xp_logs | Turf War: Beginnings

It's a normal day at work for Elpis. And then Angelo gets a phone call.

Incoming phone calls were hardly an uncommon thing in the Elpis offices, and Angelo didn't think twice about picking up this one, expecting it to be just another press enquiry or something like that.

"Elpis New York, how can I help you?"

"S'up bro."

He almost dropped the phone at the sound of that voice, staring at it for a good half a minute before he recovered. "...didn't think you'd ever want to get this number, let alone find it."

Nathan, over at his deck, looked up with a frown at the sound of the phone dropping. As he heard Angelo's response and the tone in his voice, his frown deepened and he laid down his pen, not even making the pretense of not listening.

"Pfft, they got you soundin' like a pancho, you know that right?" Miguel Torres cradled the receiver of the payphone in his ear and leaned against the wall of the 7-11. He didn't like having his back to anything, even on his own turf. "Look man, desperate times an' all that. I got no one else I could think of that help me."

"I'm four years gone", was Angelo's retort to the first part, stopping when he heard the latter and running it through in his head just to make sure he'd heard right. "You're askin' me for help? Desperate times is right."

Oh, this sounds promising, Nathan thought, his eyes narrowing. Angelo was doing a good job of not noticing him watching, however.

There was a pause on the other end of the phone, followed by a long sigh. Miguel pushed his sunglasses to the top of his head and rubbed the bridge of his nose with the heel of his hand. "It's Alejandra", he said finally.

And that got Angelo's attention right and truly, as he snapped upright in his chair. "What about Alejandra?" he demanded, voice iron-hard.

Miguel double-checked to see that no one was around, and then turned slightly towards the phone booth just in case. "She's a mutant, ese, like you. She got scared, so I kept her in the house 'cause it was safer. Then she decided she didn't need my protection no more an' took off. Now she's in a fuck lot of trouble."

"...oh, fuck." It came out on a long sigh. "Miguel, what... what kind of trouble?"

"It's a pack of fuckin' junkies she got herself mixed up with, whaddyacallit, Kick? She says it makes her stronger, better, faster 'n' all that shit. I mean, normally I'd handle this on my own, 'cause it's family, but the gang she's got goin' with is startin' to eat into our turf, man. There's a rumblin' goin on, and I'm afraid we're goin' to have a fuckin' war on our hands. I don't give a shit about those other muties she got herself mixed up in, but Alejandra's my sister. I gotta look out for her man, and me against those strung out freaks... I know the odds. Thas why I called you."

Angelo nodded, face as grim as his voice when he spoke. "I've heard of Kick, yeah. Two questions - what's her mutation, an' how many's she runnin' with? I need to know if I'm gonna need t'bring any backup for this one."

Kick, now. Nathan closed his eyes, counted to five, and reminded himself that bursting into one's employee's phone calls was not on.

"Some sort of energy shit. She blasts things. Took out our fuckin' door when she left. As for numbers, intelligence I got was somethin' like 11 or 12." Miguel paused and acknowledged a heavyset man walking into the seven-eleven with a jerk of his chin. "S'up, bro? Anyway, like I said, I ain't got no other options here. Not one that won't result in her gettin' herself killed."

"Last thing either of us wants", Angelo agreed. "Okay, look. You got a number I can call you on today? There's a couple people I'm gonna need to talk to an' get back to you. Which isn't sayin' I won't help."

Miguel whistled. "I'm on a payphone, man. This is one of those, 'don't call me, I'll call you' things, you dig? It ain't goin' to help Alejandra if I get myself jacked in the process. I'll call back tonight."

"Tonight", Angelo agreed, not exactly having any other choice. "I'll talk to you then. An' Miguel? If you want me in on this, we're gonna have to talk about doin' it my way. No second-guessin' once this gets started."

That got Angelo a dry chuckle. "Whatever you say, ese, I'm at the end of my rope here. Tonight, 'bout seven my time."

"Seven it is." He rattled off his cell number and waited for the other man to hang up before doing the same - then he sat and stared at the phone, thinking fast.

"Well, that sounded like an interesting conversation..." was the observation from Nathan's direction.

"Yeah, that's one way to put it", Angelo answered dryly, not looking up. "You heard, huh?"

A raised eyebrow and an expectant look were the only responses to that.

"...course you did." He took a breath, leaning back in his chair. "You remember Miguel? From LA?" It had been a few years, but somehow he didn't think Nathan would have entirely forgotten. At the older man's nod, he went on. "He called me 'cause his sister's in trouble. Turns out she manifested an' Mr. West Coast Genius decided the best thing he could do was keep her at home until she got pissed an' ran away. Guess who picked her up?"

"My guess, from hearing your side of the conversation, is a gang wrapped up in Kick somehow," Nathan said.

"Got it in one. All of them, if Miguel's right. An' yours truly is the only mutant he knows, never mind that he nearly killed me..." He sighed. "Thing is... Alejandra never did me any wrong. She used to be my girl. An' if she's in danger..."

Nathan tried not to cough. Ex-girlfriend? Wow, there are some complications here, aren't there... "So what are you proposing to do?" he asked calmly, although he had a pretty good idea what the answer was. The conversation hadn't been subtle, after all.

"Only one thing I can do", Angelo said resignedly. "An' it's gotta be soon. Miguel said... Alejandra's crew are cuttin' into his turf. There's gonna be trouble. He wants her out of there before she gets hurt."

He got something close to a glare, if a brief one. "Details, boy, or haven't you learned anything from X-Men training? You go in there without a strategy and you'll be lucky to come back out, let alone with the girl."

"I've had all of five minutes to think about it", Angelo protested. "An' I'm not exactly gonna go in there without all the information I can get. Alejandra's some kind of energy projector, the crew's about eleven or twelve strong... she's not gonna go willin', an' I'm not gonna get her out of there by force unless I get her alone. So it looks like undercover's the way."

"I'm not comfortable with the idea of you going in there alone," Nathan said, not at all reassured by that. "It's not like you're a few minutes away, if you go to LA - we couldn't get help to you in any kind of timely fashion."

"I never said I was thinkin' of goin' in alone", Angelo said, stung. "I'm not stupid, Nate, an' I know when I'm up against more than I could ever handle."

"Then stop speaking in generalities, and start planning," Nathan said, not budging an inch. "I'd drop the Hungary trip and come with you, if there was any chance in hell that I wouldn't stand out like a sore thumb and draw attention. So who do you trust - who's reliable in a crisis, who wouldn't have that problem?"

"There's a few people", Angelo said thoughtfully. "None of them team. I've got the rest of the day to grab them, see if they're in for somethin' like this."

"Do that, get back in touch with your 'friend', and then talk to me before you go buying plane tickets," Nathan said. "Just because we couldn't get help to you instantly doesn't mean we wouldn't come, and if you're going, we need to set up check-ins and the like. Even if it is over the phone."

Angelo nodded. "Never crossed my mind not to. I'll call you before we go in for Alejandra too, if there's time."