossbow as I focused on my corridor, listening out for any audible sounds beyond the humming of the elevator. Each second seemed to last longer than it should have done, and it was only a matter of seconds before a noise had begun to appear out of nowhere; it was a faint scratching sound, as if claws were being scraped across the walls on the far end of the corridor. I immediately reacted by stopping the tapping motion I was making on the stock of my crossbow; everyone else seemed to realise my reaction and cocked their weapons in turn.

It took another couple of long, torturous seconds before a figure appeared at the end of the corridor; one claw was gripping at the concrete wall as if the figure was holding on for dear life; the other claw was scraping along the floor, attached to one unnaturally long, muscular arm that lead up to an arched body, connected to a large, angular head that seemed to naturally snarl all the time. Two more similar figures appeared behind it.

"Is this what you had in mind when you hired us?" One of the Shepherd Twins asked me rhetorically, receiving another slap on the back of the head from Hellspawn as the rest of the group directed their attention to the same corridor.

"I'd be a little disappointed if we didn't get to put down a few Ferals." I replied humorously, watching the three Ferals closely as they quickly became aware of our presence, all of us now ready for a fight...